Ovid
Ovid
Publius Ovidius Naso, known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace with whom he is often ranked as one of the three canonical poets of Latin literature. The Imperial scholar Quintilian considered him the last of the Latin love elegists. He enjoyed enormous popularity, but, in one of the mysteries of literary history, he was sent by Augustus into exile...
NationalityRoman
ProfessionPoet
life giving-up bows
If you give up your quiet life, the bow of Cupid will lose its power.
life love-is
Love is a credulous thing.
life together majesty
Majesty and love do not well agree, nor do they live together.
life safe reign
It is not safe to despise what Love commands. He reigns supreme, and rules the mighty gods.
life love-is anxious
Love is a thing full of anxious fears.
time
Tempus edax rerum. Time the devourer of everything.
girl women heart
Dear to the heart of a girl is her own beauty and charm.
poetry mind fine
Poetry comes fine-spun from a mind at peace.
punishment bears sin
Indulgent gods, grant me to sin once with impunity. That is sufficient. Let a second offence bear its punishment.
men jupiter sin
If Jupiter hurled his thunderbolt as often as men sinned, he would soon be out of thunderbolts.
ideas desire able
He who has it in his power to commit sin, is less inclined to do so. The very idea of being able, weakens the desire.
silence secret faults
To be silent is but a small virtue; but it is a serious fault to reveal secrets.
believe mind scandal
The mind conscious of innocence despises false reports: but we are a set always ready to believe a scandal.
progress pursue
What follows I flee; what flees I ever pursue.