Marcus Annaeus Lucanus Quotes

“How safe and easy the poor man's life and his humble dwelling! How blind men still are to Heaven's gifts!”
O vitae tuta facultas pauperis angustique lares! o munera nondum intellecta deum!

“He who denies his due to the strong man armed grants him everything.”
Arma tenenti omnia dat, qui justa negat.

“A name illustrious and revered by nations.”
Clarum et venerabile nomen gentibus.

“Boldness is a mask for fear, however great.”
Audendo magnus tegitur timor.

“Might became the standard of right.”
Mensuraque juris vis erat.

“Learn what life requires,
How little nature needs!”
Discite, quam parvo liceat producere vitam, Et quantum natura petat.

“You have taken from me the one privilege of civil war – the power of granting life to the defeated.”
Unica belli praemia civilis, victis donare salutem, perdidimus.

“Such was the character, such the inflexible rule of austere Cato – to observe moderation and hold fast to the limit, to follow nature, to give his life for his country, to believe that he was born to serve the whole world and not himself.”
Hi mores, haec duri inmota Catonis secta fuit, servare modum finemque tenere naturamque sequi patriaeque inpendere vitam nec sibi sed toti genitum se credere mundo.

“No life is short that gives a man time to slay himself.”
Vita brevis nulli superest qui tempus in illa quaerendae sibi mortis habet.

“When the existence and safety of so many nations depend upon your single life, and so large a part of the world has chosen you for its head, it is cruel of you to court death.”
Cum tot in hac anima populorum vita salusque pendeat et tantus caput hoc sibi fecerit orbis, saevitia est voluisse mori.

“Which had the fairer pretext for warfare, we may not know: each has high authority to support him; for, if the victor had the gods on his side, the vanquished had Cato.”
Quis iustius induit arma scire nefas: magno se iudice quisque tuetur; Victrix causa deis placuit sed victa Catoni.

“Prayed for so oft, the dawn of fight is come.
No more entreat the gods: with sword in hand
Seize on our fates; and Caesar in your deeds
This day is great or little.”
Nil opus est uotis, iam fatum accersite ferro. in manibus uestris, quantus sit Caesar, habetis.

“All that we see is God; every motion we make is God also.”
Estque dei sedes nisi terra et pontus et aer et caelum et virtus? superos quid quaerimus ultra? Jupiter est quodcumque vides, quocumque moveris.

“But silenced now are laws in war: we driven from our homes; yet is our exile willing.”
Postquam leges bello siluere coactae pellimur e patriis laribus patimurque volentes exilium.

“Then empty rumour to well-grounded fear gave strength.”
Vana quoque ad veros accessit fama timores.

“The vulnerable points of Liberty now making her last stand on earth.”
Libertas ultima mundi quo steterit ferienda loco.

“That which you weep for is what you really loved.”
Quod defles, illud amasti.

“There will be no loyalty between associates in tyranny
and no power will tolerate a partner.”
Nulla fides regni sociis, omnisque potestas<br/>inpatiens consortis erit.

“It was the chain of jealous fate, and the speedy fall which no eminence can escape; it was the grievous collapse of excessive weight, and Rome unable to support her own greatness.”
Invida fatorum series summisque negatum<br/>stare diu nimioque graves sub pondere lapsus<br/>nec se Roma ferens.

“Make haste; delay is ever fatal to those who are prepared.”
Tolle moras: semper nocuit differre paratis.

“Great things come crashing down upon themselves – such is the limit of growth ordained by heaven for success.”
In se magna ruunt: laetis hunc numina rebus<br/>crescendi posuere modum.

“If a man would be righteous, let him depart from a court. Virtue is incompatible with absolute power. He who is ashamed to commit cruelty must always fear it.”
Exeat aula qui volt esse pius. Virtus et summa potestas non coeunt; semper metuet quem saeva pudebunt.

“But many are driven to utmost peril by the mere dread of coming danger. He is truly brave, who is both quick to endure the ordeal, if it be close and pressing, and willing also to let it wait.”
Multos in summa pericula misit<br/>venturi timor ipse mali. Fortissimus ille est qui, promptus metuenda pati, si comminus instent, et differre potest.

“The very ruins have been destroyed.”
Etiam periere ruinae.

