Quotes from Virgil

Agnosco veteris vestigia flammae.

Nimium ne crede colori

So Aeneas pleaded, his face streaming tears. Three times he tried to fling his arms around his neck, three times he embraced--nothing...the phantom sifting through his fingers, light as wind, quick as a dream in flight.

Yield not to evils, but attack all the more boldly.

The seeds of life - fiery is their force, divine their birth, but they are weighed down by the bodies' ills or dulled by limbs and flesh that's born for death. That is the source of all men's fears and longings, joys and sorrows, nor can they see the heaven's light, shut up in the body's tomb, a prison dark and deep.

When gods are contrary they stand by no one.

Fear reveals baseborn souls!

E pluribus unum - Out of many, one.

A woman is an ever fickle and changeable thing.

There are twin Gates of Sleep. One, they say, is called the Gate of Horn and it offers easy passage to all true shades. The other glistens with ivory, radiant, flawless, but through it the dead send false dreams up toward the sky. And here Anchises, his vision told in full, escorts his son and Sibyl both and shows them out now through the Ivory Gate.

and why the winter suns so rush to bathe themselves in the sea and what slows down the nights to a long lingering crawl...

The signs of the old flame, I know them well. I pray that the earth gape deep enough to take me down or the almighty Father blast me with one bolt to the shades, the pale, glimmering shades in hell, the pit of night, before I dishonor you, my conscience, break your laws.

And as he spoke he wept. Three times he tried to reach arms round that neck. Three times the form, reached for in vain, escaped Like a breeze between his hands, a dream on wings.

What a tale he's told, what a bitter bowl of war he's drunk to the dregs.

So ran the speech. Burdened and sick at heart, He feigned hope in his look, and inwardly Contained his anguish. […] Aeneas, more than any, secretly Mourned for them all

No other evil we know is faster than Rumor, thriving on speed and becoming stronger by running. Small and timid at first, then borne on a light air, she flits over ground while hiding her head on a cloud-top.

The Greeks shape bronze statues so real they seem to breathe, And carve cold marble until it almost comes to life. The Greeks compose great orations, and measure The heavens so well they can predict the rising of the stars. But you, Romans, remember your great arts; To govern the peoples with authority, To establish peace under the rule of law, To conquer the mighty, and show them mercy once they are conquered. -Virgil, Aeneid VI, 847-853

Forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit - Perhaps even these things will be good to remember one day

Will Mars be always in your windy tongue and in your flying feet?

He] Spoke and rose to full height, sword in air, Then cleft the man's brow square between the temples Cutting his head in two -- a dreadful gash Between the cheeks all beardless. Earth resounded Quivering at the great shock of his weight As he went tumbling down in all his armor, Drenched with blood and brains; in equal halves His head hung this and that way from his shoulders.

There's a snake hidden in the grass. Virgil. Ecologues,no. 3.1.1o8

Evil is nourished and grows by concealment.

We can't all do everything.

Roman, remember by your strength to rule Earth's peoples – for your arts are to be these: To pacify, to impose the rule of law, To spare the conquered, battle down the proud.