Virgil Quotes & Sayings

#1. It is easy to go down into Hell; night and day, the gates of dark Death stand wide; but to climb back again, to retrace one's steps to the upper air - there's the rub, the task.

Virgil

#2. Enter on the way of training while the spirits in youth are still pliable.

Virgil

#3. The greatest health is wealth.

Virgil

#4. Roman, remember that you shall rule the nations by your authority, for this is to be your skill, to make peace the custom, to spare the conquered, and to wage war until the haughty are brought low.

Virgil

#5. Hug the shore; let others try the deep.

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#6. Happy the person who has learned the cause of things and has put under his or her feet all fear, inexorable fate, and the noisy strife of the hell of greed.

Virgil

#7. The dewy night unrolls a heaven thickly jewelled with sparkling stars

Virgil

#8. Perhaps even these things, one day, will be pleasing to remember.

Virgil

#9. I fear the Greeks even when they bring gifts.

Virgil

#10. Forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit.
and perhaps it will be pleasing to have remembered these things one day

Virgil

#11. No stranger to misfortune myself, I have learned to relieve the sufferings of others.

Virgil

#12. From my example learn to be just, and not to despise the gods.

Virgil

#13. They can conquer who believe they can.

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#14. Through pain I've learned to comfort suffering men

Virgil

#15. If ye despise the human race, and mortal arms, yet remember that there is a God who is mindful of right and wrong.

Virgil

#16. The dank night is sweeping down from the sky
and the setting stars incline our heads to sleep.

Virgil

#17. Fortunate is he whose mind has the power to probe the causes of things and trample underfoot all terrors and inexorable fate.

Virgil

#18. The signs of the old flame, I know them well.
I pray that the earth gape deep enough to take me down
or the almighty Father blast me with one bolt to the shades,
the pale, glimmering shades in hell, the pit of night,
before I dishonor you, my conscience, break your laws.

Virgil

#19. Let not our proposal be disregarded on the score of our youth.

Virgil

#20. They can because they think they can.

Virgil

#21. Learn all from one thing. -Ab uno disce omnes

Virgil

#22. Harsh necessity, and the newness of my kingdom, force me to do such things and to guard my frontiers everywhere.

Virgil

#23. Nunc scio quit sit amor." Lat., "Now I know what love is.

Virgil

#24. Easy is the descent to hell; all night long, all day, the doors of dark Hades stand open; but to retrace the path; to come out again to the sweet air of Heaven - there is the task, there is the burden.

Virgil

#25. Go forth a conqueror and win great victories.

Virgil

#26. All things by nature are ready to get worse

Virgil

#27. I was the first to bring the Muse into my country.

Virgil

#28. In his deepest heart there surge tremendous shame and madness mixed with sorrow and love whipped on by frenzy and a courage aware of its own worth.

Virgil

#29. Duty bound, Aeneas, though he struggled with desire to calm and comfort her in all her pain, to speak to her and turn her mind from grief, and though he sighed his heart out, shaken still with love if her, yet took the course heaven gave him and turned back to the fleet.

Virgil

#30. What region of the earth is not full of our calamities?

Virgil

#31. Here, too, the honorable finds its due
and there are tears for passing things; here, too,
things mortal touch the mind.

Virgil

#32. Yield thou not to adversity, but press on the more bravely.

Virgil

#33. He enters the port with a full sail.

Virgil

#34. What good are prayers and shrines to a person mad with love? The flame keeps gnawing into her tender marrow hour by hour, and deep in her heart the silent wound lives on.

Virgil

#35. Such is the love of praise, so great the anxiety for victory.

Virgil

#36. I too am a poet who has found some favour with the Muse. I too have written songs. I too have heard the shepherds call me bard. But I take it from them with a grain of salt: I have the feeling that I cannot yet compare with Varius or Cinna, but cackle like a goose among melodious swans.

Virgil

#37. There's a snake lurking in the grass.

Virgil

#38. I will be gone from here and sing my songs/ In the forest wilderness where the wild beasts are,/ And carve in letters on the little trees/ The story of my love, and as the trees/ Will grow letters too will grow, to cry/ In a louder voice the story of my love.

Virgil

#39. Come what may, all bad fortune is to be conquered by endurance.

