Juvenal Quotes

#1. But with what incessant and grievous ills is old age surrounded!

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#2. He who wants to get rich wants to get rich quickly.

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#3. Never does Nature say one thing and Wisdom another.

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#4. Sit mens sana in corpore sano
(a healthy mind in a healthy body)

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#5. He never sought to stem the current. [Of a statesman who accommodates his views to public opinion.]

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#6. Death alone discloses how insignificant are the puny bodies of men.

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#7. There's no effrontery like that of a woman caught in the act; her very guilt inspires her with wrath and insolence.

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#8. Every man's credit is proportioned to the money which he has in his chest.
[Lat., Quantum quisque sua nummorum condit in area,
Tantum habet et fidei.]

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#9. A third heir seldom enjoys what has been dishonestly acquired.

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#10. If now a friend denies not what was given him in trust,
If he restores an ancient purse with all its coins and rust,
This prodigy of honesty deserves to be enrolled
In Tuscan books, and with a sacrificial lamb extolled.

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#11. It is difficult not to write satire.

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#12. Of what use are pedigrees, or to be thought of noble blood, or the display of family portraits, O Ponticus?

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#13. Nobody ever became depraved all at once.
[Lat., Nemo repente fuit turpissimus.]

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#14. Rare is the union of beauty and purity.

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#15. The skilful class of flatterers praise the discourse of an ignorant friend and the face of a deformed one.

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#16. No nice extreme a true Italian knows;
But bid him go to hell, to hell he goes.

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#17. Common sense among men of fortune is rare.

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#18. But grant the wrath of Heaven be great, 'tis slow.
[Lat., Ut sit magna tamen certe lenta ira deorum est.]

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#19. All wish to be learned, but no one is willing to pay the price.

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#20. I only feel, but want the power to paint.

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#21. Led on by impulse, and blind and ungovernable desires.

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#22. The wise man sets bounds even to his innocent desires.

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#23. This is my wish, this is my command, my pleasure is my reason

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#24. The only path to a tranquil life is through virtue.
[Lat., Semita certe
Tranquillae per virtutem patet unica vitae.]

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#25. We are too quick to imitate depraved examples.

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#26. All things may be bought in Rome with money.

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#27. I wish it, I command it. Let my will take the place of a reason.

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#28. Nothing is more audacious than these women when detected; they assume anger, and take courage from the very crime itself.

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#29. There's a lust in man, no charm can tame, of loudly publishing our neighbor's shame.

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#30. We do not commonly find men of superior sense amongst those of the highest fortune.

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#31. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? - Who will watch the watchers?

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#32. The venal herd.
[Lat., Venale pecus.]

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#33. An undying hatred, and a wound never to be healed.

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#34. For the short-lived bloom and contracted span of brief and wretched life is fast fleeting away! While we are drinking and calling for garlands, ointments, and women, old age steals swiftly on with noiseless step.

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#35. Make all fair allowance for the mistakes of youth.

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#36. The sweetest pleasures soonest cloy, And its best flavour temperance gives to joy.

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#37. Who is to guard the guards themselves?

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#38. She knows no difference 'twixt head and privities who devours immense oysters at midnight.

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#39. A pauper traveller will sing before a beggar.

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#40. The greatest respect is owed to a child.

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#41. Refrain from doing ill; for one all powerful reason, lest our children should copy our misdeeds; we are all too prone to imitate whatever is base and depraved.

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#42. The fisherman could perhaps be bought for less than the fish.

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#43. Peace visits not the guilty mind.

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#44. No one becomes depraved all at once.

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#45. To eat at another's table is your ambition's height.
[Lat., Bona summa putes, aliena vivere quadra.]

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#46. Besides what endless brawls by wives are bred,
The curtain lecture makes a mournful bed.

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#47. But who guards the guardians?

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#48. Our virtues are most frequently but vices disguised.

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#49. It is sheer folly when all is gone to lose even one's passage money.

