Quintus Curtius Rufus Quotes

“It is often a comfort in misfortune to know our own fate.”
Sæpe calamitas solatium est nosse sortem suam.

“A cowardly cur barks more fiercely than it bites.”
Canis timidus vehementius latrat quam mordet.

“Nothing can be lasting when reason does not rule.”
Nihil potest esse diuturnum cui non subest ratio.

“Habit is stronger than nature.”
Consuetudo natura potentior est.

“For my own part I am persuaded that everything advances by an unchangeable law through the eternal constitution and association of latent causes, which have been long before predestinated.”
Equidem æterna constitutione crediderim nexuque causarum latentium et multo ante destinatarum suum quemque ordinem immutabili lege percurrere.

“Fear makes men believe the worst.”
Ad deteriora credenda proni metu.

“When fear has seized upon the mind, man fears that only which he first began to fear.”
Ubi intravit animos pavor, id solum metuunt, quod primum formidare cœperunt.

“When the truth cannot be clearly made out, what is false is increased through fear.”
Ubi explorari vera non possunt, falsa per metum augentur.

“Just as in ailing bodies, my soldiers, physicians leave nothing which will do harm, so let us cut away whatever stands in the way of our rule. Often to have ignored a tiny spark has roused a great conflagration. Nothing is safely despised in an enemy; one whom you have scorned you make stronger by neglect.”
Sicut in corporibus aegris, milites, nihil quod nociturum est medici relinquunt, sic nos quidquid obstat imperio recidamus. Parva sæpe scintilla contempta magnum excitavit incendium. Nil tuto in hoste despicitur; quem spreveris, valentiorem neglentia facias.

“As for myself, I report more things than I believe; for I cannot bring myself to vouch for that which I am in doubt, nor to suppress what I have heard.”
Equidem plura transcribo quam credo; nam nec affirmare sustineo de quibus dubito, nec subducere quae accepi.

“A brave man's country is wherever he chooses his abode.”
Patria est ubicumque vir fortis sedem elegerit.

“That possession which we gain by the sword is not lasting; gratitude for benefits is eternal.”
Non est diuturna possessio in quam gladio ducimus; beneficiorum gratia sempiterna est.

“Prosperity can change man's nature; and seldom is any one cautious enough to resist the effects of good fortune.”
Res secundæ valent commutare naturam, et raro quisquam erga bona sua satis cautus est.

“The deepest rivers flow with the least sound.”
Altissima quæque flumina minimo sono labuntur.

“He is a fool who looks at the fruit of lofty trees, but does not measure their height.”
Stultus est qui fructus magnarum arborum spectat, altitudinem non metitur.

“Necessity when threatening is more powerful than device of man.”
Efficacior omni arte imminens necessitas.

“Repute is never transmitted with certainty; all things that she reports are exaggerated. Even our glory, although it rests on a solid foundation, is greater in name than in fact.”
Numquam ad liquidum fama perducitur; omnia illa tradente maiora sunt vero. Nostra quoque gloria, cum sit ex solido, plus tamen habet nominis quam operis.

“But in times of tumult haste is even slow.”
Sed in tumultu festinatio quoque tarda est