“Drops of water hollow out a stone.”
Gutta cavat lapidem
Ovid book Epistulae ex Ponto
IV, x, 5; Arthur Leslie Wheeler translation
Epistulae ex Ponto (Letters From the Black Sea)
Moralia, Of the Training of Children
“Drops of water hollow out a stone.”
Gutta cavat lapidem
Ovid book Epistulae ex Ponto
IV, x, 5; Arthur Leslie Wheeler translation
Epistulae ex Ponto (Letters From the Black Sea)
Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) French sculptor
Source: Rodin : the man and his art, with leaves from his notebook, 1917, p. 7
“The steady drip of water causes stone to hollow and yield.”
Stilicidi casus lapidem cavat.
Lucretius (-94–-55 BC) Roman poet and philosopher
Book I, line 313 (tr. Stallings)
Variant translation: Continual dropping wears away a stone.
Compare: "The soft droppes of rain pierce the hard marble; many strokes overthrow the tallest oaks", John Lyly, Euphues, 1579 (Arber's reprint), p. 81
De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)
“And yet it is hard to believe that anything
in nature could stand revealed as solid matter.
The lightning of heaven goes through the walls of houses,
like shouts and speech; iron glows white in fire;
red-hot rocks are shattered by savage steam;
hard gold is softened and melted down by heat;
chilly brass, defeated by heat, turns liquid;
heat seeps through silver, so does piercing cold;
by custom raising the cup, we feel them both
as water is poured in, drop by drop, above.”
Etsi difficiile esse videtur credere quicquam
in rebus solido reperiri corpore posse.
transit enim fulmen caeli per saepta domorum,
clamor ut ad voces; flamen candescit in igni
dissiliuntque ferre ferventi saxa vapore.
tum labefactatus rigor auri solvitur aestu;
tum glacies aeris flamma devicta liquescit;
permanat calor argentum penetraleque frigus
quando utrumque manu retinentes pocula rite
sensimus infuso lympharum rore superne.
Lucretius (-94–-55 BC) Roman poet and philosopher
Book I, lines 487–496 (Frank O. Copley)
De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)
“Custom renders love attractive; for that which is struck by oft-repeated blows however lightly, yet after long course of time is overpowered and gives way. See you not too that drops of water falling on rocks after long course of time scoop a hole through these rocks?”
Consuetudo concinnat amorem;
nam leviter quamvis quod crebro tunditur ictu,
vincitur in longo spatio tamen atque labascit.
Nonne vides etiam guttas in saxa cadentis
umoris longo in spatio pertundere saxa?
Lucretius (-94–-55 BC) Roman poet and philosopher
Book IV, lines 1283–1287 (tr. Munro)
De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)
“Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence.”
Ovid (-43–17 BC) Roman poet