Quotes from book
Amores
Amores is Ovid's first completed book of poetry, written in elegiac couplets. It was first published in 16 BC in five books, but Ovid, by his own account, later edited it down into the three-book edition that survives today. The book follows the popular model of the erotic elegy, as made famous by figures such as Tibullus or Propertius, but is often subversive and humorous with these tropes, exaggerating common motifs and devices to the point of absurdity.
“They bear punishment with equanimity who have earned it.”
Aequo animo poenam, qui meruere, ferunt.
Book II, vii, 12
Amores (Love Affairs)
“Let the man who does not wish to be idle fall in love!”
Qui nolet fieri desidiosus, amet!
Book I; ix, 46
Amores (Love Affairs)
“We take no pleasure in permitted joys.
But what's forbidden is more keenly sought.”
Quod licet ingratum est. Quod non licet acrius urit.
Book II; xix, 3
Amores (Love Affairs)
“Who is allowed to sin, sins less.”
Cui peccare licet, peccat minus.
Book III, iv, 9
Amores (Love Affairs)
“We are ever striving after what is forbidden, and coveting what is denied us.”
Nitimur in vetitum semper, cupimusque negata.
Variant translation: We hunt for things unlawful with swift feet, / As if forbidden joys were only sweet.
Book III; iv, 17
Amores (Love Affairs)
“So I can't live either without you or with you.”
Sic ego nec sine te nec tecum vivere possum.
Variant translation: Thus, I can neither live without you nor with you.
Book III; xib, 39
Compare: Nec possum tecum vivere nec sine te ("I cannot live with you nor without you"), Martial, Epigrams XII, 46
Amores (Love Affairs)
