“In the midst of the fountain of wit there arises something bitter, which stings in the very flowers.”

—  Lucretius

Book IV, lines 1133–1134 (reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations)
Variant translation: From the midst of the fountain of delights rises something bitter that chokes them all amongst the flowers.
Compare: "Still from the fount of joy's delicious springs / Some bitter o'er the flowers its bubbling venom flings", Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto I, stanza 82
De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)

Original

Medio de fonte leporum surgit amari aliquid quod in ipsis floribus angat.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "In the midst of the fountain of wit there arises something bitter, which stings in the very flowers." by Lucretius?
Lucretius photo
Lucretius 45
Roman poet and philosopher -94–-55 BC

Related quotes

Dante Alighieri photo

“O conscience, upright and stainless, how bitter a sting to thee is little fault!”

Dante Alighieri book Purgatorio

Canto III, lines 8–9 (tr. C. E. Norton).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Purgatorio

Evelyn Waugh photo

“And the only interest about him arises from the unusual series of events of which his shadow was witness.”

Evelyn Waugh book Decline and Fall

Decline and Fall (1928)

“It's sort of like a mockery in a way of reality because they think everything is smiles and sweetness and flowers when there is something bitter to taste. And to pretend there isn't is foolish.”

Edie Sedgwick (1943–1971) Socialite, actress, model

On the 60's flower children
Edie : Girl On Fire (2006)
Context: It's sort of like a mockery in a way of reality because they think everything is smiles and sweetness and flowers when there is something bitter to taste. And to pretend there isn't is foolish. I mean the ones that wonder around and know, at the same time, and yet wear flowers, and they deserve to wear flowers. And they've earned their smile... you can tell by people's eyes.

Richard Mead photo

“Venomous animals, when they bite or sting, inflict a wound, and instil into it a drop or more of liquor, which infects the fluid of the nerves, and by this means inflames the membranes: hereupon a swelling arises, sometimes to a degree of mortification, which spreads to the neighbouring parts.”

Richard Mead (1673–1754) British physician

Source: A Mechanical Account of Poisons (1702), p. xxviii-xxix

Anthony de Mello photo

“If every one of you agrees to practise this, bitterness will die out, harmony will arise.”

Anthony de Mello (1931–1987) Indian writer

Revelation
One Minute Wisdom (1989)
Context: Any time you are with anyone or think of anyone you must say to yourself: I am dying and this person too is dying, attempting the while to experience the truth of the words you are saying. If every one of you agrees to practise this, bitterness will die out, harmony will arise.

“Wit without humanity degenerates into bitterness. Learning without prudence into pedantry.”

James Burgh (1714–1775) British politician

The Dignity of Human Nature (1754)

Adelaide Anne Procter photo

“I do not ask that flowers should always spring
Beneath my feet
I know too well the poison and the sting
Of things too sweet.”

Adelaide Anne Procter (1825–1864) English poet and songwriter

"Per Pacem ad Lucem".
A Chaplet of Verses (1862)

John Locke photo

“Thus parents, by humouring and cockering them when little, corrupt the principles of nature in their children, and wonder afterwards to taste the bitter waters, when they themselves have poison’d the fountain.”

John Locke book Some Thoughts Concerning Education

Sec. 35
Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693)

Related topics