Ovide citations

“Crédule enfant, à quoi bon ces vains efforts pour saisir une fugitive apparence? L'objet de ton désir n'existe pas!… Cette ombre que tu vois, c'est le reflet de ton image.”

“L'Amour est un maître bien plus impérieux et bien plus cruel pour ceux qui ne se laissent pas faire que pour ceux qui se reconnaissent ses esclaves.”

“S'il est quelqu'un de notre peuple à qui l'art d'aimer soit inconnu, qu'il lise ce poème, et, instruit par sa lecture, qu'il aime. C'est l'art avec lequel la voile et la rame sont maniées qui permet aux vaisseaux de voguer rapidement, l'art qui permet aux chars de courir légèrement : l'art doit gouverner l'Amour. Automédon excellait à manier un char et les rêves flexibles; Tiphys était le pilote de la poupe hémonienne. Moi, Vénus m'a donné comme maître au jeune Amour; c'est le Tiphys et l'Automédon de l'Amour que l'on me nommera.”

“J'allais chanter, sur le rythme héroïque, les armes, la fureur des combats; au sujet convenait le maître : le second vers était égal au premier. On dit que Cupidon se mit à rire et qu'il y retrancha furtivement un pied.”

“Déjà la moisson grandit aux lieux où fut Troie.”

“J'ai formé le dessein de conter les métamorphoses des êtres en des formes nouvelles. O dieux (car ces transformations furent, elles aussi, votre œuvre), favorisez mon entreprise et guidez le déroulement ininterrompu de mon poème depuis l'origine même du monde jusqu'à ce temps qui est le mien.”

“ÉPIGRAMME
Ouvrage de Nason, nous étions naguère cinq livres : nous ne sommes plus que trois. L'auteur a préféré cette forme à la première. À supposer que, maintenant, tu n'éprouves aucun plaisir à nous lire, du moins ta peine sera diminuée des deux livres supprimés.”

“Voulez-vous ne pas rester oisifs? Aimez.”

“Dignity and love do not blend well, nor do they continue long together.”

“The cause is hidden. The effect is visible to all.”
Causa latet, vis est notissima

“Let others praise ancient times; I am glad I was born in these.”

“So I can't live either without you or with you.”
Sic ego nec sine te nec tecum vivere possum.

“Omnia mutantur, nihil interit (everything changes, nothing perishes).”

“God himself helps those who dare.”

“As wave is driven by wave
And each, pursued, pursues the wave ahead,
So time flies on and follows, flies, and follows,
Always, for ever and new. What was before
Is left behind; what never was is now;
And every passing moment is renewed.”

“Let your hook always be cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be fish.”
Casus ubique valet; semper tibi pendeat hamus Quo minime credas gurgite, piscis erit.

“Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence.”

“Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you.”
Perfer et obdura, dolor hic tibi proderit olim.

“I grabbed a pile of dust, and holding it up, foolishly asked for as many birthdays as the grains of dust, I forgot to ask that they be years of youth.”

“Happy is the man who has broken the chains which hurt the mind, and has given up worrying once and for all.”
"Be patient and tough; one day this pain will be useful to you.”

“Fas est ab hoste doceri.
One should learn even from one's enemies.”

“Happy are those who dare courageously to defend what they love.”

“I am the poet of the poor, because I was poor when I loved; since I could not give gifts, I gave words.”

“Give me the waters of Lethe that numb the heart, if they exist, I will still not have the power to forget you.”

“We are ever striving after what is forbidden, and coveting what is denied us.”
Nitimur in vetitum semper, cupimusque negata.

“Anything cracked will shatter at a touch.”

“I am dragged along by a strange new force. Desire and reason are pulling in different directions. I see the right way and approve it, but follow the wrong.”

“It's a kindness that the mind can go where it wishes.”

“Love will enter cloaked in friendship's name.”

“A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a quip and worried to death by a frown on the right man's brow.”

“If you would be loved, be lovable”
Ut ameris, amabilis esto.

“Nothing is stronger than habit.”
Nil adsuetudine maius.

“Every lover is a soldier.”
Militat omnis amans

“Love is the force that leaves you colorless”

“Thus I am not able to exist either with you or without you; and I seem not to know my own wishes.”

“I flee who chases me and chase who flees me.”

“Happy is the man who has broken the chains which hurt the mind, and has given up worrying once and for all.”