Quotes from Ancient Times
Gaius Valerius Catullus c.84 - 54 BC
"Atque in perpetuum, frater, ave atque vale." (And so, my brother, hail, and farewell evermore!)
Who now travels that dark path from whose bourne they say no one returns.
I can imagine no greater misfortune for a cultured people than to see in the hands of the rulers not only the civil, but also the religious power.
There is nothing more foolish than a foolish laugh.
It is difficult to suddenly give up a long love.
It is difficult to lay aside a confirmed passion.
I hate and love. And if you should ask how I do both, I couldn't say; but I feel it , and it shivers me.
"Odi et amo: auare id faciam, fortasse requiris. Nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior."
I hate and I love: why I do so you may well ask. I do not know, but I feel it happen and am in agony.
Every one has his faults: but we do not see the wallet on our own backs.
I hate and love - wherefore I cannot tell, but by my tortures know the fact too well.
Stop wishing to merit anyone's gratitude or thinking that anyone can become grateful.
There is no method for flight, no hope: all is mute, all is deserted, all indicates death.
Memorable Quotes
Better a sparrow, living or dead, than no birdsong at all.
I hate and I love. Perhaps you ask why I do so. I do not know, but I feel it, and am in agony.
What a woman says to her lover should be written on air or swift water.
Give me a thousand kisses, then a hundred, then a thousand more.
It is difficult suddenly to put aside a long-standing love; it is difficult, but somehow you must do it.
Most wretched men are cradled to poetry by wrong: they learn in suffering what they teach in song.
Now the eager mind longs for roaming, now happy feet become lively with eagerness.
Now he is treading that dark road to the place from which they say no one has ever returned.
For the godly poet must be chaste himself, but there is no need for his verses to be so.
Insightful Quotes cards
If a man can take pleasure in recalling the kindnesses he has done.
I must confess, mine eye and heart Dote less on Nature than on Art.
What thing more to be wished do the gods bestow than a happy hour?
Now Spring restores the balmy heat, now Zephyr's sweet breezes calm the rage of the equinoctial sky.
I write of youth, of love, and have access by these to sing of cleanly wantonness.
I can imagine no greater misfortune for a cultured people than to see in the hands of the rulers not only the civil, but also the religious power.