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
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.
power wish praiseworthy
Though the power be wanting, yet the wish is praiseworthy.
obscurity wells
He who has lived obscurely and quietly has lived well.
law plot murder
Nor is there any law more just, than that he who has plotted death shall perish by his own plot.
memorial gone needs
The need has gone; the memorial thereof remains.
strength break bruised
The least strength suffices to break what is bruised.
art faithful study
By faithful study of the nobler arts, our nature's softened, and more gentle grows.
art art-is concealed
Art is most effective when concealed.
fighting arms forget
The wounded gladiator forswears all fighting, but soon forgetting his former wound resumes his arms.
hands length tolerable
A wound will perhaps become tolerable with length of time; but wounds which are raw shudder at the touch of the hands.
men pay poor
Bring a lawsuit against a man who can pay; the poor man's acts are not worth the expense
wine mind care
Wine stimulates the mind and makes it quick with heat; care flees and is dissolved in much drink.