Quintilian Quotes
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Adeo facilius est multa facere quam diu.
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For it would have been better that man should have been born dumb, nay, void of all reason, rather than that he should employ the gifts of Providence to the destruction of his neighbor.
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As regards parents, I should like to see them as highly educated as possible, and I do not restrict this remark to fathers alone.
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Et hercule quantumlibet secreta studia contulerint, est tamen proprius quidam fori profectus, alia lux, alia veri discriminis facies, plusque, si separes, usus sine doctrina quam citra usum doctrina valeat.
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The perfection of art is to conceal art.
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For the mind is all the easier to teach before it is set.
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In almost everything, experience is more valuable than precept.
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Men, even when alone, lighten their labors by song, however rude it may be.
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Quare non ut intellegere possit sed ne omnino possit non intellegere curandum.
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Consequently the student who is devoid of talent will derive no more profit from this work than barren soil from a treatise on agriculture.
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It is the nurse that the child first hears, and her words that he will first attempt to imitate.
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Mutos enim nasci et egere omni ratione satius fuisset quam providentiae munera in mutuam perniciem convertere.
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He who speaks evil only differs from his who does evil in that he lacks opportunity.
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A laugh, if purchased at the expense of propriety, costs too much.
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Though ambition in itself is a vice, yet it is often the parent of virtues.
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A liar should have a good memory.
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Nature herself has never attempted to effect great changes rapidly.
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The gifts of nature are infinite in their variety, and mind differs from mind almost as much as body from body.
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While we are examining into everything we sometimes find truth where we least expected it.
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Forbidden pleasures alone are loved immoderately; when lawful, they do not excite desire.
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Fear of the future is worse than one's present fortune.
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It is fitting that a liar should be a man of good memory.
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A man who tries to surpass another may perhaps succeed in equaling inot actually surpassing him, but one who merely follows can never quite come up with him: a follower, necessarily, is always behind.
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It is much easier to try one's hand at many things than to concentrate one's powers on one thing.