Quotes from workGeorgics
The Georgics is a poem by Latin poet Virgil, likely published in 29 BC. As the name suggests the subject of the poem is agriculture; but far from being an example of peaceful rural poetry, it is a work characterized by tensions in both theme and purpose.
“Let my delight be the country, and the running streams amid the dells—may I love the waters and the woods, though I be unknown to fame.”
Rura mihi et rigui placeant in vallibus amnes,
Flumina amem sylvasque inglorius.
Book II, lines 485–486 (tr. Fairclough)
Georgics (29 BC)
“Toil conquered the world, unrelenting toil, and want that pinches when life is hard.”
Labor omnia vicit<!--uicit-->
improbus et duris urgens in rebus egestas.
Book I, lines 145–146 (tr. H. Rushton Fairclough).
Compare: Labor omnia vincit ("Work conquers all"), the state motto of Oklahoma.
Georgics (29 BC)
“If we may compare small things with great.”
Si parva licet componere magnis.
Book IV, line 176 (tr. Fairclough). Cf. Eclogues 1.23.
Georgics (29 BC)
“O farmers, pray that your summers be wet and your winters clear.”
Umida<!--Humida?--> solstitia atque hiemes orate serenas,
agricolae.
Umida solstitia atque hiemes orate serenas,
agricolae.
Book I, lines 100–101
Georgics (29 BC)
“How lucky, if they know their happiness,
Are farmers, more than lucky, they for whom,
Far from the clash of arms, the earth herself,
Most fair in dealing, freely lavishes
An easy livelihood.”
O fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint
Agricolas, quibus ipsa, procul discordibus armis,
Fundit humo facilem victum justissima tellus!
Book II, lines 458–460 (tr. L. P. Wilkinson)
Georgics (29 BC)
“Vice thrives and lives by concealment.”
Alitur vitium, vivitque tegendo.
Book III, line 454
Georgics (29 BC)
“Love is lord of all, and is in all the same.”
Amor omnibus idem.
Book III, lines 242–244 (tr. John Dryden).
Georgics (29 BC)
“In youth alone, unhappy mortals live;
But, ah! the mighty bliss is fugitive:
Discolored sickness, anxious labor, come,
And age, and death's inexorable doom.”
Optima quaeque dies miseris mortalibus aevi
Prima fugit; subeunt morbi tristisque senectus
Et labor, et durae rapit inclementia mortis.
Book III, lines 66–68 (tr. John Dryden).
Georgics (29 BC)
“In those days I, Virgil, was nursed of sweet Parthenope, and rejoiced in the arts of inglorious ease.”
Illo Vergilium me tempore dulcis alebat
Parthenope studiis florentem ignobilis oti.
Book IV, lines 563–564 (tr. Fairclough)
Georgics (29 BC)
“So strong is habit in tender years.”
Adeo in teneris consuescere multum est.
Book II, line 272 (tr. Fairclough)
Compare: "Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined." Alexander Pope, Moral Essays: Epistle I (1734), line 150.
Georgics (29 BC)
“But meanwhile it is flying, irretrievable time is flying.”
Sed fugit interea, fugit irreparabile<!--inreparabile?--> tempus.
Sed fugit interea, fugit irreparabile tempus.
Book III, line 284; often quoted as tempus fugit ('time flies').
Compare Poor Richard's maxim of 1748: "Lost Time is never found again."
Georgics (29 BC)
“Blessed is he who has been able to win knowledge of the causes of things.”
Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas.
Book II, line 490 (tr. H. Rushton Fairclough); homage to Lucretius.
John Dryden's translation:
: Happy the man, who, studying nature's laws,
Thro' known effects can trace the secret cause.
Georgics (29 BC)
“Practice and thought might gradually forge many an art.”
Ut varias usus meditando extunderet artis
paulatim.
Book I, lines 133–134
Georgics (29 BC)
“Above all, worship the gods.”
In primis venerare Deos.
Book I, line 338 (tr. Fairclough)
Georgics (29 BC)
