Quotes from work

list of poems by Catullus

“Leave off wishing to deserve any thanks from anyone, or thinking that anyone can ever become grateful.”
Desine de quoquam quicquam bene velle mereri, Aut aliquem fieri posse putare pium.

“Idleness ere now has ruined both kings and wealthy cities.”
Otium et reges prius et beatas perdidit urbes.

“It is difficult suddenly to lay aside a long-standing love.”
Difficile est longum subito deponere amorem.

“There is nothing more silly than a silly laugh.”
Nam risu inepto res ineptior nulla est.

“All right and wrong, confounded in impious madness, turned from us the righteous will of the gods.”
Omnia fanda nefanda malo permixta furore iustificam nobis mentem avertere deorum.

“To this point is my mind reduced by your fault, Lesbia, and has so ruined itself by its own devotion, that now it can neither wish you well though you should become the best of women, nor cease to love you though you do the worst that can be done.”
Huc est mens deducta tua mea, Lesbia, culpa atque ita se officio perdidit ipsa suo, ut iam nec bene velle queat tibi, si optima fias, nec desistere amare, omnia si facias.

“What a woman says to her ardent lover should be written in wind and running water.”
Mulier cupido quod dicit amanti in vento et rapida scribere oportet aqua.

“I hate and love. Why I do so, perhaps you ask. I know not, but I feel it, and I am in torment.”
Odi et amo. quare id faciam, fortasse requiris. nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior.

“You ask how many kissings of you, Lesbia, are enough for me and more than enough?”
Quaeris, quot mihi basiationes tuae, Lesbia, sint satis superque?

“If a man can take any pleasure in recalling the thought of kindnesses done.”
Siqua recordanti benefacta priora voluptas Est homini.

“If anything ever happened to any one who eagerly longed and never hoped, that is a true pleasure to the mind.”
Si quicquam cupido optantique optigit umquam insperanti, hoc est gratum animo proprie.

“Henceforth let no woman believe a man's oath, let none believe that a man's speeches can be trustworthy. They, while their mind desires something and longs eagerly to gain it, nothing fear to swear, nothing spare to promise; but as soon as the lust of their greedy mind is satisfied, they fear not then their words, they heed not their perjuries.”
Nunc iam nulla viro iuranti femina credat, nulla viri speret sermones esse fideles; quis dum aliquid cupiens animus praegestit apisci, nil metuunt iurare, nihil promittere parcunt: sed simul ac cupidae mentis satiata libido est, dicta nihil metuere, nihil periuria curant.

“He seems to me to be equal to a god, he, if it may be, seems to surpass the very gods, who sitting opposite thee again and again gazes at thee and hears thee sweetly laughing.”
Ille mi par esse Deo videtur, ille, si fas est, superare Divos, qui sedens adversus identidem te spectat et audit dulce ridentem.

“What is given by the gods more desirable than the fortunate hour?”
Quid datur a divis felici optatius hora?

“Now he goes along the dark road, thither whence they say no one returns.”
Qui nunc it per iter tenebricosum illuc, unde negant redire quemquam.

“Wandering through many countries and over many seas I come, my brother, to these sorrowful obsequies, to present you with the last guerdon of death, and speak, though in vain, to your silent ashes, since fortune has taken your own self away from me—alas, my brother, so cruelly torn from me! Yet now meanwhile take these offerings, which by the custom of our fathers have been handed down—a sorrowful tribute—for a funeral sacrifice; take them, wet with many tears of a brother, and for ever, my brother, hail and farewell!”
Multas per gentes et multa per aequora vectus Advenio has miseras, frater, ad inferias, Ut te postremo donarem munere mortis Et mutam nequiquam alloquerer cinerem. Quandoquidem fortuna mihi tete abstulit ipsum, Heu miser indigne frater adempte mihi, Nunc tamen interea haec prisco quae more parentum Tradita sunt tristi munere ad inferias, Accipe fraterno multum manantia fletu, Atque in perpetuum, frater, ave atque vale.

“Ah, what is more blessed than to put cares away, when the mind lays by its burden, and tired with labour of far travel we have come to our own home and rest on the couch we longed for? This it is which alone is worth all these toils.”
O quid solutis est beatius curis, cum mens onus reponit, ac peregrino labore fessi venimus larem ad nostrum, desideratoque acquiescimus lecto? hoc est quod unum est pro laboribus tantis.

“To whom am I to present my pretty new book, freshly smoothed off with dry pumice stone?”
Cui dono lepidum novum libellum Arido modo pumice expolitum?

“Mourn, ye Graces and Loves, and all you whom the Graces love. My lady's sparrow is dead, the sparrow my lady's pet, whom she loved more than her own eyes.”
Lugete, O Veneres Cupidinesque, Et quantum est hominum venustiorum. Passer mortuus est meae puellae, Passer, deliciae meae puellae.