Ovid Quotes & Sayings

#1. What is now reason was formerly impulse or instinct.

#2. If you would conquer Love, he must be fought
At his first onslaught; sprinkle but a drop
Of water, the new-kindled flame expires.

Ovid

#3. Take the advice of light when you're looking at linens or jewels; Looking at faces or forms, take the advice of the day.

Ovid

#4. Novelty in all things is charming.

Ovid

#5. Simplicity is a jewel rarely found.

Ovid

#6. An anthill increases by accumulation. Medicine is consumed by distribution. That which is feared lessens by association. This is the thing to understand.

Ovid

#7. This also, that I live, I consider a gift of God.

Ovid

#8. In war the olive branch of peace is of use.
[Lat., Adjuvat in bello pacatae ramus olivae.]

Ovid

#9. I am above being injured by fortune, though she steals away much, more will remain with me. The blessing I now enjoy transcend fear.

Ovid

#10. The laws allow arms to be taken against an armed foe.

Ovid

#11. Medicine sometimes snatches away health, sometimes gives it.

Ovid

#12. The drop excavates the stone, not with force but by falling often.

Ovid

#13. Great is the strife between beauty and modesty.

Ovid

#14. We are ever striving after what is forbidden, and coveting what is denied us.

Ovid

#15. Thy destiny is only that of man, but thy aspirations may be those of a god.

Ovid

#16. A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a quip and worried to death by a frown on the right man's brow.

Ovid

#17. Resist beginnings: it is too late to employ medicine when the evil has grown strong by inveterate habit.

Ovid

#18. It is some alleviation to ills we cannot cure to speak of them.

Ovid

#19. There is no such thing as pure, unalloyed pleasure; some bitter ever mingles with the sweet.

Ovid

#20. Sleep, rest of nature, O sleep, most gentle of the divinities, peace of the soul, thou at whose presence care disappears, who soothest hearts wearied with daily employments, and makest them strong again for labour!

Ovid

#21. The love of glory gives an immense stimulus.

Ovid

#22. Habit had made the custom.

Ovid

#23. There is no excellency without difficulty.

Ovid

#24. Give me the waters of Lethe that numb the heart, if they exist, I will still not have the power to forget you.

Ovid

#25. Pleasure is sweetest when 'tis paid for by another's pain.

Ovid

#26. See that you promise: what harm is there in promise? In
promises anyone can be rich.

Ovid

#27. Few love what they may have.

Ovid

#28. The applause and the favour of our fellow-men
Fan even a spark of genius to a flame.

Ovid

#29. Against the bold, daring is unsafe.

Ovid

#30. The mind, conscious of rectitude, laughed to scorn the falsehood of report.

Ovid

#31. Have consideration for wounded feelings.

Ovid

#32. A boar is often held by a not-so-large dog.

Ovid

#33. God himself helps those who dare.

Ovid

#34. The good of other times let people state; I think it lucky I was born so late.

Ovid

#35. Thus earth of late so rude, So shapeless, man, till now unknown, became.

Ovid

#36. Their useless torches on dry hedges throw,
That catch the flames, and kindle all the row;
So burns the God, consuming in desire,
And feeding in his breast a fruitless fire

Ovid

#37. It is lawful to be taught by an enemy. Fas est ab hoste doceri.

Ovid

#38. Opportunity is ever worth expecting; let your hood be ever hanging ready. The fish will be in the pool where you least imagine it to be.

Ovid

#39. The pleasure that is granted to me from a sense of duty ceases to be a pleasure at all.

Ovid

#40. First thing every morning before you arise say out loud, 'I believe,' three times.

Ovid

#41. If he should love deny him what he loves!

Ovid

#42. Love conquers all things; let us own her dominion.

Ovid

#43. The mind ill at ease, the body suffers also.

Ovid

#44. He who says o'er much I love not is in love.

Ovid

#45. We must improve our time; time goes with rapid foot.

Ovid

#46. Suppressed pain chokes us; in our breasts
It surges, adding ever to its strength.

Ovid

#47. Bring a lawsuit against a man who can pay; the poor man's acts are not worth the expense

Ovid

#48. Those gifts are ever the most acceptable which the giver makes precious.
[Lat., Acceptissima semper munera sunt auctor quae pretiosa facit.]

Ovid

#49. I could not possibly count the gold-digging ruses of women, Not if I had ten mouths, not if I had ten tongues.

