The Quotes canon
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Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Homer43 quotes
All men have need of the Gods. — Homer · 700 BCZeus does not bring all men's plans to fulfillment. — Homer · 700 BCAmong all men on Earth, bards have a share of honor and reverence, because the Muse has taught them songs, and loves the race of bards. — Homer · 700 BCOf all the creatures that breathe and move across the earth, there is nothing feebler than man. — Homer · 700 BCI should rather labor as another's serf, in the home of a man without fortune, one whose livelihood was meager, than rule over all the departed dead. — Homer · 700 BCBad herdsmen ruin their flocks. — Homer · 700 BCAll 43 quotes →Socrates43 quotes
Wonder is the feeling of a philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder. — Socrates · 400 BCThe unexamined life is not worth living. — Socrates · 399 BCThe true creator is necessity, who is the mother of our invention. — Socrates · 375 BCDemocracy passes into despotism. — Socrates · 375 BCFor our discussion is about no ordinary matter, but on the right way to conduct our lives. — Socrates · 375 BCI know that I do not know. — Socrates · 399 BCAll 43 quotes →Aristotle42 quotes
All men by nature desire to know. — Aristotle · 322 BCMan is by nature a political animal. — Aristotle · 350 BCHope is a waking dream. — Aristotle · 240No tyrant need fear till men begin to feel confident in each other. — Aristotle · 350 BCOne soul dwelling in two bodies. — AristotleOne swallow does not make a spring. — Aristotle · 322 BCAll 42 quotes →Horace39 quotes
Seize the day, put no trust in the morrow! — Horace · 23 BCI have erected a monument more lasting than bronze. — Horace · 23 BCLovely and honorable it is to die for one's country. — Horace · 23 BCIt is the mountaintop that the lightning strikes. — Horace · 23 BCThe centuries roll back to the ancient age of gold. — Horace · 23 BCIt's insane to carry timber to the forest. — Horace · 34 BCAll 39 quotes →Marcus Aurelius27 quotes
Every instant of time is a pinprick of eternity. — Marcus Aurelius · 180Be 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 · 180Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one. — Marcus Aurelius · 180What is not good for the swarm is not good for the bee. — Marcus Aurelius · 180Mankind have been created for the sake of one another. — Marcus Aurelius · 180Love the little trade which you have learned, and be content with it. — Marcus Aurelius · 180All 27 quotes →Virgil22 quotes
Fortune favors the brave. — Virgil · 19 BCLove conquers all things; let us too surrender to love. — Virgil · 37 BCA fickle and changeable thing always is woman. — Virgil · 19 BCNight came down, and enfolded the earth in her dusky wings. — Virgil · 19 BCDo not trust the horse, Trojans. Whatever it is, I fear the Greeks even when they bring gifts. — Virgil · 19 BCTime is flying never to return. — Virgil · 29 BCAll 22 quotes →Publilius Syrus21 quotes
A rolling stone gathers no moss. — Publilius Syrus · 43 BCYou should hammer your iron when it is glowing hot. — Publilius Syrus · 43 BCIt is a bad plan that admits of no modification. — Publilius Syrus · 43 BCAnyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm. — Publilius Syrus · 43 BCFor a good cause, wrongdoing is virtuous. — Publilius Syrus · 43 BCTo accept a favor is to sell your freedom. — Publilius Syrus · 43 BCAll 21 quotes →Seneca21 quotes
If a person knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favorable. — Seneca · 65It is the power of the mind to be unconquerable. — Seneca · 58The best ideas are common property. — Seneca · 65All art is but imitation of nature. — Seneca · 65A great pilot can sail even when his canvas is rent. — Seneca · 65I was shipwrecked before I got on board. — Seneca · 65All 21 quotes →Sophocles21 quotes
There are many wonderful things, and nothing is more wonderful than man. — Sophocles · 441 BCFor God hates utterly
The bray of bragging tongues. — Sophocles · 442 BCReason is God's crowning gift to man. — Sophocles · 442 BCHow dreadful knowledge of the truth can be
When there's no help in truth! — Sophocles · 430 BCThe greatest griefs are those we cause ourselves. — Sophocles · 430 BCThe happiest life consists in ignorance. — Sophocles · 442 BCAll 21 quotes →Cicero20 quotes
Cui bono? — Cicero · 52 BCLaws are silent in time of war. — Cicero · 52 BCFor it is commonly said: completed labors are pleasant. — Cicero · 45 BCLet the punishment match the offense. — Cicero · 43 BCThere are more disorders of the mind than of the body, and they are of a more dangerous nature. — Cicero · 45 BCWhat is more agreeable than one's home? — Cicero · 46 BCAll 20 quotes →Heraclitus16 quotes
One cannot step twice into the same river, for the waters are continually flowing on. — HeraclitusA man's character is his fate. — HeraclitusDonkeys would prefer refuse to gold. — HeraclitusMan, like a light in the night, is kindled and put out. — Heraclitus · 480 BCIt would not be better if things happened to men just as they wish. — HeraclitusEverything flows and nothing stays. — Heraclitus · 348 BCAll 16 quotes →Lucretius16 quotes
