Juvenal quotes
Explore a curated collection of Juvenal's most famous quotes. Dive into timeless reflections that offer deep insights into life, love, and the human experience through his profound words.
Luxury is more deadly than any foe.
Death alone discloses how insignificant are the puny bodies of men.
There is great unanimity among the dissolute. [Lat., Magna inter molles concordia.]
Give them bread and circuses and they will never revolt
There is nothing which power cannot believe of itself, when it is praised as equal to the gods.
A woman is most merciless when shame goads on her hate
Whenever fortune wishes to joke, she lifts people from what is humble to the highest extremity of affairs.
No god is absent where prudence dwells.
Bad men hate sin through fear of punishment; good men hate sin through their love of virtue.
Nobody ever became depraved all at once. [Lat., Nemo repente fuit turpissimus.]
We do not commonly find men of superior sense amongst those of the highest fortune.
Luxury destroys more efficiently than war.
Be rich for yourself and poor to your friends.
Nature and wisdom always say the same.
Never does nature say one thing and wisdom another.
The care of a large estate is an unpleasant thing.
Nothing is so intolerable as a woman with a long purse.
We are all easily taught to imitate what is base and depraved. [Lat., Dociles imitandis Turpibus ac pravis omnes sumus.]
Integrity is praised, and starves.
Whatever guilt is perpetrated by some evil prompting, is grievous to the author of the crime. This is the first punishment of guilt that no one who is guilty is acquitted at the judgment seat of his own conscience.
To have slaved so many years for nothing!
Never does nature say one thing and Wisdom another. Variant: Wisdom and Nature! are they not the same? Variant: Nature and Wisdon always speak alike.
This precept descended from Heaven: know thyself.
All wish to possess knowledge, but few, comparatively speaking, are willing to pay the price.
Every fault of the mind becomes more conspicuous and more guilty in proportion to the rank of the offender
So much greater is our thirst for glory than for virtue.
Quis costodiet ipsos custodies? (Who will watch the watchers?)
Rare indulgence produces greater pleasure.
Remote though your farm may be, It's something to be the lord of one green lizard-and free.
Some men make fortunes, but not to enjoy them for, blinded by avarice, they live to make fortunes.
Dare to do something worth of exile and prison if you mean to be anybody. Virtue is praised and left to freeze. [Lat., Aude aliquid brevibus Gyaris et carcere dignum Si vis esse aliquis. Probitas laudatur et alget.]
All wish to be learned, but no one is willing to pay the price.
A sound mind in a sound body is a thing to be prayed for.
Nothing is more audacious than these women when detected; they assume anger, and take courage from the very crime itself.
Many individuals have, like uncut diamonds, shining qualities beneath a rough exterior.
There is nothing worse than words of kindness that lie.
Many suffer from the incurable disease of writing, and it becomes chronic in their sick minds.
Every great house is full of haughty servants.
It is difficult not to write satire.
Revenge is always the weak pleasure of a little and narrow mind.
The only gain from the friendship of the great is a fine dinner.
The gods alone know, what kind of wife a man will have.
Remorse is the fruit of crime.
Now we suffer the evils of a long peace; luxury more cruel than war broods over us and avenges a conquered world.
For the gods, instead of what is most pleasing, will give what is most proper. Man is dearer to them than he is to himself.
Pleasures are enhanced by a moderate indulgence.
There's no effrontery like that of a woman caught in the act; her very guilt inspires her with wrath and insolence.
Be gentle with the young.
One has no protecting power save prudence. [Lat., Nullum numen habes si sit prudentia.]
Give up all hope of peace so long as your mother-in-law is alive.
Luck often raises vulgarity to a high position, to create mirth for the beholders.
Rarely do we meet in one combined, a beauteous body and a virtuous mind.
Be, as many now are, luxurious to yourself, parsimonious to your friends. [Lat., Esto, ut nunc multi, dives tibi pauper amicis.]
It is sheer madness to live in want in order to be wealthy when you die.
To gain a livelihood at the expense of all that makes life worth the having.
Many commit the same crime with a very different result. One bears a cross for his crime; another a crown.
The tongue is the vile slave's vilest part.
Majestic mighty Wealth is the holiest of our gods.
The wise man sets bounds even to his innocent desires.
From the disease of one the whole flock perishes.
Wisdom overcomes fortune.
Today there's more fellowship among snakes than among mankind. Wild beasts spare those with similar markings.
This is his first punishment, that by the verdict of his own heart no guilty man is acquitted.
Who watches the watchmen?
