Juvenal Quotes

Never does Nature say one thing and Wisdom another.

incipe, Calliope. licet et considere: non est
cantandum, res uera agitur. narrate, puellae 35
Pierides, prosit mihi uos dixisse puellas.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Who will guard the guards?

Nam qui dabat olim imperium, fasces, legiones, omnia, nunc se
continet atque duas tantum res anxius optat,
panem et circenses.

there is nothing that divine Majesty will not believe concerning itself when lauded to the skies!

It is to be prayed that the mind be sound in a sound body.
Ask for a brave soul that lacks the fear of death,
which places the length of life last among nature’s blessings,
which is able to bear whatever kind of sufferings,
does not know anger, lusts for nothing and believes
the hardships and savage labors of Hercules better than
the satisfactions, feasts, and feather bed of an Eastern king.
I will reveal what you are able to give yourself;
For certain, the one footpath of a tranquil life lies through virtue.

Fate would have no divinity if we were wise: it is we who make her a goddess and place her in heaven.

Summum crede nefas animam praeferre pudori
et propter vitam vivendi perdere causas.

However faster we pedestrians may hurry, crowds surge ahead, those behind us buffet my rib-cage, poles poke into me; one lout swings a crossbeam down on my skull, another scores with a barrel. My legs are mud-encrusted, from all sides big feet kick me, a hobnailed soldier’s boot lands squarely on my toes.

Nemo repente fuit turpissimus.

No man becomes bad all at once.

mēns sāna in corpore sānō - Эрүүл биед саруул ухаан.

Who will watch the watchers?

Semper ego auditor tantum? numquamne reponam
vexatus totiens rauci Theseide Cordi?
inpune ergo mihi recitaverit ille togatas,
hic elegos? inpune diem consumpserit ingens
Telephus aut summi plena iam margine libri
scriptus et in tergo necdum finitus Orestes?
nota magis nulli domus est sua quam mihi lucus
Martis et Aeoliis vicinum rupibus antrum
Vulcani. Quid agant venti, quas torqueat umbras
Aeacus, unde alius furtivae devehat aurum
pelliculae, quantas iaculetur Monychus ornos,
Frontonis platani convulsaque marmora clamant
semper et adsiduo ruptae lectore columnae:
expectes eadem a summo minimoque poeta.
et nos ergo manum ferulae subduximus, et nos
consilium dedimus Sullae, privatus ut altum
dormiret; stulta est clementia, cum tot ubique
vatibus occurras, periturae parcere chartae.
cur tamen hoc potius libeat decurrere campo
per quem magnus equos Auruncae flexit alumnus,
si vacat ac placidi rationem admittitis, edam.

Who could identify fragments 260 of ownerless flesh and bone? The poor man’s flattened carcase would vanish along with his soul.