“If I cannot sway the heavens, I'll wake the powers of hell!”
Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo.
Variant translation:
: If I am unable to make the gods above relent, I shall move Hell.
Compare:
Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.
John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667), Book I, line 263
If Heaven thou can'st not bend, Hell thou shalt move.
Alexander Pope, The Dunciad, Book III, line 307
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book VII, Line 312 (tr. Robert Fagles); spoken by Juno.
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Virgil138
Ancient Roman poet -70–-19 BCRelated quotes
“Hands, that the rod of empire might have swayed,
Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre.”
Thomas Gray (1716–1771) English poet, historian
St. 12 <br class="br"> Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=elcc (written 1750, publ. 1751)
Raheel Farooq Pakistani writer
Kalam (2018)
“Mind can make a hell of heaven. Or a heaven of hell.”
Chinmayananda Saraswati (1916–1993) Indian spiritual teacher
Quotations from Gurudev’s teachings, Chinmya Mission Chicago
“The mind is a universe and can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.”
John Milton (1608–1674) English epic poet
John Milton book Paradise Lost
i.254-255
Paradise Lost (1667)
Variant: The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a heav'n of hell, a hell of heav'n.
Source: Paradise Lost: Books 1-2
“If I was bound for hell, let it be hell. No more false heavens. No more damned magic.”
Jean Rhys book Wide Sargasso Sea
Source: Wide Sargasso Sea
