Top 15 Juvenal Quotes

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? - Who will watch the watchers?

Never does Nature say one thing and Wisdom another.

Many commit the same crime with a very different result. One bears a cross for his crime; another a crown.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (Who watches the watchmen?)

The people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions, and all else, now concerns itself no more, and longs eagerly for just two things: bread and circuses!

No man becomes bad all at once.

Many suffer from the incurable disease of writing, and it becomes chronic in their sick minds.

Sit mens sana in corpore sano
(a healthy mind in a healthy body)

All wish to possess knowledge, but few, comparatively speaking, are willing to pay the price.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes.

Which roughly translates as

Who will Guard the Guardians, or
Who watches the watchers.

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.

Honesty is admired, and starves.

Dedicate one's life to truth

Ask for a valiant heart which has banished the fear of death, which looks upon the length of days as one of the least of nature's gifts; which is able to suffer every kind of hardship, is proof against anger, craves for nothing, and reckons the trials and gruelling labours of Hercules as more desirable blessings than the amorous ease and the banquets and cushions of Sardanapallus. The things that I recommend you can grant to yourself.

Where talent is lacking, anger writes poetry.