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Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Love14 quotes
Absence makes the heart grow fonder. — Sextus Propertius · 24 BCLove conquers all things; let us too surrender to love. — Virgil · 37 BCO happy race of mortals, if your hearts are ruled, as is the universe, by Love! — Boethius · 523These eyes of mine would look on only thee
In that last hour when light shall fail.
Embrace me, dear, in death! Let thy hand be
In my cold fingers pale! — Tibullus · 26 BCLove and the gracious heart are a single thing…
One can no more be without the other
Than the reasoning mind without its reason. — Dante Alighieri · 1294Love hath so long possessed me for his own
And made his lordship so familiar. — Dante Alighieri · 1294All 14 quotes →Art8 quotes
I have erected a monument more lasting than bronze. — Horace · 23 BCI've finished that chapel I was painting. The Pope is quite satisfied. — Michelangelo · 1512The marble not yet carved can hold the form
Of every thought the greatest artist has. — Michelangelo · 1564All art is but imitation of nature. — Seneca · 65All art is biographical. The pearl is the oyster's autobiography. — Federico Fellini · 1965Painting contains a divine force which not only makes absent men present, as friendship is said to do, but moreover makes the dead seem almost alive. — Leon Battista Alberti · 1435All 8 quotes →Political theory8 quotes
Whoever desires to found a state and give it laws, must start with assuming that all men are bad and ever ready to display their vicious nature, whenever they may find occasions for it. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1531Laws are silent in time of war. — Cicero · 52 BCThe chief foundations of all states, new as well as old or composite, are good laws and good arms; and as there cannot be good laws where the state is not well armed, it follows that where they are well armed they have good laws. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1532He [the prince] holds to what is right when he can but knows how to do wrong when he must. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1532It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1531Many have imagined republics and principalities which have never been seen or known to exist in reality; for how we live is so far removed from how we ought to live; that he who neglects what is done for what ought to be done, will rather bring about his own ruin that his preservation. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1532All 8 quotes →Time7 quotes
Every instant of time is a pinprick of eternity. — Marcus Aurelius · 180Time, the devourer of all things. — Ovid · 8Time is a violent torrent; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away. — Marcus Aurelius · 180The years as they pass plunder us of one thing after another. — Horace · 14 BCWhile we're talking, envious time is fleeing: seize the day, put no trust in the future. — Horace · 23 BCBut meanwhile it is flying, irretrievable time is flying. — Virgil · 29 BCAll 7 quotes →Effects of time5 quotes
Time, the devourer of all things. — Ovid · 8The years as they pass plunder us of one thing after another. — Horace · 14 BCThe ring on the finger becomes thin beneath by wearing, the fall of dripping water hollows the stone. — Lucretius · 55 BCWhat do the ravages of time not injure? Our parents' age (worse than our grandparents') has produced us, more worthless still, who will soon give rise to a yet more vicious generation. — Horace · 23 BCTime bears away all things, even our minds. — Virgil · 30 BCFree will5 quotes
God is not willing to do everything, and thus take away our free will and that share of glory which belongs to us. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1532The greatest gift which God in His bounty
Bestowed in creating,
And the most conformed to His own goodness
And that which He most prizes, was the freedom of the will,
With which the creatures that have intelligence,
They all and they alone, were and are endowed. — Dante Alighieri · 1321It is the power of the mind to be unconquerable. — Seneca · 58Whatever befalls you was prepared for you beforehand from eternity, and the thread of causes was spinning from everlasting both your existence and this which befalls you. — Marcus Aurelius · 180What place can be left for random action, when God constraineth all things to order? — Boethius · 523God5 quotes
Therefore it is necessary to arrive at a prime mover, put in motion by no other; and this everyone understands to be God. — St. Thomas Aquinas · 1265It is convenient that there be gods, and, as it is convenient, let us believe that there are. — Ovid · 2God is that, the greater than which cannot be conceived. — Saint Anselm · 1078He is glorified not in one, but in countless suns, not in a single earth, a single world, but in a thousand thousand, I say in an infinity of worlds. — Giordano Bruno · 1584Is the dwelling place of God anywhere but in the earth and sea, the air and sky, and virtue? Why seek we further for deities? Whatever you see, whatever you touch, that is Jupiter. — Lucan · 65Human nature5 quotes
Whoever desires to found a state and give it laws, must start with assuming that all men are bad and ever ready to display their vicious nature, whenever they may find occasions for it. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1531Men are nearly always willing to believe what they wish. — Julius Caesar · 49 BCSo long as the great majority of men are not deprived of either property or honour, they are satisfied. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1532It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1531To what do you not drive human hearts, cursed craving for gold! — Virgil · 19 BCLife5 quotes
