Quintilian Quotes
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Vain hopes are like certain dreams of those who wake.
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For the mind is all the easier to teach before it is set.
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Mutos enim nasci et egere omni ratione satius fuisset quam providentiae munera in mutuam perniciem convertere.
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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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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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He who speaks evil only differs from his who does evil in that he lacks opportunity.
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The perfection of art is to conceal art.
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Men, even when alone, lighten their labors by song, however rude it may be.
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A laugh, if purchased at the expense of propriety, costs too much.
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A liar should have a good memory.
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In almost everything, experience is more valuable than precept.
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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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Quare non ut intellegere possit sed ne omnino possit non intellegere curandum.
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Forbidden pleasures alone are loved immoderately; when lawful, they do not excite desire.
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Nature herself has never attempted to effect great changes rapidly.
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While we are examining into everything we sometimes find truth where we least expected it.
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Fear of the future is worse than one's present fortune.
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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 making up our minds as to when we shall begin, the opportunity is lost.
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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.
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Though ambition in itself is a vice, yet it is often the parent of virtues.
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Vtrubique autem orator meminisse debebit actione tota quid finxerit, quoniam solent excidere quae falsa sunt: verumque est illud quod vulgo dicitur, mendacem memorem esse oportere.