Life is one long struggle in the dark. — Lucretius · 55 BCAnd life is given to none freehold, but it is leasehold for all. — Lucretius · 55 BCThe ring on the finger becomes thin beneath by wearing, the fall of dripping water hollows the stone. — Lucretius · 55 BCA 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 BCPleasant it is, when over a great sea the winds trouble the waters, to gaze from shore upon another's great tribulation: not because any man's troubles are a delectable joy, but because to perceive what ills you are free from yourself is pleasant. — Lucretius · 55 BCLovely it is, when the winds are churning up the waves on the great sea, to gaze out from the land on the great efforts of someone else; not because it's an enjoyable pleasure that somebody is in difficulties, but because it's lovely to realize what troubles you are yourself spared. — Lucretius · 55 BCAll 16 quotes →Aeschylus13 quotes
For he does not wish to appear the bravest, but to be the bravest. — Aeschylus · 467 BCFor few there are among men in whom it is inborn to admire without envy a friend's good fortune. — Aeschylus · 458 BCZeus, author of all, worker of all! For what is brought to pass for mortal men save by will of Zeus? What herein is not wrought of god? — Aeschylus · 458 BCBronze is a mirror of the face, wine of the mind. — AeschylusJustice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. — Aeschylus · 458 BCNeither anarchy nor tyranny—this I counsel my citizens to support and respect, and not to drive fear wholly out of the city. For who among mortals, if he fears nothing, is righteous? — Aeschylus · 458 BCAll 13 quotes →Euripides12 quotes
Mere cleverness is not wisdom. — Euripides · 405 BCLeave no stone unturned. — Euripides · 430 BCMy tongue swore, but my mind's unsworn. — Euripides · 428 BCThere is one thing alone
that stands the brunt of life throughout its course:
a quiet conscience. — Euripides · 428 BCLove distills desire upon the eyes,
love brings bewitching grace into the heart
of those he would destroy.
I pray that love may never come to me
with murderous intent,
in rhythms measureless and wild.
Not fire nor stars have stronger bolts
than those of Aphrodite sent
by the hand of Eros, Zeus' child. — Euripides · 428 BCNever shall I say that marriage brings more joy than pain. — Euripides · 438 BCAll 12 quotes →Juvenal11 quotes
Only two things does he anxiously wish for-bread and circuses. — Juvenal · 127The traveler with nothing on him sings in the robber’s face. — JuvenalThe 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! — Juvenal · 127Travel light and you can sing in the robber's face. — Juvenal · 127We are now suffering the evils of a long peace. Luxury, more deadly than war, broods over the city, and avenges a conquered world. — Juvenal · 127All wish to be learned, but no one is willing to pay the price. — Juvenal · 100All 11 quotes →Epictetus10 quotes
How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself? — Epictetus · 135If thy brother wrongs thee, remember not so much his wrong-doing, but more than ever that he is thy brother. — Epictetus · 135For it is impossible for any one to begin to learn what he thinks that he already knows. — Epictetus · 108Happiness and freedom begin with a clear understanding of one principle: Some things are within our control, and some things are not. — Epictetus · 135Remember that you ought to behave in life as you should at a banquet. As something is being passed around it comes to you; stretch out your hand, take a portion of it politely. It passes on; do not detain it. Or it has not come to you yet; do not project your desire to meet it, but wait until it comes in front of you. So act toward children, so toward a wife, so toward office, so toward wealth. — Epictetus · 125Were I a nightingale, I would sing like a nightingale; were I a swan, like a swan. But as it is, I am a rational being, therefore I must sing hymns of praise to God. — Epictetus · 108All 10 quotes →Herodotus10 quotes
If the Persians hide the sun, the battle will be in shade rather than sunlight. — Herodotus · 430 BCThe man who has planned badly, if fortune is on his side, may have had a stroke of luck; but his plan was a bad one nonetheless. — Herodotus · 430 BCThe most hateful torment for men is to have knowledge of everything but power over nothing. — Herodotus · 430 BCNot snow, no, nor rain, nor heat, nor night keeps them from accomplishing their appointed courses with all speed. — Herodotus · 430 BCNo one is stupid enough to prefer war to peace; in peace sons bury their fathers and in war fathers bury their sons. However, I suppose the god must have wanted this to happen. — Herodotus · 430 BCIf one were to order all mankind to choose the best set of rules in the world, each group would, after due consideration, choose its own customs; each group regards its own as being by far the best. — Herodotus · 430 BCAll 10 quotes →Hesiod10 quotes