And life is given to none freehold, but it is leasehold for all. — Lucretius · 55 BCThe art of living is more like wrestling than dancing, for it requires that we should stand ready and firm to meet onsets which are sudden and unexpected. — Marcus Aurelius · 180Life is long if you know how to use it. — Seneca · 49He will through life be master of himself and a happy man who from day to day can have said, "I have lived: tomorrow the Father may fill the sky with black clouds or with cloudless sunshine." — Horace · 23 BCRemember that no man loses other life than that which he lives, nor lives other than that which he loses. — Marcus Aurelius · 180Man and animals5 quotes
A prince being thus obliged to know well how to act as a beast must imitate the fox and the lion, for the lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten wolves. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1532Man and animal are merely a passage and channel for food, a tomb for other animals, a haven for the dead, giving life by the death of others, a coffer full of corruption. — Leonardo da Vinci · 1508Man is a reasoning animal. — Seneca · 65The ape, vilest of beasts, how like to us. — Quintus Ennius · 45 BCAll our power lies in both mind and body; we employ the mind to rule, the body rather to serve; the one we have in common with the Gods, the other with the brutes. — Sallust · 42 BCPoetry5 quotes
I have erected a monument more lasting than bronze. — Horace · 23 BCThere were poets before Homer. — Cicero · 46 BCIf you want me to weep, you must first feel grief yourself. — Horace · 19 BCNo verse can give pleasure for long, nor last, that is written by drinkers of water. — Horace · 20 BCPainting is poetry which is seen and not heard, and poetry is a painting which is heard but not seen. — Leonardo da Vinci · 1519War5 quotes
Carthage must be destroyed. — Cato the Elder · 149 BCWar alone brings up to its highest tension all human energy and puts the stamp of nobility upon the peoples who have the courage to face it. — Benito Mussolini · 1932Laws are silent in time of war. — Cicero · 52 BCWar is to man as motherhood is to woman. — Benito Mussolini · 1934We are mad, not only individually, but nationally. We check manslaughter and isolated murders; but what of war and the much vaunted crime of slaughtering whole peoples? — Seneca · 65Character4 quotes
For he that is fallen low did never firmly stand. — Boethius · 523No one ever suddenly became depraved. — Juvenal · 127So it is more useful to watch a man in times of peril, and in adversity to discern what kind of man he is; for then at last words of truth are drawn from the depths of his heart, and the mask is torn off, reality remains. — Lucretius · 55 BCYou can tell the character of every man when you see how he receives praise. — Seneca · 65Circle of life4 quotes
Time is a violent torrent; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away. — Marcus Aurelius · 180Each thing is of like form from everlasting and comes round again in its cycle. — Marcus Aurelius · 180Man and animal are merely a passage and channel for food, a tomb for other animals, a haven for the dead, giving life by the death of others, a coffer full of corruption. — Leonardo da Vinci · 1508In a short while the generations of living creatures are changed, and like runners relay the torch of life. — Lucretius · 50 BCCourage4 quotes
Fortune favors the brave. — Virgil · 19 BCBe like a headland of rock on which the waves break incessantly: but it stands fast and around it the seething of the waters sinks to rest. — Marcus Aurelius · 180Here one must leave behind all hesitation;
here every cowardice must meet its death. — Dante Alighieri · 1321Even if strength fail, boldness at least will
Deserve praise: in great endeavors even to have
Had the will is enough. — Propertius · 15 BCGovernment4 quotes
Whoever desires to found a state and give it laws, must start with assuming that all men are bad and ever ready to display their vicious nature, whenever they may find occasions for it. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1531The chief foundations of all states, new as well as old or composite, are good laws and good arms; and as there cannot be good laws where the state is not well armed, it follows that where they are well armed they have good laws. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1532For there is nothing that happens on earth that is more welcome to that supreme God who rules the whole universe than the institutions and congregations of men united by a sense of right, which are called states. — Cicero · 51 BCMany have imagined republics and principalities which have never been seen or known to exist in reality; for how we live is so far removed from how we ought to live; that he who neglects what is done for what ought to be done, will rather bring about his own ruin that his preservation. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1532Honor4 quotes
Count it the greatest sin to prefer mere existence to honor, and for the sake of life to lose the reasons for living. — Juvenal · 127The thing which is the most outstanding and chiefly to be desired by all healthy and good and well-off persons, is leisure with honor. — Cicero · 56 BCNever esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect. — Marcus Aurelius · 180It is not he who has many possessions that you should call blessed: he more rightly deserves that name who knows how to use the gods' gifts wisely and to endure harsh poverty, and who fears dishonor more than death. — Horace · 11 BCInner strength4 quotes
Be like a headland of rock on which the waves break incessantly: but it stands fast and around it the seething of the waters sinks to rest. — Marcus Aurelius · 180It is the power of the mind to be unconquerable. — Seneca · 58Nothing happens to anybody which he is not fitted by nature to bear. — Marcus Aurelius · 180For he that is fallen low did never firmly stand. — Boethius · 523Living in the moment4 quotes
Seize the day, put no trust in the morrow! — Horace · 23 BCCease to ask what the morrow will bring forth, and set down as gain each day that Fortune grants. — Horace · 23 BCHe will through life be master of himself and a happy man who from day to day can have said, "I have lived: tomorrow the Father may fill the sky with black clouds or with cloudless sunshine." — Horace · 23 BCHow beautiful is youth,
that is always slipping away!
