Ovid Quotes

Presents, believe me, seduce both men and gods.

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

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

God himself helps those who dare.

He who holds the hook is aware in what waters many fish are swimming.

Those gifts are ever the most acceptable which the giver makes precious. [Lat., Acceptissima semper munera sunt auctor quae pretiosa facit.]

You will be safest in the middle.

God gave man an upright countenance to survey the heavens, and to look upward to the stars.

My intention is to tell of bodies changed into new forms.

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

If Jupiter should hurl a bolt whenever men sin, His armory would quickly be empty.

It is hope which makes the shipwrecked sailor strike out with his arms in the midst of the sea, though no land is in sight.

Love is a kind of military service

It is prudence that first forsakes the wretched.

Wine stimulates the mind and makes it quick with heat; care flees and is dissolved in much drink.

What is lawful is undesirable; what is unlawful is very attractive. [Lat., Quod licet est ingratum quod non licet acrius urit.]

Alluring pleasure is said to have softened the savage dispositions (of early mankind). [Lat., Blanda truces animos fertur mollisse voluptas.]

Every delay that postpones our joys, is long. [Lat., Longa mora est nobis omnis, quae gaudia differt.]

Envy, slothful vice, Never makes its way in lofty characters, But, like the skulking viper, creeps and crawls Close to the ground.

With wavering steps does fickle fortune stray, Nowhere she finds a firm and fixed abode; But now all smiles, and now again all frowns, She's constant only in inconstancy.

When the roses are gone, nothing is left but the thorn.

A wealthy traveller fears an ambush, while one with empty pockets journeys on in safety.

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

I shall speak facts; but some will say I deal in fiction.

Tears at times have the weight of speech.

Often a silent face has voice and words.

Gutta cavat lapidem, non vi sed saepe cadendo. (The drop excavates the stone, not with force but by falling often.)

If God be my friend, I cannot be wretched.

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

Brass shines with constant usage, a beautiful dress needs wearing,Leave a house empty, it rots.

There is a God within us, and we glow when He stirs us.

It is ill to marry in the month of May.

Let the poor man mind his tongue

What we call birth Is but a beginning to be something else Than what we were before; and when we cease To be that something, then we call it death.

Every woman thinks herself attractive; even the plainest is satisfied with the charms she deems that she possesses.

That tuneful nymph, the babbling Echo.

Isn't the best defense always a good attack?

The good of other times let people state; I think it lucky I was born so late.

Love, and a cough, are not concealed.

Either attempt it not, or succeed.

The god we now behold with opened eyes, A herd of spotted panthers round him lies In glaring forms; the grapy clusters spread On his fair brows, and dangle on his head.

Though strength be wanting, the will to action Merits praise.

I see and praise what is better, but follow what is worse.

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

Dear to the heart of a girl is her own beauty and charm.

Honesty, by evil fortune tried, Finds in adversity the seed of praise.

Right it is to be taught even by the enemy.

Anything cracked will shatter at a touch.

Time is the devourer of all things.

What one beholds of a woman is the least part of her.