Ovid's Quotes

#1. I think there might even come a time when I would read Virgil again. Ovid's Metamorphoses, perhaps, not because the music goes round and round and never comes out, but because it's an extraordinary picture of ceaseless change that never comes to an end.

William Golding

#2. There are as many characters in men
As there are shapes in nature.

Ovid

#3. If thou wishest to put an end to love, attend to business (love yields to employment); then thou wilt be safe.
[Lat., Qui finem quaeris amoris,
(Cedit amor rebus) res age; tutus eris.]

Ovid

#4. By yielding you may obtain victory

Ovid

#5. That's one of the greatest curses ever inflicted on the human race, memory.

Ovid

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

Ovid

#7. for no god may undo what another god has done...

Ovid

#8. The gods have their own rules.

Ovid

#9. Endure and persist; this pain will turn to good by and by.

Ovid

#10. Nothing is stronger than habit.

Ovid

#11. Dignity and love do not blend well, nor do they continue long together.

Ovid

#12. Majesty and love do not well agree, nor do they live together.

Ovid

#13. Spare the soul that feels a deadly wound.

Ovid

#14. Occupy yourself, and you will be out of harm's way.

Ovid

#15. While strength and years permit, endure labor; soon bent old age will come with silent foot.
[Lat., Dum vires annique sinunt, tolerate labores.
Jam veniet tacito curva senecta pede.]

Ovid

#16. He loved a lifeless thing and he was utterly and hopelessly wretched.

Ovid

#17. There is a good deal in a man's mode of eating.

Ovid

#18. 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

#19. To be loved, be lovable." - Ovid

Zig Ziglar

#20. Everyone is desirous of his own pursuits, and loves
To spend his time in his accustomed art.

Ovid

#21. Nothing aids which may not also injure us.
Fire serves us well, but he who plots to burn
His neighbor's roof arms his hands with fire.

Ovid

#22. Love is a kind of warfare.

Ovid

#23. As the hawk is wont to pursue the trembling doves.

Ovid

#24. Men should not care too much for good looks; neglect is becoming.

Ovid

#25. 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

#26. Idleness ruins the constitution

Ovid

#27. Destroy our leisure and you break love's bow.

Ovid

#28. Novelty in all things is charming.

Ovid

#29. Some people think that because they do the opposite of what they are asked to do, they have initiative

Ovid

#30. Simplicity is a jewel rarely found.

Ovid

#31. Take rest; a field that has rested gives a beautiful crop.

Ovid

#32. Love is a kind of military service

Ovid

#33. Our native soil draws all of us, by I know not what sweetness, and never allows us to forget.

Ovid

#34. Envy, the meanest of vices, creeps on the ground like a serpent.

Ovid

#35. The cause is hidden. The effect is visible to all.

Ovid

#36. What is without periods of rest will not endure.

Ovid

#37. Fair Flora! Now attend thy sportful feast,
Of which some days I with design have past;
A part in April and a part in May
Thou claim'st, and both command my tuneful lay;
And as the confines of two months are thine
To sing of both the double task be mine.

Ovid

#38. Truly it is allowed us to weep: by weeping we disperse our wrath; and tears go through the heart, even like a stream.
[Lat., Flere licet certe: flendo diffundimus iram:
Perque sinum lacrimae, fluminis instar enim.]

Ovid

#39. Love is a driver, bitter and fierce if you fight and resist him,
Easy-going enough once you acknowledge his power.

Ovid

#40. It is the poor man who'll ever count his flock.

Ovid

#41. It is something to hold the scepter with a firm hand.
[Lat., Est aliquid valida sceptra tenere manu.]

Ovid

#42. Courage conquers all things:
it even gives strength to the body.

Ovid

#43. Love and dignity do not dwell together.

Ovid

#44. The brave find a home in every land.

Ovid

#45. Cunning leads to knavery. It is but a step from one to the other, and that very slippery. Only lying makes the difference; add that to cunning, and it is knavery.

Ovid

#46. A woman is a creature that's always shopping.

Ovid

#47. Birth and ancestry, and that which we have not ourselves achieved, we can scarcely call our own.

Ovid

#48. There is a deity within us who breathes that divine fire by which we are animated.

Ovid

#49. Deadly poisons are concealed under sweet honey.