Whoever wants to be happy, let him be so:
of tomorrow there's no knowing. — Lorenzo de Medici · 1490Nature4 quotes
Human subtlety... Will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does Nature, because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous. — Leonardo da Vinci · 1519A tree cannot grow in the sky, nor clouds be in the deep sea, nor fish live in the fields, nor can blood be in sticks nor sap in rocks. — Lucretius · 55 BCIn disputes about natural phenomena one must begin not with the authority of Scriptural passage but with sensory experience and necessary demonstrations. For the Holy Scripture and nature derive equally from the Godhead, the former as the dictation of the Holy Spirit and the latter as the most obedient executrix of God's orders. — Galileo Galilei · 1615This benign nature so provides that over all the world you find something to imitate. — Leonardo da Vinci · 1519Travel4 quotes
The traveler with nothing on him sings in the robber’s face. — JuvenalMy course is set for an uncharted sea. — Dante Alighieri · 1321Travel light and you can sing in the robber's face. — Juvenal · 127Not bound to swear allegiance to any master, wherever the wind takes me I travel as a visitor. — Horace · 20 BCWisdom4 quotes
Learning does not consist only of knowing what we must or we can do, but also of knowing what we could do and perhaps should not do. — Umberto Eco · 1980No man is wise at all times. — Pliny the Elder · 77 BCBy first recognizing false goods, you begin to escape the burden of their influence; then afterwards true goods may gain possession of your spirit. — Boethius · 523No man is wise enough by himself. — Plautus · 184 BCWork4 quotes
For it is commonly said: completed labors are pleasant. — Cicero · 45 BCLet each man pass his days in that wherein his skill is greatest. — Sextus Propertius · 24 BCMake a fortune; a fortune, if you can, honestly; if not, a fortune by any means. — Horace · 21 BCMen of genius sometimes accomplish most when they work the least. — Leonardo da Vinci · 1568Adversity3 quotes
A great pilot can sail even when his canvas is rent. — Seneca · 65Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men. — Seneca · 64With man, most of his misfortunes are occasioned by man. — Pliny the Elder · 77Death3 quotes
We are continually dying; I while I am writing these words, you while you are reading them, others when they hear them or fail to hear them. I shall be dying when you read this, you die while I write, we both are dying, we all are dying, we are dying forever. — Petrarch · 1360Therefore death is nothing to us, it matters not one jot, since the nature of the mind is understood to be mortal. — Lucretius · 55 BCDeath therefore is nothing to us nor does it concern us a scrap, seeing that the nature of the spirit we possess is something mortal. — Lucretius · 55 BCDownsides of wealth3 quotes
Plenty has made me poor. — Ovid · 8A great fortune is a great slavery. — Seneca · 44In truth, prosperity tries the souls even of the wise. — Sallust · 42 BCFarming3 quotes
For of all gainful professions, nothing is better, nothing more pleasing, nothing more delightful, nothing better becomes a well-bred man than agriculture. — Cicero · 44 BCHappy the man who, far away from business, like the race of men of old, tills his ancestral fields with his own oxen, unbound by any interest to pay. — Horace · 30 BCO farmers, pray that your summers be wet and your winters clear. — Virgil · 29 BCFriendship3 quotes
To like and dislike the same things, that is indeed true friendship. — Catiline · 50 BCA friend is, as it were, a second self. — Cicero · 44 BCWhatever we do or suffer for a friend is pleasant, because love is the principal cause of pleasure. — St. Thomas Aquinas · 1265Hard times3 quotes
You can take comfort in the likelihood that what is now making you miserable will also pass away. — Boethius · 523There is no greater pain than to remember a happy time when one is in misery. — Dante Alighieri · 1321The arousing from sleep, after a recent misfortune, is a bitter moment; the mind at first habitually recurs to its previous tranquility, but is soon depressed by the thought of the contrast that awaits it. — Alessandro Manzoni · 1842Hell3 quotes
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here. — Dante Alighieri · 1321There sighs, lamentations and loud wailings resounded through the starless air, so that at first it made me weep; strange tongues, horrible language, words of pain, tones of anger, voices loud and hoarse, and with these the sound of hands, made a tumult which is whirling through that air forever dark, as sand eddies in a whirlpool. — Dante Alighieri · 1321Let us not speak of them, but look, and pass on. — Dante Alighieri · 1321