Publius Vergilius Maro , usually called Virgil or Vergil in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He wrote three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid. A number of minor poems, collected in the Appendix Vergiliana, are sometimes attributed to him.Virgil is traditionally ranked as one of Rome's greatest poets. His Aeneid has been considered the national epic of ancient Rome since the time of its composition. Modeled after Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, the Aeneid follows the Trojan refugee Aeneas as he struggles to fulfill his destiny and reach Italy, where his descendants Romulus and Remus were to found the city of Rome. Virgil's work has had wide and deep influence on Western literature, most notably Dante's Divine Comedy, in which Virgil appears as Dante's guide through Hell and Purgatory. Wikipedia
“What madness has seized you?”
Quae te dementia cepit!
Book II, line 69
Eclogues (37 BC)
“At times the world sees straight, but many times the world goes astray.”
Interdum volgus rectum videt, est ubi peccat.
Horace, Epistles, Book II, epistle i, line 63
Misattributed
“Roman, remember by your strength to rule
Earth's people—for your arts are to be these:
To pacify, to impose the rule of law,
To spare the conquered, battle down the proud.”
Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento
(Hae tibi erunt artes), pacique imponere morem,
Parcere subjectis et debellare superbos.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book VI, Lines 851–853 (tr. Robert Fitzgerald)
“Let someone arise from my bones as an Avenger.”
Exoriare aliquis nostris ex ossibus ultor.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book IV, Line 625
“They who bettered life on earth by new-found mastery.”
Inventas aut qui vitam excoluere per artes.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book VI, Line 663 (tr. William Morris); the blessed in Elysium. A paraphrase of this is inscribed on the Nobel prize medals for Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, and Literature: Inventas vitam juvat excoluisse per artes ("inventions enhance life which is beautified through art").
“Do not trust the horse, Trojans.
Whatever it is, I fear the Greeks even when they bring gifts.”
Equo ne credite, Teucri.
quidquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentes.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book II, Lines 48–49; Trojan priest of Apollo warning against the wooden horse left by the Greeks.
“Now, Aeneas, is the hour for courage, now for a dauntless heart!”
Nunc animis opus, Aenea, nunc pectore firmo.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book VI, Line 261 (tr. Fairclough); Sibyl's words to Aeneas as they enter the underworld.
“I sing for maidens and boys.”
Virginibus puerisque canto.
Horace, Odes, Book III, ode i, line 4
Misattributed
“Trust not too much to that enchanting face;
Beauty's a charm, but soon the charm will pass.”
O formose puer, nimium ne crede colori.
Book II, line 17 (tr. John Dryden)
Eclogues (37 BC)
“How fortunate, both at once!
If my songs have any power, the day will never dawn
that wipes you from the memory of the ages, not while
the house of Aeneas stands by the Capitol's rock unshaken,
not while the Roman Father rules the world.”
Fortunati ambo! si quid mea carmina possunt,
Nulla dies umquam memori vos eximet aevo,
Dum domus Aeneae Capitoli immobile saxum
Accolet imperiumque pater Romanus habebit.
Fortunati ambo! si quid mea carmina possunt,
Nulla dies umquam memori vos eximet aevo,
Dum domus Aeneae Capitoli immobile saxum
Accolet imperiumque pater Romanus habebit.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book IX, Lines 446–449 (tr. Robert Fagles)
“We cannot all do everything.”
Non omnia possumus omnes.
Book VIII, line 63 (tr. Fairclough)
Eclogues (37 BC)
“The gates of hell are open night and day;
Smooth the descent, and easy is the way:
But to return, and view the cheerful skies,
In this the task and mighty labor lies.”
Facilis descensus Averno<!--Averni?-->:
Noctes atque dies patet atri ianua Ditis;
Sed revocare gradum superasque evadere ad auras,
Hoc opus, hic labor est.
Facilis descensus Averno:
Noctes atque dies patet atri ianua Ditis;
Sed revocare gradum superasque evadere ad auras,
Hoc opus, hic labor est.
Variant translation:
: It is easy to go down into Hell;
Night and day, the gates of dark Death stand wide;
But to climb back again, to retrace one's steps to the upper air—
There's the rub, the task.
Compare:
Long is the way
And hard, that out of Hell leads up to Light.
John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book II, line 432
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book VI, Lines 126–129 (as translated by John Dryden)
“In those days I, Virgil, was nursed of sweet Parthenope, and rejoiced in the arts of inglorious ease.”
Illo Vergilium me tempore dulcis alebat
Parthenope studiis florentem ignobilis oti.
Book IV, lines 563–564 (tr. Fairclough)
Georgics (29 BC)
“Sorrow too deep to tell, your majesty,
You order me to feel and tell once more.”
Infandum, regina, jubes<!--iubes?--> renovare dolorem.
Infandum, regina, jubes renovare dolorem.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book II, Line 3 (tr. Robert Fitzgerald); these are the opening words of Aeneas's narrative about the fall of Troy, addressed to Queen Dido of Carthage.
“So strong is habit in tender years.”
Adeo in teneris consuescere multum est.
Book II, line 272 (tr. Fairclough)
Compare: "Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined." Alexander Pope, Moral Essays: Epistle I (1734), line 150.
Georgics (29 BC)
“Time bears away all things, even our minds.”
Omnia fert aetas, animum quoque.
Book IX, line 51
Eclogues (37 BC)
“I sang of pastures, farms, and commanders.”
Cecini pascua, rura, duces.
Inscription on Virgil's tomb in Naples (tr. Bernard Knox).
Attributed
“I sail for Italy not of my own free will.”
Italiam non sponte sequor.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book IV, Line 361 (tr. Fitzgerald); Aeneas to Dido.
“Let fraud supply the want of force in war.”