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#50. Autumn is the harvest of greedy death.

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#51. For the gods, instead of what is most pleasing, will give what is most proper. Man is dearer to them than he is to himself.
[Lat., Nam pro jucundis aptissima quaeque dabunt di,
Carior est illis homo quam sibi.]

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#52. What man have you ever seen who was contented with one crime only?

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#53. There is no reliance to be placed on appearance.

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#54. No man ever became very wicked all at once.

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#55. Virture offers the only path in this life that leads to tranquility.

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#56. The tongue is the worst part of a bad servant.

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#57. It is but the weak and little mind that rejoices in revenge

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#58. Lost money is bewailed with deeper sighs Than friends, or kindred, and with louder cries.

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#59. Tears ready to do duty at a minute's notice.

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#60. Luck often raises vulgarity to a high position, to create mirth for the beholders.

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#61. Of what avail are pedigrees?

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#62. Rarus enim ferme sensus communis in illa Fortuna."
["Generally common sense is rare in that (higher) rank."]

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#63. There is great unanimity among the dissolute.
[Lat., Magna inter molles concordia.]

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#64. The smell of profit is clean and sweet, whatever the source.

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#65. Every great house is full of haughty servants.

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#66. Great power which incites great envy, hurls some men to destruction; they are drowned in a long splendid stream of honors.

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#67. Wisdom is the winner over good luck.

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#68. It is a wretched thing to live on the fame of others.

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#69. The thirst after fame is greater than that after virtue; for who embraces virtue if you take away its rewards?

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#70. Many individuals have, like uncut diamonds, shining qualities beneath a rough exterior.

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#71. Give up all hope of peace so long as your mother-in-law is alive.

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#72. Honesty is admired, and starves.

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#73. Let nothing offensive to the ear or the eye enter these thresholds, within which youth dwells.

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#74. while your mother in law still lives, domestic harmony / is out of the question.

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#75. A woman is most merciless when shame goads on her hate

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#76. Trust me no tortures which the poets feign
Can match the fierce unutterable pain
He feels, who night and day devoid of rest
Carries his own accuser in his breast.

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#77. He who meditates a crime secretly within himself has all the guilt of the act.

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#78. We are all easily taught to imitate what is base and depraved.
[Lat., Dociles imitandis
Turpibus ac pravis omnes sumus.]

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#79. Many have an irresistible itch for writing.

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#80. For women's tears are but the sweat of eyes.

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#81. Ut who will guard the guardians?

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#82. No god is absent where prudence dwells.

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#83. What is more cruel than a tyrant's ear?

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#84. Quis costodiet ipsos custodies? (Who will watch the watchers?)

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#85. One path alone leads to a life of peace. The path of virtue.

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#86. The doings of men, their prayers, fear, wrath, pleasure, delights, and recreations, are the subject of this book.
[Lat., Quicquid agunt homines, votum, timor, ira, voluptas, gaudia, discursus, nostri est farrago libelli.]

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#87. To lay down one's life for the truth.

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#88. Like warmed-up cabbage served at each repast, The repetition kills the wretch at last.

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#89. Astrology reveals the will of the gods.

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#90. The greatest hardship of poverty is that it tends to make men ridiculous.

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#91. Luxury destroys more efficiently than war.

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#92. Man, wretched man, whene'er he stoops to sin, Feels, with the act, a strong remorse within.

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#93. The love of popularity holds you in a vice.

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#94. Where have you ever found that man who stopped short after the perpetration of a single crime?

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#95. So much greater is our thirst for glory than for virtue.

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#96. It is unmistakable madness to live in poverty only to die rich.

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#97. No one ever suddenly became depraved.

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#98. Many commit the same crimes with a very different result. One bears a cross for his crime; another a crown.
[Lat., Multi committunt eadem diverso crimina fato;
Ille crucem scleris pretium tulit, hic diadema.]

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#99. Give them bread and circuses and they will never revolt

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#100. Every crime will bring remorse to the man who committed it

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