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
granted pleasure duty
The pleasure that is granted to me from a sense of duty ceases to be a pleasure at all.
believe mean dying
Nothing in the entire universe ever perishes, believe me, but things vary, and adopt a new form. The phrase being born is used for beginning to be something different from what one was before, while dying means ceasing to be the same. Though this thing may pass into that, and that into this, yet the sums of things remains unchanged.
speak cures
It is some alleviation to ills we cannot cure to speak of them.
daring unsafe
Against the bold, daring is unsafe.
art lying deception
Art lies by its own artifice.
love-is born idleness
Love is born of idleness and, once born, by idleness is fostered.
greed gold tongue
I could not possibly count the gold-digging ruses of women, Not if I had ten mouths, not if I had ten tongues.
crowds vulgar usefulness
The vulgar crowd values friends according to their usefulness.
cures feels one-thing
To feel our ills is one thing, but to cure them is another.
money men poor
It is the poor man who'll ever count his flock.
fear medicine understanding
An anthill increases by accumulation. Medicine is consumed by distribution. That which is feared lessens by association. This is the thing to understand.
hate wish destroyed
He whom all hate all wish to see destroyed.
suffering benefits
Often they benefit who suffer wrong.
action righteous
The gods behold all righteous actions.