Pacuvius Quotes

Patria est, ubicumque est bene.

Dame Fortune, some philosophers maintain,
Is witless, sightless, brutish; ...
That she is witless for that she is cruel,
Untrustworthy, unstaid; and, they repeat,
Sightless she is because she nothing sees
Whereto she'll steer herself: and brutish too
Because she cannot tell between the man
That's worthy and the unworthy. But there are
Other philosophers who against all this
Deny that there is any goddess Fortune,
Saying it is Chance Medley rules the world.
That this is more like unto truth and fact
Practice doth teach us by the experience.

Adulescens, tam etsi properas te hoc saxum rogat
Ut sese aspicias, deinde quod scriptum est legas.
Hic sunt poetae Pacuvi Marci sita
Ossa. Hoc volebam nescius ne esses. Vale.

Conqueri fortunam advorsam, non lamentari decet;
id viri est officium, fletus muliebri ingenio additust.

Fortunam insanam esse et caecam et brutam perhibent philosophi, ...
Insanam autem esse aiunt quia atrox incerta instabilisque sit;
caecam ob eam rem esse iterant quia nil cernat quo sese adplicet;
brutam quia dignum atque indignum nequeat internoscere.
Sunt autem alii philosophi qui contra Fortunam negant
esse ullam sed temeritate res regi umnes autumant.
Id magis verisimile esse usus reapse experiundo edocet.

O flexanima atque omnium regina rerum oratio!

Men servasse ut essent qui me perderent?

Flucti flacciscunt, silescunt venti, mollitur mare.

Young man, although you hurry, yet this stone
Asks that you look upon itself, and then
Read what is written there. Here lie at rest
Marcus Pacuvius his bones. I wished
That you should be aware of this. Farewell.

Meanwhile the billows droop and drop, the winds
Fall quiet, the sea sinks soft.