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
stones rolling action
Either you pursue or push, O Sisyphus, the stone destined to keep rolling. [Lat., Aut petis aut urgues ruiturum, Sisyphe, saxum.]
water stones dripping-water
"Gutta cavat lapidem." (Dripping water carves a stone.)
water stones dropping
Stones are hollowed out by the constant dropping of water.
rocks water stones
What is harder than stone? What more soft than water? Nevertheless hard though the rock be, it is hollowed by the wave.
water stones dripping
Dripping water hollows out a stone
fall stones evolution
Gutta cavat lapidem, non vi sed saepe cadendo. (The drop excavates the stone, not with force but by falling often.)
night ugly woman
At night there is no such thing as an ugly woman
borne
The burden which is well borne becomes light.
whether women
Whether they give or refuse, it delights women just the same to have been asked.
believe
He who can believe himself well, will be well.
darkness fault hid night woman
Blemishes are hid by night and every fault forgiven; darkness makes any woman fair.
anger becomes belongs fair ferocious peace
Fair peace becomes men; ferocious anger belongs to beasts.
death frown sneer worried
A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a quip and worried to death by a frown on the right man's brow.
prince
A prince should be slow to punish, and quick to reward.