Ovid: Man
Ovid was Roman poet. Explore interesting quotes on man.
                                
                                    “Nor can one easily find among many thousands a single man who considers virtue its own reward. The very glory of a good deed, if it lacks reward, affects them not; unrewarded uprightness brings them regret. Nothing but profit is prized.”
                                
                                
                                
                                
                                    
                                    Nec facile invenias multis in milibus unum,
virtutem pretium qui putet esse sui.
ipse decor, recte facti si praemia desint,
non movet, et gratis paenitet esse probum.
nil nisi quod prodest carum est.
                                
                            
                                        
                                        II, iii, 11-15; translation by Arthur Leslie Wheeler. Variant translation of gratis paenitet esse probum, in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 15th ed. (1980), p. 114: "It is annoying to be honest to no purpose." 
Epistulae ex Ponto (Letters From the Black Sea)
                                    
                                
                                    “A creature of a more exalted kind
Was wanting yet, and then was Man designed;
Conscious of thought, of more capacious breast,
For empire formed, and fit to rule the rest.”
                                
                                
                                
                                
                                    
                                    Sanctius his animal mentisque capacius altae
Deerat adhuc et quod dominari in cetera posset:
Natus homo est.
                                
                            
                                        
                                        Book I, 76 (as translated by John Dryden) 
Metamorphoses (Transformations)
                                    
                                
                                    “Thus, while the mute creation downward bend
Their sight, and to their earthly mother tend,
Man looks aloft, and with erected eyes
Beholds his own hereditary skies.”
                                
                                
                                
                                
                                    
                                    Pronaque quum spectent animalia cetera terram,
Os homini sublime dedit, coelumque tueri
Jussit, et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus.
                                
                            
                                        
                                        Book I, 84 (as translated by John Dryden) 
Metamorphoses (Transformations)
                                    
                                
                                    “Rage is for beasts, but shining peace for man.”
                                
                                
                                
                                
                                    
                                    Candida pax homines, trux decet ira feras.
                                
                            
                                        
                                        Book III, line 502 (tr. Len Krisak) 
Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love)
                                    
                                
                                    “The greater a man is, the more can his wrath be appeased; a noble spirit is capable of kindly impulses. For the noble lion 'tis enough to have overthrown his enemy; the fight is at an end when his foe is fallen. But the wolf, the ignoble bears harry the dying and so with every beast of less nobility. At Troy what have we mightier than brave Achilles? But the tears of the aged Dardanian he could not endure.”
                                
                                
                                
                                
                                    
                                    Quo quisque est maior, magis est placabilis irae,
et faciles motus mens generosa capit.
corpora magnanimo satis est prostrasse leoni,
pugna suum finem, cum iacet hostis, habet:
at lupus et turpes instant morientibus ursi
et quaecumque minor nobilitate fera.
maius apud Troiam forti quid habemus Achille?
Dardanii lacrimas non tulit ille senis.
                                
                            
                                        
                                        III, v, 33; translation by Arthur Leslie Wheeler 
"the aged Dardanian" here refers to Priam 
Tristia (Sorrows)
                                    
                                
                                    “Let the man who does not wish to be idle fall in love!”
                                
                                
                                
                                
                                    
                                    Qui nolet fieri desidiosus, amet!
                                
                            
                                        
                                        Book I; ix, 46 
Amores (Love Affairs)
                                    
                                
                                    “I am the poor man's poet; because I am poor myself and I have known what it is to be in love. Not being able to pay them in presents, I pay my mistresses in poetry.”
                                
                                
                                
                                
                                    
                                    Pauperibus vates ego sum, quia pauper amavi;
Cum dare non possem munera, verba dabam.
                                
                            
                                        
                                        Book II, lines 165–166 (tr. J. Lewis May) 
Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love)