Juvenal Quotes

When did reason ever direct our desires or our fears?

It is sheer madness to live in want in order to be wealthy when you die.

Here we all live in a state of ambitious poverty.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? - Who will watch the watchers?

The only gain from the friendship of the great is a fine dinner.

We are too quick to imitate depraved examples.

Peace visits not the guilty mind.

Be, as many now are, luxurious to yourself, parsimonious to your friends. [Lat., Esto, ut nunc multi, dives tibi pauper amicis.]

A rare bird on this earth, like nothing so much as a black swan.

The venal herd. [Lat., Venale pecus.]

Seldom do people discern eloquence under a threadbare cloak

Luxury is more deadly than any foe.

Dat veniam corvis, vexat censura columbas. - Censure acquits the raven, but pursues the dove.

Even savage animals can agree among themselves.

Fond man! though all the heroes of your line Bedeck your halls, and round your galleries shine In proud display; yet take this truth from me-- Virtue alone is true nobility!

There is never a lawsuit but a woman is at the bottom of it.

Some men make money not for the sake of living, but ache In the blindness of greed and live just for their fortune's sake.

Wisdom is the winner over good luck.

There is nothing which power cannot believe of itself, when it is praised as equal to the gods.

Our prayers should be for a sound mind in a healthy body. [Lat., Orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano.]

When a man's life is at stake no delay is too long. [Lat., Nulla unquam de morte cunctatio longa est.]

To eat at another's table is your ambition's height. [Lat., Bona summa putes, aliena vivere quadra.]

No other protection is wanting, provided you are under the guidance of prudence.

It is difficult not to write satire.

No one rejoices more in revenge than woman.

Conscience, the executioner, shaking her secret scourge.

For women's tears are but the sweat of eyes.

Do not pluck the beard of a dead lion. [Lat., Noli Barbam vellere mortuo leoni.]

Honesty's praised, then left to freeze.

From where can your authority and license as a parent come from, when you who are old, do worse things?

From the disease of one the whole flock perishes.

A man who has nothing can whistle in a robber's face.

Everything is Greek, when it is more shameful to be ignorant of Latin.

Men who ape the saint and play the sinner.

Fortune can, for her pleasure, fools advance, And toss them on the wheels of Chance.

Only death reveals what a nothing the body of man is.

A hairy body, and arms stiff with bristles, give promise of a manly soul.

We do not commonly find men of superior sense amongst those of the highest fortune.

What is more cruel than a tyrant's ear?

Rarely do we meet in one combined, a beauteous body and a virtuous mind.

Man, wretched man, whene'er he stoops to sin, Feels, with the act, a strong remorse within.

Autumn is the harvest of greedy death.

No one becomes depraved all at once.

There's scarce a case comes on but you shall find A woman's at the bottom. [Lat., Nulla fere causa est in qua non femina litem moverit.]

In their palate alone is their reason of existence. [Lat., In solo vivendi causa palata est.]

It is a wretched thing to live on the fame of others.

Bid the hungry Greek go to heaven, he will go. [Lat., Graeculus esuriens in coelum, jusseris, ibit.]

Dare to do something worthy of transportation and a prison, if you mean to be anybody.

I will it, I order it, let my will stand for a reason.

Nature confesses that she has bestowed on the human race hearts of softest mould, in that she has given us tears.