From Book II of Dryden's Aeneid; no exact Latin equivalent exists in Virgil's work, but compare: "Dolus, an virtus, quis in hoste requirat?" (Aeneid 2.390).
Misattributed
“As money grows, care follows it and the hunger for more.”
Crescentem sequitur cura pecuniam,
Maiorumque fames.
Horace, Odes, Book III, ode xvi, lines 17–18
Misattributed
“I cannot bear a mother's tears.”
Nequeam lacrimas perferre parentis.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book IX, Line 289
“No stranger to trouble myself I am learning to care for the unhappy.”
Non ignara mali miseris succurrere disco.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book I, Line 630, as translated in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (1999); spoken by Dido.
“I shall never deny what you deserve, my queen,
never regret my memories of Dido, not while I
can recall myself and draw the breath of life.”
Numquam, regina, negabo
Promeritam, nec me meminisse pigebit Elissae
Dum memor ipse mei, dum spiritus hos regit artus.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book IV, Lines 334–336 (tr. Fagles); Aeneas to Dido.
“Learn fortitude and toil from me, my son,
Ache of true toil. Good fortune learn from others.”
Disce, puer, virtutem ex me verumque laborem,
Fortunam ex aliis.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book XII, Lines 435–436 (tr. Robert Fitzgerald)
“Fate will find a way.”
Fata viam invenient.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book X, Line 113
“This man sold his country for gold.”
Vendidit hic auro patriam.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book VI, Line 621
“An awful misshapen monster, huge, his eyelight lost.”
Monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens, cui lumen ademptum.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book III, Line 658 (tr. Mandelbaum); of Polyphemus.
“Jove almighty,
nod assent to the daring work I have in hand!”
Iuppiter omnipotens, audacibus adnue coeptis.
Compare: Annuit cœptis ("[God] has favored our undertaking"), motto on the reverse side of the Great Seal of the United States.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book IX, Line 625 (tr. Fagles)
“But meanwhile it is flying, irretrievable time is flying.”
Sed fugit interea, fugit irreparabile<!--inreparabile?--> tempus.
Sed fugit interea, fugit irreparabile tempus.
Book III, line 284; often quoted as tempus fugit ('time flies').
Compare Poor Richard's maxim of 1748: "Lost Time is never found again."
Georgics (29 BC)
“I shudder as I tell the tale.”
Horresco referens.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book II, Line 204 (tr. Fairclough)
“A mind conscious of its own rectitude.”
Mens sibi conscia recti.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book I, Line 604
“There is no place for death.”
Nec morti esse locum.
Book IV, line 226
Georgics (29 BC)
“The noblest motive is the public good.”
Vincit amor patriae.
Richard Steele, in The Spectator. Compare Aeneid 6.823: Vincet amor patriae ("Love of country shall prevail").
"In The City of God Augustine quoted the line but changed the verb from the future to the present tense (vincet › vincit). That form became a traditional quotation, often reprinted and reproduced on medals, monuments, and family crests. [...] "Vincit amor patriae" appeared at the head of Spectator no. 200 (October 19, 1711) without translation. The essays from the Spectator were published and republished as books as early as 1713. To assist readers who lacked Latin or Greek, the editors of the 1744 edition provided English translations for its epigraphs; to "Vincit amor patriae" was added "The noblest Motive is the Publick Good." It stuck. The translation was modernized and made its way into innumerable texts and onto public buildings. It is inscribed on the ceiling of the south corridor of the Library of Congress and attributed to Virgil. A mistranslation became a quotation." —Willis Goth Regier, Quotology (2010), pp. 40–41.
Misattributed
“Here and there are seen swimmers in the vast abyss.”
Apparent rari nantes in gurgite vasto.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book I, Line 118 (tr. Fairclough)
“Is it then so sad a thing to die?”
Usque adeone mori miserum est?
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book XII, Line 646 (tr. Alexander Thomson)
“Yield not to misfortunes, but advance all the more boldly against them.”
Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book VI, Line 95
“The leader of the enterprise a woman.”
Dux femina facti.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book I, Line 364 (tr. Fairclough); of Dido.
“Your honor, your name, your praise will live forever.”
Semper honos nomenque tuum laudesque manebunt.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book I, Line 609 (tr. Fagles); Aeneas to Dido.
“Hunger that persuades to evil.”
Malesuada Fames.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book VI, Line 276
“If only Jupiter would give me back
The past years and the man I was…”
O mihi praeteritos referat si Iuppiter annos.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book VIII, Line 560 (tr. Robert Fitzgerald)
“Let us go singing as far as we go: the road will be less tedious.”
Cantantes licet usque (minus via laedit) eamus.
Book IX, line 64
Eclogues (37 BC)
“Some day, perhaps, remembering even this
Will be a pleasure.”
Forsan et haec olim meminisse juvabit.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book I, Line 203 (tr. Robert Fitzgerald)
“Who can deceive a lover?”
Quis fallere possit amantem?
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book IV, Line 296
“Amid the friendly silence of the peaceful moon.”
Tacitae per amica silentia lunae.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book II, Line 255 (tr. Fairclough)
“Rumor, swiftest of all the evils in the world.”
Fama, malum qua non aliud velocius ullum.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book IV, Line 174 (tr. Robert Fagles)
“Who could tell such things and still refrain from tears?”
Quis talia fando
Temperet a lacrimis?
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book II, Lines 6 and 8 (tr. Fagles)
“It is easier to steal the club of Hercules than a line from Homer.”
Facilius esse Herculi clavam quam Homero versum subripere.
As quoted by Asconius Pedianus, and reported in Suetonius-Donatus, Vita Vergili http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/de_Poetis/Vergil*.html (Life of Virgil), 46 http://virgil.org/vitae/.
Attributed