Virgil

#40. We are not all able to do all things.

Virgil

#41. Womankind Is ever a fickle and a changeful thing.

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#42. To have died once is enough.

Virgil

#43. That man is the most loyal who aims at the noblest motive, and that motive the public good.

Virgil

#44. They succeed, because they think they can.

Virgil

#45. Death twitches my ear;
'Live,' he says...
'I'm coming.

Virgil

#46. Each person, makes their own terrible passion their God.

Virgil

#47. Arma virumque cano ... "
*Literally: "I sing of arms and man".
I sing the praises of a man's stuggles

Virgil

#48. The cursed hunger for gold. -Auri sacra fames

Virgil

#49. Oh you who are born of the gods, easy is the descent into Hell. The door of darkness stands open day and night. But to retrace your steps, and come back out into the brightness above, that is the work, that is the labor.

Virgil

#50. A fault is fostered by concealment.

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#51. Now, whoever has courage and a strong and collected spirit in his breast, let him come forward, lace on the gloves and put up his hands. (5.363-364)

Virgil

#52. And as he spoke he wept.
Three times he tried to reach arms round that neck.
Three times the form, reached for in vain, escaped
Like a breeze between his hands, a dream on wings.

Virgil

#53. Do the gods light this fire in our hearts or does each man's mad desire become his god?

Virgil

#54. They are able who think they are able.

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#55. Endure the present, and watch for better things.

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#56. There's a snake hidden in the grass. Virgil. Ecologues,no. 3.1.1o8

Virgil

#57. Love conquers all things; let us too surrender to love.

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#58. Whatever may happen, every kind of fortune is to be overcome by bearing it.

Virgil

#59. Fury itself supplies arms.

Virgil

#60. It never troubles the wolf how many the sheep may be.

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#61. Look with favour upon a bold beginning.

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#62. Ah, merciless Love, is there any length to which you cannot force the human heart to go?

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#63. Fortune sides with him who dares.

Virgil

#64. Each draws to his best-loved.

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#65. The descent into Hell is easy

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#66. For they conquer who believe they can.

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#67. Age carries all things away, even the mind.

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#68. Live on in your blessings, your destiny's been won. But ours calls us on from one ordeal to the next.

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#69. Trust not too much to appearances.

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#70. Time passes irrevocably.

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#71. Will Mars be always in your windy tongue and in your flying feet?

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#72. Persevere and preserve yourselves for better circumstances.

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#73. Happy is the man who has learned the causes of things.

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#74. The world cares very little about what a man or woman knows; it is what a man or woman is able to do that counts.

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#75. I feel again a spark of that ancient flame.

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#76. Want of pluck shows want of blood.

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#77. When gods are contrary they stand by no one.

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#78. All our sweetest hours fly fastest.

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#79. What a tale he's told, what a bitter bowl of war he's drunk to the dregs.

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#80. The grim lioness follows the wolf, the wolf himself the goat, the wanton goat the flowering clover, and Corydon follows you, Alexis. Each is led by his liking.

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#81. A chaplet of leaves crowns the victor.

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#82. Confidence cannot find a place wherein to rest in safety.

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#83. Age steals away all things, even the mind.

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#84. Fortune sides with he who dares

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#85. Trust not the horse, O Trojans. Be it what it may, I fear the Grecians even when they offer gifts.

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#86. And, just for good measure, here are a handful of runners up:
For now the seventh summer carries you,
A wanderer, across the lands and waters.

Virgil

#87. Each of us bears his own Hell.

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#88. Facilis decensus averni. The descent into hell is easy.

Virgil

#89. Fear reveals baseborn souls!

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#90. Friend, have the courage
To care little for wealth, and shape yourself,
You too, to merit godhead.

Virgil

#91. Consider what each soil will bear, and what each refuses.

Virgil

#92. I sing of arms and of a man: his fate
had made him fugitive: he was the first
to journey from the coasts of Troy as far
as Italy and the Lavinian shores
Across the lands and waters he was battered
beneath the violence of the high ones for
the savage Juno's unforgetting anger.

Virgil

#93. My son, from whence this madness, this neglect
Of my commands, and those whom I protect?
Why this unmanly rage? Recall to mind
Whom you forsake, what pledges leave behind.

Virgil