Quintus Curtius Rufus Quotes

Res secundæ valent commutare naturam, et raro quisquam erga bona sua satis cautus est.

As for myself, I report more things than I believe; for I cannot bring myself to vouch for that which I am in doubt, nor to suppress what I have heard.

Repute is never transmitted with certainty; all things that she reports are exaggerated. Even our glory, although it rests on a solid foundation, is greater in name than in fact.

Breves et mutabiles vices rerum sunt, et fortuna nunquam simpliciter indulget.

He is a fool who looks at the fruit of lofty trees, but does not measure their height.

Non est diuturna possessio in quam gladio ducimus; beneficiorum gratia sempiterna est.

When fear has seized upon the mind, man fears that only which he first began to fear.

Ubi explorari vera non possunt, falsa per metum augentur.

Just as in ailing bodies, my soldiers, physicians leave nothing which will do harm, so let us cut away whatever stands in the way of our rule. Often to have ignored a tiny spark has roused a great conflagration. Nothing is safely despised in an enemy; one whom you have scorned you make stronger by neglect.

Sed in tumultu festinatio quoque tarda est

Sæpe calamitas solatium est nosse sortem suam.

Sed medici quoque graviores morbos asperis remediis curant, et gubernator, ubi nafraugium timet, iactura quidquid servari potest redimit.

The fashions of human affairs are brief and changeable, and fortune never remains long indulgent.

Nihil potest esse diuturnum cui non subest ratio.

Efficacior omni arte imminens necessitas.