Quintus Quotes & Sayings

No one regards what is before his feet; we all gaze at the stars. — Quintus Ennius

Liberty does not exist where rights are on one side and power on the other. To be liberty, rights must be armed with vital powers. A people cannot be free who do not participate in the control of the government which operates upon them. — Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar II

He is a fool who looks at the fruit of lofty trees, but does not measure their height. — Quintus Curtius Rufus

That is true liberty, which bears a pure and firm breast. — Quintus Ennius

Nature has placed nothing so high that virtue can not reach it.
[Lat., Nihil tam alte natura constituit quo virtus non possit eniti.] — Quintus Curtius Rufus

Prosperity can change man's nature; and seldom is any one cautious enough to resist the effects of good fortune.
[Lat., Res secundae valent commutare naturam, et raro quisquam erga bona sua satis cautus est.] — Quintus Curtius Rufus

Primus is certainly learning caution," said Secundus to his four other dead brothers.
"Well, you know what they say," whispered Quintus, in the wistful tones of the dead, which sounded, on that day, like the lapping of distant waves upon the shingle, "a man who is tired of looking over his shoulder for Septimus is tired of life. — Neil Gaiman

The center of all my enjoyments is the home wherein are my wife and children, and I have no wish to wander out from that home in pursuit of any pleasures that the world presents. — Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar II

Whom men fear they hate, and whom they hate, they wish dead — Quintus Ennius

Here is he laid to whom for daring deed, nor friend nor foe could render worthy meed. — Quintus Ennius

One man by delaying saved the state for us. — Quintus Ennius

A spark neglected has often raised a conflagration.
[Lat., Parva saepe scintilla contempta magnum excitavit incendium.] — Quintus Curtius Rufus

So Septimus will be the eighty-second Lord of Stormhold," said Tertius.
"There is a proverbial saying chiefly concerned with warning against too closely calculating the numerical value of unhatched chicks," pointed out Quintus. — Neil Gaiman

The Roman state stands by ancient customs, and its manhood. — Quintus Ennius

The wise man is wise in vain who cannot be wise to his own advantage.
[Lat., Nequicquam sapere sapientem, qui ipse sibi prodesse non quiret.] — Quintus Ennius

A good artist must be good at many things. — Rick Riordan

The deepest rivers flow with the least sound. — Quintus Curtius Rufus

Nothing is so secure in its position as not to be in danger from the attack even of the weak. — Quintus Curtius Rufus

Fear makes men believe the worst. — Quintus Curtius Rufus

And our sailors of space have a legend of the furthest star of all, where the gods lay their plans against us, or plot the catastrophes of the end of time: the pachacuti. We call this undiscovered star Karu, which means 'far'.'
'As we speak of Ultima,' Quintus mused. — Stephen Baxter

He whose wisdom cannot help him, gets no good from being wise. — Quintus Ennius

Amicu certus in re incerta cernitur'
[A true friend is a friend when in difficulty] — Quintus Ennius

When fear has seized upon the mind, man fears that only which he first began to fear.
[Lat., Ubi intravit animos pavor, id solum metuunt, quod primum formidate coeperunt.] — Quintus Curtius Rufus

When the truth cannot be clearly made out, what is false is increased through fear. — Quintus Curtius Rufus

Nothing is strong that may not be endangered even by the weak. — Quintus Curtius Rufus

Quintus ... " Geryon mused. "Short gray hair, muscular, swordsman?"
"Yeah."
"Never heard of him, — Rick Riordan

A brave man's country is wherever he chooses his abode.
[Lat., Patria est ubicumque vir fortis sedem elegerit.] — Quintus Curtius Rufus

During war, the laws are silent. — Quintus Tullius Cicero

To open his lips is crime in a plain citizen. — Quintus Ennius

A true friend is tested in adversity. — Quintus Ennius

He hath freedom whoso beareth a clean and constant heart within. — Quintus Ennius

Let no one weep for me, or celebrate my funeral with mourning; for I still live, as I pass to and fro through the mouths of men. — Quintus Ennius

How can life be worth living, if devoid Of the calm trust reposed by friend in friend? What sweeter joy than in the kindred soul, Whose converse differs not from self-communion? — Quintus Ennius

The idle mind knows not what it wants. — Quintus Ennius

Let others consume their efforts in pointless trifles. Let others drain their energy in futile worries. — Quintus Curtius

I cannot write a speech. The pen is an extinguisher upon my mind and a torture to my nerves. I am the most habitual extemporaneous speaker that I have ever known. — Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar II

One man by delay restored the state, for he preferred the public safety to idle report.
[Lat., Unus homo nobis cunctando restituit rem,
Non ponebat enim rumores ante salutem.] — Quintus Ennius

Let no one pay me honor with tears, nor celebrate my funeral rites with weeping. — Quintus Ennius

I formed, in early life, two purposes to which I have inflexibly adhered, under some very strong pressure from warm personal friends. They were, first, never to be a second in a duel; and, second, never to go security for another man's debts. — Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar II

A sure friend is known in unsure circumstances. — Quintus Ennius

A true friend is distinguished in the crisis of hazard and necessity; when the gallantry of his aid may show the worth of his soul and the loyalty of his heart. — Quintus Ennius

Don't ask of your friends what you yourself can do. — Quintus Ennius

For my own part I am persuaded that everything advances by an unchangeable law through the eternal constitution and association of latent causes, which have been long before predestined. — Quintus Curtius Rufus

