Quotes from Quintilian

Reading is the least laborious of all the tasks that fall to the student's lot.

In writing are the roots, in writing are the foundations of eloquence; by writing resources are stored up, as it were, in a sacred repository, when they may be drawn forth for sudden emergencies, or as circumstances require.

A Woman who is generous with her money is to be praised; not so, if she is generous with her person

Art originates in experiment

Men of quality are in the wrong to undervalue, as they often do, the practise of a fair and quick hand in writing; for it is no immaterial accomplishment.

Though ambition may be a fault in itself, it is often the mother of virtues.

God, that all-powerful Creator of nature and architect of the world, has impressed man with no character so proper to distinguish him from other animals, as by the faculty of speech.

The gifts of nature are infinite in their variety, and mind differs from mind almost as much as body from body.

A mediocre speech supported by all the power of delivery will be more impressive than the best speech unaccompanied by such power.

A liar must have a good memory. -Mendacem oportet esse memorem

Vain hopes are like certain dreams of those who wake.

When we cannot hope to win, it is an advantage to yield.

That which offends the ear will not easily gain admission to the mind.

To swear, except when necessary, is becoming to an honorable man.

It is much easier to try one's hand at many things than to concentrate one's powers on one thing.

It seldom happens that a premature shoot of genius ever arrives at maturity.

For the mind is all the easier to teach before it is set.

We excuse our sloth under the pretext of difficulty.

The mind is exercised by the variety and multiplicity of the subject matter, while the character is moulded by the contemplation of virtue and vice.

Whilst we deliberate how to begin a thing, it grows too late to begin it.

A great part of art consists in imitation. For the whole conduct of life is based on this: that what we admire in others we want to do ourselves.

Our minds are like our stomaches; they are whetted by the change of their food, and variety supplies both with fresh appetite.

The prosperous can not easily form a right idea of misery.

To my mind the boy who gives least promise is one in whom the critical faculty develops in advance of the imagination.