Quotes from Virgil

Queaque ipsa miserrima vidi,et quorum pars magna fui. (And those terrible things I saw, and in which I played a great part.)

Omnia vincit amor et nos cedamus amori.

Non ignora mali, miseris succurrere disco.

Love conquers all. Let Love then smile at our defeat.

Just as, all too often, some huge crowd is seized by a vast uprising, the rabble runs amok, all slaves to passion, rocks, firebrands flying. Rage finds them arms but then, if they chance to see a man among them, one whose devotion and public service lend him weight, they stand there, stock-still with their ears alert as he rules their furor with words and calms their passion.

Linaje de sangre de dioses/ troyano hijo de Aquiles, es fácil la bajada al Averno; / las noches y los días permanece abierta la puerta de Dite; / pero hacer el camino de regreso y escapar a los aires de arriba, / eso cuesta trabajo, eso conlleva sufrimiento. Canto VI, versos 129-130

As a twig is bent the tree inclines.

The grim lioness follows the wolf, the wolf himself the goat, the wanton goat the flowering clover, and Corydon follows you, Alexis. Each is led by his liking.

Each man has his day, and the time of life is brief for all, and never comes again.

distraught I seize mine arms…And with my comrades hasten to the hold: frenzy and anger urge my headlong will, and death methinks how comely, sword in hand!

Mothers of Latium! Hey! Hear me, each one of you, wherever you may be! If you still have any sympathy for poor Amata in your faithful hearts, or any prick of conscience for a mother's claims, untie the bands around your hair and take to the wild rites with me!

This is a tale of arms and of a man. Fated to be an exile, he was the first to sail from the land of Troy and reach Italy, at its Lavinian shore. He met many tribulations on his way both by land on on the ocean; high Heaven willed it, for Juno was ruthless and could not forget her anger.

For you [muses] are divine, and you have the gifts of memory and story; but only the faintest echo of the great tale has come down to me

Forsan et haec olim meminisse iuuabit.

Ponto nox incubat atra.

I have no horror of death, and place no value on any god. Cease therefore. For I come ready to die; and first I bring you these gifts. (Mezentius)

Ah, piteous boy, Fortune came smiling; was it in jealousy that she then cruelly denied you to me

Those gods on whom our power hitherto depended have forsaken their altars and their shrines and gone forth from us; the city which you would rescue is already ablaze; and it is for us to plunge amid the spears and die. Nothing can save the conquered but the knowledge that they cannot now be saved.

His heart beat high for war and he blazed with an implacable fire which needed no kindling.

Such were my wild words, for madness had mastered my judgement and gained complete control.

Live, and prosper, for all your adventures are past. We are called onwards from destiny to destiny. For you, your rest is won.

sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem

Ter circum Iliacos raptaverat Hectora muros, exanimumque auro corpus vendebat Achilles.

Night reigned: all through the world tied bodies were harvesting tranquil slumber.