Dictionaries, manuals, grammars, study guides and topic notes, classical authors and the entire book trade in de Viris, Quintus-Curtius, Sallust, and Livy peacefully crumbled to dust on the shelves of the old Hachette publishing house; but introductions to mathematics, textbooks on civil engineering, mechanics, physics, chemistry, astronomy, courses in commerce, finance, industrial arts- whatever concerned the market tendencies of the day - sold by the millions of copies. — Jules Verne

The mob has no ruler more potent than superstition. — Quintus Curtius Rufus

A cowardly cur barks more fiercely than it bites. — Quintus Curtius Rufus

Either the future is subject to chance
in which case nobody, not even a god, can affect it one way or the other
or it is predestined, in which case foreknowledge cannot avert it.
Quintus Tullius Cicero — Anthony Everitt

He who civilly shows the way to one who has missed it, is as one who has lighted another's lamp from his own lamp; it none the less gives light to himself when it burns for the other. — Quintus Ennius

When a nation has just emerged from the throes of a great civil warfare, where section was arrayed against section, class against class, two things are to be done: First, the work of reconstruction is to be effected; Secondly, a willingness for the proper acceptance of the issue's decision is to be created. — Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar II

O friend unseen, unborn, unknown, Student of our sweet English tongue, I never indulge in poetics - Unless I am down with rheumatics. — Quintus Ennius

Avoid any specific discussion of public policy at public meetings. — Quintus Tullius Cicero

Timid dogs more eagerly bark than bite. — Quintus Curtius Rufus

I never indulge in rhyme or stanza Unless I'm in bed with the influenza. — Quintus Ennius

The nations of Europe constitute a federative league, a commonwealth of nations which, though it has no central head, is so intimate and elaborate as to subject the action, and sometimes even the internal affairs, of each to surveillance and intervention on the part of all the others. — Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar II

The victor is not victorious if the vanquished does not consider himself so — Quintus Ennius

Ennius was the father of Roman poetry, because he first introduced into Latin the Greek manner and in particular the hexameter metre. — Quintus Ennius

Nothing can be lasting when reason does not rule. — Quintus Curtius Rufus

The very first act of the Confederate Government was to send commissioners to Washington to make terms of peace, and to establish relations of amity between the two sections. — Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar II

Let no one honour me with tears, or bury me with lamentation. Why? Because I fly hither and thither, living in the mouths of me.
[Lat., Nemo me lacrymis decoret, nec funera fletu.
Faxit cur? Volito vivu' per ora virum.] — Quintus Ennius

Posterity pays for the sins of their fathers. — Quintus Curtius Rufus

Avoid taking a definite stand on great public issues either in the Senate or before the people. Bend your energies towards making friends of key men in all classes of voters. — Quintus Tullius Cicero

I think it eminently proper that a president should retire from active politics, and equally proper that he should be able to live in quiet independence. — Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar II

Necessity when threatening is more powerful than device of man. — Quintus Curtius Rufus

It is often a comfort in misfortune to know our own fate.
[Lat., Saepe calamitas solatium est nosse sortem suam.] — Quintus Curtius Rufus

Habit is stronger than nature. — Quintus Curtius Rufus

One man restored our fortunes by delay. [By skilfully avoiding an engagement, Fabius exhausted the resources of the enemy.] — Quintus Ennius

We gaze up at the same stars, the sky covers us all, the same universe encompasses us. What does it matter what practical system we adopt in our search for the truth? Not by one avenue only can we arrive at so tremendous a secret. — Quintus Aurelius Symmachus

He who has two languages has two souls. — Quintus Ennius

After disfiguring myself with terrible blows, Entered the city of the Trojans in order to learn 280 All the plans they were making for this grievous war. — Quintus Smyrnaeus

Doctors cure the more serious diseases with harsh remedies. Curtius Medici graviores morbos asperis remediis curant — Quintus Curtius Rufus

There were a lot of answers I might've given, from "I knew that" to "LIAR!" to "Yeah right, and I'm Zeus." - Percy, after Quintus says that he is Daedalus — Rick Riordan

He hath freedom whoso beareth clean and constant heart within. — Quintus Ennius

Despair is a great incentive to honorable death. — Quintus Curtius Rufus

It is a law woven into the nature of man, attested by history, by science, by literature and art, and by dally experience, that strength of mind and force of character are the supreme rulers of human affairs. — Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar II

They hate whom they fear. — Quintus Ennius

To later Romans Ennius was the personification of the spirit of early Rome; by them he was called "The Father of Roman Poetry." We must remember how truly Greek he was in his point of view. He set the example for later Latin poetry by writing the first epic of Rome in Greek hexameter verses instead of in the old Saturnian verse. He made popular the doctrines of Euhemerus, and he was in general a champion of free thought and rationalism. — Quintus Ennius

The ape, vilest of beasts, how like to us. — Quintus Ennius

The fashions of human affairs are brief and changeable, and fortune never remains long indulgent.
[Lat., Breves et mutabiles vices rerum sunt, et fortuna nunquam simpliciter indulget.] — Quintus Curtius Rufus

Cicero gave an account of a party attended by a certain Quintus Gallius, a friend of Catilina, which evokes the raffish atmosphere of his circle. There are shouts and screams, screeching females, there is deafening music. I thought I could make out some people entering and others leaving, some of them staggering from the effects of the wine, some of them still yawning from yesterday's boozing. Among them was Gallius, perfumed and wreathed with flowers; the floor was filthy, soiled with wine and covered with withered garlands and fish bones. — Anthony Everitt

Holden's point of view: 'I didn't say anything for the rest of the trip to Barker's house. Quintus kept talking until I could feel a vein twitching in my forehead. I had never been so happy to see Baker in my life than when his house finally came into view. — Liz Schulte