Between us and excellence, the gods have placed the sweat of our brows. — Hesiod · 700 BCHe harms himself who does harm to another, and the evil plan is most harmful to the planner. — Hesiod · 700 BCIf you should put even a little on a little, and should do this often, soon this too would become big. — Hesiod · 700 BCLove, who is most beautiful among the immortal gods, the melter of limbs, overwhelms in their hearts the intelligence and wise counsel of all gods and all men. — Hesiod · 700 BCGossip is mischievous, light and easy to raise, but grievous to bear and hard to get rid of. No gossip ever dies away entirely, if many people voice it: it too is a kind of divinity. — Hesiod · 700 BCThe fool learns by suffering. — Hesiod · 700 BCAll 10 quotes →Pericles10 quotes
Happiness depends on being free, and freedom depends on being courageous. — Pericles · 430 BCWe are lovers of beauty without extravagance, and lovers of wisdom without unmanliness. Wealth is to us is not mere material for vainglory but an opportunity for achievement; and poverty we think it no disgrace to acknowledge but a real degradation to make no effort to overcome. — Pericles · 430 BCOur love of what is beautiful does not lead to extravagance; our love of the things of the mind does not make us soft. — Pericles · 430 BCBut the bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding go out to meet it. — Pericles · 430 BCOur constitution is named a democracy, because it is in the hands not of the few but of the many. But our laws secure equal justice for all in their private disputes, and our public opinion welcomes and honors talent in every branch of achievement, not for any sectional reason but on grounds of excellence alone. And as we give free play to all in our public life, so we care the same spirit into our daily relations with one another... Open and friendly in our private intercourse, in our public acts we keep strictly within the control of law. We acknowledge the restraint of authority, and to the laws, more especially to those which offer protection to the oppressed and those unwritten ordinances whose transgression brings admitted shame. — Pericles · 430 BCFix your eyes on the greatness of Athens as you have it before you day by day, fall in love with her, and when you feel her great, remember that this greatness was won by men with courage, with knowledge of their duty, and with a sense of honor in action... So they gave their bodies to the commonwealth and received each for his own memory, praise that will never die, and with it the grandest of all memorials, not that in which their mortal bones are laid, but a home in the minds of men, where their glory remains fresh to stir to speech or action as the occasion comes fresh to stir to speech or action as the occasion comes by. For the whole earth is the memorial of famous men; and their story is not graven only on stone over their native earth, but lives on far away, without visible symbol, woven into the stuff of other men's lives. — Pericles · 430 BCAll 10 quotes →Job9 quotes
Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. — Job · 500 BCWith the ancient is wisdom; and in length of days understanding. — Job · 500 BCBut where shall wisdom be found? — Job · 500 BCFor I know that my Redeemer lives, And He shall stand at last on the earth; And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, That in my flesh I shall see God. — Job · 500 BCWherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. — Job · 500 BCI will lay mine hand upon my mouth. — Job · 500 BCAll 9 quotes →Terence9 quotes
Fortune assists the brave. — Terence · 161 BCHe is wise who tries everything before arms. — Terence · 161 BCNothing is so difficult but that it may be found out by seeking. — Terence · 163 BCThere is nothing so easy but that it becomes difficult when you do it reluctantly. — Terence · 163 BCNothing has yet been said that's not been said before. — Terence · 161 BCThere are vicissitudes in all things. — Terence · 161 BCAll 9 quotes →Pliny the Elder8 quotes
When a building is about to fall down, all the mice desert it. — Pliny the Elder · 77The human features and countenance, although composed of but some ten parts or little more, are so fashioned that among so many thousands of men there are no two in existence who cannot be distinguished from one another. — Pliny the Elder · 77The only certainty is that nothing is certain. — Pliny the Elder · 77 BCNo man is wise at all times. — Pliny the Elder · 77 BCThere is always something new out of Africa. — Pliny the Elder · 77In comparing various authors with one another, I have discovered that some of the gravest and latest writers have transcribed, word for word, from former works, without making acknowledgment. — Pliny the Elder · 77All 8 quotes →Ovid7 quotes
