The Caesars (c. 361)
Context: Know all ye mortals who have entered this contest,
that according to our laws and decrees the victor is
allowed to exult but the vanquished must not complain.
Depart then wherever you please, and in future live
every one of you under the guidance of the gods.
Let every man choose his own guardian and guide.
“Can’t be any harder than sitting here and having a staring contest with mortality.”
Source: The Way of Kings
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Brandon Sanderson 313
American fantasy writer 1975Related quotes
“Even here, merit will have its true reward…
even here, the world is a world of tears
and the burdens of mortality touch the heart.”
Sunt hic etiam sua praemia laudi,
Sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt.
Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book I, Lines 461–462 (tr. Robert Fagles)
“This seems to me a thing to be noticed, that just as the men of this country are, during this mortal life, more prone to anger and revenge than any other race, so in eternal death the saints of this land, that have been elevated by their merits, are more vindictive than the saints of any other region.”
Hoc autem mihi notabile videtur, quod sicut nationis istius homines hac in vita mortali prae aliis gentibus impatientes et praecipites sunt ad vindictam, sic et in morte vitali meritis jam excelsi, prae aliarum regionum sanctis, animi vindicis esse videntur.
Topographia Hibernica Part 2, chapter 55 (83); translation from Gerald of Wales (trans. John J. O'Meara) The History and Topography of Ireland ([1951] 1982) p. 91. (1188).
Andromeda, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Attributed
“All men are mortal, he tells us, but some are more mortal than others.”
Source: Mindswap (1966), Chapter 32 (p. 153)
“I have never observed that the religious are more eager to die than the rest of us poor mortals.”
The Ancient Allan (1920), CHAPTER I, OLD FRIEND
“A bumper of good liquor
Will end a contest quicker
Than justice, judge, or vicar.”
Act I, sc. iii.
The Duenna (1775)
“So does he strive to rescue your shade from the pyre and wages a mighty contest with Death, wearying the efforts of artists and seeking to love you in every material. But beauty created by toil of cunning hand is mortal.”
Sic auferre rogis umbram conatur et ingens
certamen cum Morte gerit, curasque fatigat
artificum inque omni te quaerit amare metallo.
Sed mortalis honos, agilis quem dextra laborat.
i, line 7
Silvae, Book V