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
teaching enemy taught
It is lawful to be taught by an enemy. Fas est ab hoste doceri.
enemy should
Fas est ab hoste doceri. One should learn even from one's enemies.
cracked
Anything cracked will shatter at a touch.
friendship herds advantage
The vulgar herd estimate friendship by its advantages. [Lat., Vulgus amicitias utilitate probat.]
friends crowds fortune
The rest of the crowd were friends of my fortune, not of me. [Lat., Caetera fortunae, non mea, turba fuit.]
safe no-fear fortune
The most wretched fortune is safe; for there is no fear of anything worse. [Lat., Fortuna miserrima tuta est: Nam timor eventus deterioris abest.]
mind spurs fame
The love of fame usually spurs on the mind. [Lat., Ingenio stimulos subdere fama solet.]
death men funeral
Man should ever look to his last day, and no one should be called happy before his funeral. [Lat., Ultima semper Expectanda dies homini est, dicique beatus Ante obitum nemo et suprema funera debet.]
death sleep fate
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.]
death law goal
We are all bound thither; we are hastening to the same common goal. Black death calls all things under the sway of its laws. [Lat., Tendimus huc omnes; metam properamus ad unam. Omnia sub leges mors vocat atra suas.]
death looks
Wherever I look there is nothing but the image of death.
men deeds
The deeds of men never escape the gods. [Lat., Acta deos nunquam mortalia fallunt.]
deeds righteous
The gods see the deeds of the righteous. [Lat., Di pia facta vident.]
passing-moments time-flies wave
As wave is driven by wave And each, pursued, pursues the wave ahead, So time flies on and follows, flies, and follows, Always, for ever and new. What was before Is left behind; what never was is now; And every passing moment is renewed.