Greatest Quotes from Ovid — One of Rome’s Greatest Poets (Video)

My father got me interested in classical literature and poetry as a kid. It was one of the perks of being the son of an English major.

Ovid was one of the greatest poets from Ancient Rome. I put together a list of some of his greatest quotes in the following video.

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I hope you enjoy reading them!

Quotes from Ovid

If you would rather read them all in text, then you can find Ovid’s best quotes below. I didn’t put them all in the video for the sake of keeping the video a reasonable length.

Photo by Valleluce on Unsplash

1 — “”The sea’s vast depths lie open to the fish;

2 — Wherever the breezes blow the bird may fly;

3 — So to the brave man every land’s a home.”

4 — “Time glides away and as we get older through the noiseless years; the days flee and are restrained by no reign.”

5 — “Happy the man who ventures boldly to defend what he holds dear.”

6 — “I cannot keep track of all the vagaries of fashion, Every day, so it seems, brings in a different style.”

7 — “Neither can the wave that has passed by be recalled, nor the hour which has passed return again.”

8 — “Novelty in all things is charming.”

9 — “It warms the blood, adds luster to the eyes, and wine and love have ever been allies.”

10 — “Our neighbour’s crop is always more fruitful and his cattle produce more milk than our own.”

11 — “Pedigree and ancestry and what we ourselves have not achieved, I scarcely recognize as our own.”

12 — “Pride is innate in beauty, and haughtiness is the companion of the fair.”

13 — “When all the other animals, downcast looked upon the earth, he [Prometheus] gave a face raised on high to man, and commanded him to see the sky and raise his high eyes to the stars.”

14 — “By constant dripping, water hollows stone,

15 — A signet-ring from use alone grows thin,

16 — And the curved plowshare by soft earth is worn.”

17 — “Eurydice, dying now a second time, uttered no complaint against her husband. What was there to complain of, but that she had been loved?”

18 — “Fortune resists half-hearted prayers.”

19 — “A bitter drug oft brings relief.”

20 — “I attempt an arduous task but there is no worth in that which is not a difficult achievement”

21 — “What is harder than stone?

22 — What more soft than water?

23 — Nevertheless hard though the rock be, it is hollowed by the wave.”

24 — “Tempus edax rerum.

25 — Time that devours all things.”

26 — “Sleep, nature’s rest, divine tranquility, That brings peace to the mind.”

27 — “My bark, once struck by the fury of the storm, dreads again to approach the place of danger.”

28 — “Thou beginnest better than thou endest.

29 — The last is inferior to the first.

30 — [Lat., Coepisti melius quam desinis. Ultima primis cedunt.]”

31 — “Let those who have deserved their punishment, bear it patiently.

32 — [Lat., Aequo animo poenam, qui meruere, ferant.]”

33 — “Women’s words are as light as the doomed leaves whirling in autumn, Easily swept by the wind, easily drowned by the wave.”

34 — “See that you promise: what harm is there in promise? In

35 — promises anyone can be rich.”

36 — “In an easy cause anyone can be eloquent; the slightest strength is enough to break what is already shattered.”

37 — “The mind alone can not be exiled.

38 — [Lat., Mens sola loco non exulat.]”

39 — “Sleep, rest of nature, O sleep, most gentle of the divinities, peace of the soul, thou at whose presence care disappears, who soothest hearts wearied with daily employments, and makest them strong again for labour!”

40 — “The glow of inspiration warms us; this holy rapture springs from the seeds of the Divine mind sown in man.”

41 — “Treat a thousand dispositions in a thousand ways.”

42 — “By arts, sails, and oars, ships are rapidly moved; arts move the

43 — light chariot, and establish love.

44 — [Lat., Arte citae veloque rates remoque moventur;

45 — Arte levis currus, arte regendus Amor.]” “