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
happy-birthday dust years
I grabbed a pile of dust, and holding it up, foolishly asked for as many birthdays as the grains of dust, I forgot to ask that they be years of youth.
inspirational genius misfortunes
Misfortunes often sharpen the genius.
middle
You will go most safely in the middle.
venus favors flirtation
Venus favors the bold.
life wish able
Thus I am not able to exist either with you or without you; and I seem not to know my own wishes.
inspirational wisdom stress
Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop
true-love famous-love inspirational-love
Fortune and love favor the brave.
desire way different
I am dragged along by a strange new force. Desire and reason are pulling in different directions. I see the right way and approve it, but follow the wrong.
excellence difficulty
There is no excellence uncoupled with difficulties.
passion muse cupid
When I was from Cupid's passions free, my Muse was mute and wrote no elegy.
gratitude men fellow-man
It is a pleasure appropriate to man, for him to save a fellow-man, and gratitude is acquired in no better way.
life want lovable
If you want to be loved, be lovable.
life falling-in-love men
Let the man who does not wish to be idle, fall in love.
blessing may injury
An injury may prove a blessing.