Time, the devourer of all things. — Ovid · 8Dripping water hollows out a stone, a ring is worn away by use. — Ovid · 18It is convenient that there be gods, and, as it is convenient, let us believe that there are. — Ovid · 2Every lover is a warrior, and Cupid has his camps. — Ovid · 16 BCPlenty has made me poor. — Ovid · 8So I can't live either without you or with you. — Ovid · 16 BCAll 7 quotes →Plutarch7 quotes
The mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting. — PlutarchWhen the candles are out all women are fair. — Plutarch · 100It is circumstance and proper timing that give an action its character and make it either good or bad. — Plutarch · 119This gives a great field for the flatterer in friendship, who finds a wonderful base of operations in our self-love, which makes each person his own first and greatest flatterer. — Plutarch · 100A Roman divorced from his wife, being highly blamed by his friends, who demanded, "Was she not chaste? Was she not fair? Was she not fruitful? Holding out his shoe, asked them whether it was not new and well made. "Yet," added he, "none of you can tell where it pinches me." — Plutarch · 119To break a treaty is contempt for the gods. But to outwit an enemy is not only just and glorious-but profitable and sweet. — Plutarch · 100All 7 quotes →Aristophanes6 quotes
The old are in a second childhood. — Aristophanes · 423 BCMankind, fleet of life, like tree leaves, weak creatures of clay, unsubstantial as shadows, wingless, ephemeral, wretched, mortal and dreamlike. — Aristophanes · 424 BCThese impossible women! How they do get around us! The poet was right: can't live with them, or without them! — Aristophanes · 411 BCWhen men drink, then they are rich and successful and win lawsuits and are happy and help their friends. Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever. — Aristophanes · 424 BCA woman's time of opportunity is short, and if she doesn't seize it, no one wants to marry her, and she sits watching for omens. — Aristophanes · 414 BCYou have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding and a vulgar manner. — Aristophanes · 424 BCHippocrates6 quotes
As to diseases make a habit of two things-to help, or at least, to do no harm. — Hippocrates · 370 BCThere are in fact two things, science and opinion; the former begets knowledge, the latter ignorance. — Hippocrates · 370 BCFor extreme diseases, extreme methods of cure, as to restriction, are most suitable. — Hippocrates · 370 BCPrayer is indeed good, but while calling on the gods a man should himself lend a hand. — Hippocrates · 370 BCThe life so short, the craft so long to learn. — Hippocrates · 410 BCIt is well to superintend the sick to make them well, to care for the healthy to keep them well, also to care for one's own self, so as to observe what it seemly. — Hippocrates · 370 BCPindar6 quotes
It is not possible with mortal mind to search out the purposes of the gods. — Pindar · 438 BCCreatures of a day. What is someone? What is no one? Man is the dream of a shadow. But when the brilliance given by Zeus comes, a shining light is on man, and a gentle lifetime. — Pindar · 446 BCWords have a longer life than deeds. — Pindar · 473 BCNow I live in hope, but the end is in the hands of gods. — Pindar · 464 BCIf any man hopes to do a deed without God's knowledge, he errs. — Pindar · 476 BCDo not crave immortal life, my soul, but use to the full the resources of what is possible. — Pindar · 474 BCPlato6 quotes
For what should a man live, if not for the pleasures of discourse? — Plato · 370 BCFriends have all things in common. — Plato · 370 BCOf all wild creatures, the child is the most intractable. — Plato · 346 BCSocrates is a wrongdoer because he corrupts the youth and does not believe in the gods the state believes in, but in other new spiritual beings. — Plato · 339 BCMy child, you are still young, and time as it advances [888b] will cause you to reverse many of the opinions you now hold: so wait till then before pronouncing judgment on matters of most grave importance; and of these the gravest of all—though at present you regard it as naught—is the question of holding a right view about the gods and so living well, or the opposite. — Plato · 346 BCYou cannot conceive the many without the one. — Plato · 340 BCMartial5 quotes
Conceal a flaw, and the world will imagine the worst. — Martial · 103A man who lives everywhere lives nowhere. — Martial · 103Virtue extends our days: he lives two lives who relives his past with pleasure. — Martial · 103Wise men don't say, "I shall live to do that". Tomorrow's life's too late; live today. — Martial · 103Neither fear your death's day nor long for it. — Martial · 103Menander5 quotes
This is living, not to live unto oneself alone. — Menander · 290 BCI call a fig a fig, a spade a spade. — Menander · 290 BCWhom the gods love dies young. — Menander · 290 BCMarriage, if one will face the truth, is an evil, but a necessary evil. — Menander · 290 BCThe man who has never been flogged has never been taught. — Menander · 291 BC