Ovid Quotes

He loved a lifeless thing and he was utterly and hopelessly wretched.

Qui non est hodie eras minus aptus erit. He who is not prepared today will be less so tomorrow.

The god of Delos, proud in victory,
Saw Cupid draw his bow's taut arc, and said:
'Mischievous boy, what are a brave man's arms
To you? That gear becomes my shoulders best.
My aim is sure; I wound my enemies,
I wound wild beasts; my countless arrows slew
But now the bloated Python, whose vast coils
Across so many acres spread their blight.
You and your loves! You have your torch to light them!Let that content you; never claim my fame!'

And Venus' son replied: 'Your bow, Apollo,
May vanquish all, but mine shall vanquish you.
As every creature yields to power divine,
So likewise shall your glory yield to mine.

The burden which is well borne becomes light.

I see and approve of the better, but I follow the worse.

Nothing retains its original form, but Nature, the goddess of all renewal, keeps altering one shape into another. Nothing at all in the world can perish, you have to believe me; things merely vary and change their appearance. What we call birth
is merely becoming a different entity; what we call death is ceasing to be the same. Though the parts may possibly shift
their position from here to there, the wholeness in nature is constant.

your fate is mortal: what you ask for isn’t.

A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn.

The spirited horse, which will try to win the race of its own accord, will run even faster if encouraged.

Venus is kind to creatures as young as we;
We know not what we do, and while we’re young
We have the right to live and love like gods.

Only she is chaste whom none has invited

Video meliora proboque, deteriora sequor.

For such a career I lacked both endurance and inclination:
the stress of ambition left me cold,
while the Muse, the creative spirit, was forever urging on me
that haven of leisure to which I'd always leaned.
The poets of those days I cultivated and cherished:
for me, bards were so many gods.

A ruler should be slow to punish and swift to reward.

A prince should be slow to punish, and quick to reward.