Ovid

#50. Tears are at times as eloquent as words. [Weeping hath a voice.]

Ovid

#51. This victory will be your I ruin.

Ovid

#52. They come to see, they come that they themselves may be seen.
[Lat., Spectatum veniunt, veniunt spectentur ut ipse.]

Ovid

#53. The swallow is not ensnared by men because of its gentle nature.
[Lat., At caret insidiis hominum, quia mitis, hirundo.]

Ovid

#54. Many women long for what eludes them, and like not what is offered them.

Ovid

#55. There is nothing constant in the universe. All ebb and flow, and every shape that's born, bears in its womb the seeds of change.

Ovid

#56. You will go most safely in the middle.

Ovid

#57. A broken fortune is like a falling column; the lower it sinks, the greater weight it has to sustain.

Ovid

#58. Happy are those who dare courageously to defend what they love.

Ovid

#59. Lente, lente currite, noctis equi. Translation: Run slowly, slowly, horses of the night.

Ovid

#60. Ah me! Love can not be cured by herbs.

Ovid

#61. Good-bye to the lies of the poets.
[Lat., Valeant mendacia vatum.]

Ovid

#62. That fair face will as years roll on lose its beauty, and old age will bring its wrinkles to the brow.

Ovid

#63. Beauty is heaven's gift, and how few can boast of beauty.

Ovid

#64. I flee who chases me and chase who flees me.

Ovid

#65. There is a god within us, and the heavens
Have intercourse with earth; from realms above
That spirit comes.

Ovid

#66. The gods see the deeds of the righteous.
[Lat., Di pia facta vident.]

Ovid

#67. We are always striving for things forbidden, and coveting those denied us.

Ovid

#68. When disposition wins us, the features please.

Ovid

#69. To live well is to live unnoticed."
"Bene qui latuit bene dixit.

Ovid

#70. There is some joy in weeping. For our tears
Fill up the cup, then wash our pain away.

Ovid

#71. It is art to conceal art. -Ars est celare artem

Ovid

#72. What makes men indifferent to their wives is that they can see them when they please.

Ovid

#73. The rose is often found near the nettle.

Ovid

#74. Time is the devourer of all things.

Ovid

#75. Honesty, by evil fortune tried,
Finds in adversity the seed of praise.

Ovid

#76. Sleep, thou repose of all things; sleep, thou gentlest of the deities; thou peace of the mind, from which care flies; who doest soothe the hearts of men wearied with the toils of the day, and refittest them for labor.

Ovid

#77. We two are to ourselves a crowd.

Ovid

#78. Niobe would have been called most blessed of mothers,
had she not seemed so herself.

Ovid

#79. There are a thousand forms of evil; there will be a thousand remedies.

Ovid

#80. The raven once in snowy plumes was drest,
White as the whitest dove's unsullied breast,
Fair as the guardian of the Capitol,
Soft as the swan; a large and lovely fowl
His tongue, his prating tongue had changed him quite
To sooty blackness from the purest white.

Ovid

#81. Fortune and love favour the brave.
[Lat., Audentum Forsque Venusque juvant.]

Ovid

#82. Had I not sinned what would there be for you to pardon. My fate has given you the opportunity for mercy.

Ovid

#83. Only she is chaste whom none has invited

Ovid

#84. Even as a cow she was lovely.

Ovid

#85. Mad desire, when it has the most, longs for more

Ovid

#86. There is no useful thing which may not be turned to an injurious purpose.

Ovid

#87. Perfer et obdura, dolor hic tibi proderit olim. (Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you.)

Ovid

#88. Death is less bitter punishment than death's delay.

Ovid

#89. Rest strengthens the body, the mind too is thus supported; but unremitting toil destroys both.

Ovid

#90. No man can purchase his virtue too dear, for it is the only thing whose value must ever increase with the price it has cost us. Our integrity is never worth so much as when we have parted with our all to keep it.

Ovid

#91. It is some relief to weep; grief is satisfied and carried off by tears.

Ovid

#92. Though strength be wanting, the will to action
Merits praise.

Ovid

#93. There is no such thing as pure pleasure; some anxiety always goes with it.

Ovid

#94. Those dreams are true which we have in the morning, as the lamp begins to flicker.
[Lat., Namque sub Aurora jam dormitante lucerna
Sommia quo cerni tempore vera solent.]

Ovid