“Selius affirms, in heav'n no gods there are:
And while he thrives, and they their thunder spare,
His daring tenet to the world seems fair. Anon. 1695.”

—  Martial, book Epigrammata

Nullos esse deos, inane caelum
Adfirmat Segius: probatque, quod se
Factum, dum negat haec, videt beatum.
IV, 21.
Epigrams (c. 80 – 104 AD)

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 "Selius affirms, in heav'n no gods there are: And while he thrives, and they their thunder spare, His daring tenet to …" by Martial?
Martial photo
Martial31
Latin poet from Hispania 40–104

Related quotes

Edward Coote Pinkney photo

“The winds are awed, nor dare to breathe aloud;
The air seems never to have borne a cloud,
Save where volcanoes send to heav'n their curl'd
And solemn smokes, like altars of the world.”

Edward Coote Pinkney (1802–1828) American poet, lawyer, sailor, professor, and editor

Italy (1825).

Charles Kingsley photo

“Nothing like one honest look, one honest thought of Christ upon His cross. That tells us how much He has been through, how much He endured, how much He conquered, how much God loved us, who spared not His only begotten Son, but freely gave Him for us. Dare we doubt such a God? Dare we murmur against such a God?”

Charles Kingsley (1819–1875) English clergyman, historian and novelist

Source: Attributed, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 72.

Jacques Ellul photo

“Man's power is first of all the result of hardening his heart against God: man affirms that he is strong, conquers the world, and builds cities.”

Jacques Ellul book The Meaning of the City

Source: The Meaning of the City (1951), p. 10

Richard Francis Burton photo

“Ah! where shall weary man take sanctuary,
where live his little span of life secure?
and 'scape of Heav'n serene th' indignant storms
that launch their thunders at us earthen worms?”

Richard Francis Burton (1821–1890) British explorer, geographer, translator, writer, soldier, orientalist, cartographer, ethnologist, spy, lin…

Translation of The Lusiads, Canto I, st. 106, p. 40

Geoffrey Chaucer photo

“Love will not be constrain'd by mastery.
When mast'ry comes, the god of love anon
Beateth his wings, and, farewell, he is gone.
Love is a thing as any spirit free.”

Geoffrey Chaucer book The Canterbury Tales

Source: The Canterbury Tales

Joyce Kilmer photo

“David is the song upon God's lips,
And Our Lady is the goblet that He sips:
And Gabriel's the breath of His command,
But Saint Michael is the sword in God's right hand. The Ivory Tower is fair to see,
And may her walls encompass me!
But when the Devil comes with the thunder of his might,
Saint Michael, show me how to fight!”

Joyce Kilmer (1886–1918) American poet, editor, literary critic, soldier

Main Street and Other Poems (1917), The Thorn

James Weldon Johnson photo

“So God stepped over to the edge of the world
And He spat out the seven seas;
He batted His eyes, and the lightnings flashed;
He clapped His hands, and the thunders rolled;
And the waters above the earth came down,
The cooling waters came down.”

James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938) writer and activist

The Creation, st. 6.
God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse (1927)

William Temple photo

“No clap of thunder in a fair frosty day could astonish the world more than [England's] declaration of war against Holland in 1672.”

William Temple (1881–1944) Archbishop of Canterbury

Memoirs, Volume II, p. 255.

Mansur Al-Hallaj photo

“God, Most High, is the very one who Himself affirms His unity by the tongue of whatever of His creatures He wishes.”

Mansur Al-Hallaj (858–922) Persian mystic, revolutionary writer and teacher of Sufism

As quoted in Words of Ecstasy in Sufism (1985) by Carl W. Ernst, p. 45<br>Variant translation: Allah, Most High, is the very One Who Himself affirms His Unity by the tongue of whomsoever of His creatures He wishes. If He affirms His Unity in my tongue it is He Who does so, and it is His affair. Otherwise, my brother, I myself have nothing to do with affirming Allah&#x27;s Unity.<br>As quoted in &quot;Husayn ibn Mansur al-Hallaj&quot; at Sidi Muhammad Press http://www.sufimaster.org/teachings/husayn.htm <br class="br">Context: God, Most High, is the very one who Himself affirms His unity by the tongue of whatever of His creatures He wishes. If He Himself affirms His unity by my tongue, it is He and His affair. Otherwise, brother, I have nothing to do with affirming God&#x27;s Unity.

Algernon Charles Swinburne photo

“God by God flits past in thunder, till His glories turn to shades;
God to God bears wondering witness how His gospel flames and fades.”

Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic

"The Altar of Righteousness" in Harper's Monthly (June 1904).
Context: God by God flits past in thunder, till His glories turn to shades;
God to God bears wondering witness how His gospel flames and fades.
More was each of these, yet they were, than man their servant seemed:
Dead are all of these, and man survives who made them while he dreamed.

Related topics