The greatest respect is owed to a child.
Honesty is praised and left in the cold.
The dowry, not the wife, is the object of attraction.
A man who has nothing can whistle in a robber's face.
If you are capable of submitting to insult you ought to be insulted.
Dedicate one's life to truth.
The love of money grows as the money itself grows.
The thirst after fame is greater than that after virtue; for who embraces virtue if you take away its rewards?
The only path to a tranquil life is through virtue. [Lat., Semita certe Tranquillae per virtutem patet unica vitae.]
No one every suddenly became depraved.
One gets a cross for his crime, the other a crown.
The brief span of our poor unhappy life to its final hour Is hastening on; and while we drink and call for gay wreaths, Perfumes, and young girls, old age creeps upon us, unperceived.
Now that no one buys our votes, the public has long since cast off its cares; for the people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions, and all else, now meddles no more and longs eagerly for just two things - bread and circuses.
But who guards the guardians?
Of the woes Of unhappy poverty, none is more difficult to bear Than that it heaps men with ridicule.
For women's tears are but the sweat of eyes.
All things may be bought in Rome with money.
It is not easy for men to rise whose qualities are thwarted by poverty.
Our prayers should be for a sound mind in a healthy body. [Lat., Orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano.]
Peace visits not the guilty mind.
Have the courage to do something which deserves transportation if you want to be somebody.
Dare to do things worthy of imprisonment if you mean to be of consequence.
No wicked man knows happiness, and least of all the seducer of others.
Rare is the union of beauty and purity.
There is hardly a case in which the dispute was not caused by a woman.
Wisdom is the conqueror of fortune. [Lat., Victrix fortunae sapientia.]
It is unmistakable madness to live in poverty only to die rich.
We deem those happy who, from the experience of life, have learned to bear its ills, without being overcome by them.
Where have you ever found that man who stopped short after the perpetration of a single crime?
There is never a lawsuit but a woman is at the bottom of it.
Ask for a valiant heart which has banished the fear of death, which looks upon length of days as one of the least of nature's gifts; which is able to suffer every kind of hardship, is proof against anger, craves for nothing, and reckons the trials and gruelling labours of Hercules as more desirable blessings than the amorous ease and the banquets and cushions of Sardanapallus. The things that I recommend you can grant to yourself.
One path alone leads to a life of peace. The path of virtue.
Trust me no tortures which the poets feign Can match the fierce unutterable pain He feels, who night and day devoid of rest Carries his own accuser in his breast.
Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses.
Do you expect, forsooth, that a mother will hand down to her children principles which differ from her own?
Dat veniam corvis, vexat censura columbas. - Censure acquits the raven, but pursues the dove.
Vice can deceive under the guise and shadow of virtue.
When did reason ever direct our desires or our fears?
It is but the weak and little mind that rejoices in revenge
The people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions, and all else, now concerns itself no more, and longs eagerly for just two things: bread and circuses!
She knows no difference 'twixt head and privities who devours immense oysters at midnight.
When a man's life is at stake no delay is too long. [Lat., Nulla unquam de morte cunctatio longa est.]
Common sense among men of fortune is rare.
Sit mens sana in corpore sano (a healthy mind in a healthy body)
Those things please more, which are more expensive.
The greatest hardship of poverty is that it tends to make men ridiculous.
No one rejoices more in revenge than woman.
A lucky man is rarer than a white crow.
Nothing is more intolerable than a wealthy woman.
In the present state of the world it is difficult not to write lampoons.
Virtue is the only and true nobility. [Lat., Nobilitas sola est atque unica virtus.]
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? - Who will watch the watchers?
Refrain from doing ill; for one all powerful reason, lest our children should copy our misdeeds; we are all too prone to imitate whatever is base and depraved.
When talent fails, indignation writes the verse.
No other protection is wanting, provided you are under the guidance of prudence.
From where can your authority and license as a parent come from, when you who are old, do worse things?
Conscience, the executioner, shaking her secret scourge.
They whose sole bliss is eating can give but that one brutish reason why they live.
Pray for a healthy mind in a healthy body.
Vice deceives us when dressed in the garb of virtue.
Your prayer must be for a healthy mind in a sound body. Ask for a brave soul that has no fear of death, deems length of life the least of nature's gifts and is able to bear any kind of sufferings, knows neither wrath nor desire and believes the woes and hard labors of Hercules better than the loves and feasts and downy cushions of Sardanapalus. Reveal what you are able to give yourself; the only path to a life of tranquility lies through virtue.
