Ovid
Ovid
Publius Ovidius Naso, known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace with whom he is often ranked as one of the three canonical poets of Latin literature. The Imperial scholar Quintilian considered him the last of the Latin love elegists. He enjoyed enormous popularity, but, in one of the mysteries of literary history, he was sent by Augustus into exile...
NationalityRoman
ProfessionPoet
prayer half fortune
Fortune resists half-hearted prayers.
husband dying complaining
Eurydice, dying now a second time, uttered no complaint against her husband. What was there to complain of, but that she had been loved?
stars eye men
When all the other animals, downcast looked upon the earth, he [Prometheus] gave a face raised on high to man, and commanded him to see the sky and raise his high eyes to the stars.
hands true-strength humans
In the make-up of human beings, intelligence counts for more than our hands, and that is our true strength.
art
It is art to conceal art. -Ars est celare artem
I see and approve better things, but follow worse.
god-within-us
There is a God within us, and we glow when He stirs us.
men soul mind
It is the mind that makes the man, and our vigour is in our immortal soul.
men risk safe
Daring is not safe against daring men.
battle fallen foe
The battle is over when the foe has fallen.
victory ruins
This victory will be your I ruin.
donors regard acceptable
Those presents are the most acceptable which are enhanced by our regard for the donor.
guests
To dismiss a guest is a more ungracious act than not to admit him at all.
giving manners polish
To have properly studied the liberal sciences gives a polish to our manners, and removes all awkwardness.