“One stroke of sword and all the world is yours.
Make plain to all men that the crowds who decked
Pompeius' hundred pageants scarce were fit
For one poor triumph.”
Et primo ferri motu prosternite mundum; sitque palam, quas tot duxit Pompeius in urbem curribus, unius gentes non esse triumphi.

“Behold the true father of his country.”
Ecce parens verus patriae.

“The Bards also, who by the praises of their verse transmit to distant ages the fame of heroes slain in battle, poured forth at ease their lays in abundance.”
Vos quoque qui fortes animas, belloque peremptas Laudibus in longum vates dimittitis aevum, Plurima securi fudistis carmina, Bardi.

“Men are ignorant that the purpose of the sword is to save every man from slavery.”
Ignorantque datos, ne quisquam seruiat, enses.

“Poverty was scorned,
Fruitful of warriors; and from all the world
Came that which ruins nations.”
Fecunda virorum paupertas fugitur totoque accersitur orbe quo gens quaeque perit.

“[She] is not permitted to reveal as much as she is suffered to know.”
Nec tantum prodere vati quantum scire licet.

“So true it is that love of money alone is incapable of dreading death by the sword.”
Usque adeo solus ferrum mortemque timere auri nescit amor.

“Serpents, thirst, burning-sand – all are welcomed by the brave; endurance finds pleasure in hardship; virtue rejoices when it pays dear for its existence.”
Serpens, sitis, ardor harenae dulcia virtuti; gaudet patientia duris; laetius est, quotiens magno sibi constat, honestum.

“The dead are free from Fortune; Mother Earth has room for all her children, and he who lacks an urn has the sky to cover him.”
Libera fortunae mors est; capit omnia tellus quae genuit; caelo tegitur qui non habet urnam.

“Pompey lives after his battles, but his fortune has perished.”
Vivit post proelia Magnus sed fortuna perit.

“Crime levels those whom it pollutes.”
Facinus quos inquinat aequat.

“And now cruel famine came – famine that is ever first in the train of great disasters.”
Jamque comes semper magnorum prima malorum<br/>saeva fames aderat.

“Either no feeling remains to the soul after death, or death itself matters not at all.”
Aut nihil est sensus animis a morte relictum aut mors ipsa nihil.

“The hungry slave
Brings danger to his master, not himself.”
Non sibi sed domino grauis est quae seruit egestas.

“He would rather burst a city gate than find it open to admit him.”
Non tam portas intrare patentis quam fregisse juvat.

“The mere shadow of a mighty name he stood.”
Stat magni nominis umbra.

“Thus each by his fears adds strength to rumour, and all dread the unconfirmed dangers invented by themselves.”
Sic quisque pavendo dat vires famae, nulloque auctore malorum quae finxere timent.

“The chain of causes comes down from the creation of the world.”
A prima descendit origine mundi causarum series.

“But Caesar, headlong in all his designs,
thought nothing done while anything remained to do.”
Sed Caesar in omnia praeceps,<br/>nil actum credens, cum quid superesset agendum.

“I have a wife, I have sons; all these hostages have I given to fortune.”
Coniunx<br/>est mihi, sunt nati; dedimus tot pignora fatis.

“Legality conferred on crime.”
Iusque datum sceleri.

“The sin of thousands always goes unpunished.”
Quidquid multis peccatur inultum est.

“We praise loyalty, but it pays the price when it supports those whom Fortune crushes.”
Dat poenas laudata fides, cum sustinet inquit quos fortuna premit.

“Let the mind of man be blind to coming doom; he fears, but leave him hope.”
Sit caeca futuri mens hominum fati; liceat sperare timenti.

“If great renown is won by true merit, and if virtue is considered in itself and apart from success, then all that we praise in any of our ancestors was Fortune's gift.”
Si veris magna paratur fama bonis et si successu nuda remoto inspicitur virtus, quidquid laudamus in ullo maiorum, fortuna fuit.

“Best gift of all
The knowledge how to die; next, death compelled.”
Scire mori sors prima viris, sed proxima cogi.

“Discordant concord.”
Concordia discors.

“Wars worse than civil.”
Bella...plus quam civilia.

“Ignorantque datos, ne quisquam seruiat, enses.”