Ovid

#50. What is hid is unknown: for what is unknown there is no desire.
[Lat., Quod latet ignotum est; ignoti nulla cupido.]

Ovid

#51. As God is propitiated by the blood of a hundred bulls, so also is he by the smallest offering of incense.
[Lat., Sed tamen ut fuso taurorum sanguine centum,
Sic capitur minimo thuris honore deux.]

Ovid

#52. Chance is always powerful. Let your hook be always cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish.

Ovid

#53. Out of many things a great heap will be formed.
[Lat., De multis grandis acervus erit.]

Ovid

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

Ovid

#55. Fortune and love favor the brave.

Ovid

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

Ovid

#57. Nor is there any law more just, than that he who has plotted death shall perish by his own plot.

Ovid

#58. Temporis ars medicina fere est.
Time is generally the best medicine.

Ovid

#59. Not for any one man's delight has Nature made
the sun, the wind, the waters; all are free.

Ovid

#60. Where belief is painful we are slow to believe.

Ovid

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

Ovid

#62. All human things hang on a slender thread, the strongest fall with a sudden crash.

Ovid

#63. Diseases of the mind impair the bodily powers.

Ovid

#64. The sick mind can not bear anything harsh.
[Lat., Mensque pati durum sustinet aegra nihil.]

Ovid

#65. Heaven rewards the pious; those who cherish the gods
Themselves are cherished.

Ovid

#66. A pleasing countenance is no light advantage.

Ovid

#67. The sea's vast depths lie open to the fish;
Wherever the breezes blow the bird may fly;
So to the brave man every land's a home.

Ovid

#68. 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

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

Ovid

#70. The earth yields up her stores, of every ill
The instigators; iron, foe to man,
And gold, than iron deadlier.

Ovid

#71. The man who has experienced shipwreck shudders even at a calm sea.

Ovid

#72. What is deservedly suffered must be borne with calmness, but when the pain is unmerited, the grief is resistless.

Ovid

#73. Everyone wishes that the man whom he fears would perish.

Ovid

#74. Thanks are justly due for things got without purchase.
[Lat., Gratia pro rebus merito debetur inemtis.]

Ovid

#75. Often they benefit who suffer wrong.

Ovid

#76. A soldier when aged is not appreciated; the love of an old man sickens.

Ovid

#77. He lives well who lives retired, and keeps
His wants within the limits of his means.

Ovid

#78. When a rose dies, a thorn is left behind.

Ovid

#79. We always strive after what is forbidden, and desire the things refused us.

Ovid

#80. Beauty- it was a favor bestowed by the gods.

Ovid

#81. The gods behold all righteous actions.

Ovid

#82. The poet's labors are a work of joy, and require peace of mind.

Ovid

#83. That you may please others you must be forgetful of yourself.

Ovid

#84. A gift in time of need is most acceptable.

Ovid

#85. We praise times past, while we times present use;
Yet due the worship which to each we give.

Ovid

#86. The iron ring is worn out by constant use.
[Lat., Ferreus assiduo consumitur anulus usu.]

Ovid

#87. If you would be loved, be lovable

Ovid

#88. That you may be beloved, be amiable.

Ovid

#89. O ye gods! what thick encircling darkness blinds the minds of men!

Ovid

#90. Eurydice, dying now a second time, uttered no complaint against her husband. What was there to complain of, but that she had been loved?

Ovid

#91. He is a foolish swimmer who swims against the stream, when he might take the current sideways.

Ovid

#92. Nothing is stronger than Custom
(Fac tibi consuescat: nil adsuetudine maius)

Ovid

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

Ovid

#94. I am the poet of the poor, because I was poor when I loved; since I could not give gifts, I gave words.

Ovid

#95. Truly now is the golden age; the highest honour comes by means of gold; by gold love is procured.

Ovid

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

Ovid

#97. Though the power be wanting, yet the wish is praiseworthy.

Ovid

#98. Dear to girls' hearts is their own beauty.

Ovid

#99. Thou fool, what is sleep but the image of death? Fate will give an eternal rest.
[Lat., Stulte, quid est somnus, gelidae nisi mortis imago?
Longa quiescendi tempora fata dabunt.]

Ovid

#100. Note too that a faithful study of the liberal arts humanizes character and permits it not to be cruel.

Ovid