Virgil

Table of contents

1 (70-19 BCE) 2 Sourced: 2.1 The Aeneid 3 Attributed:

(70-19 BCE)

''The Roman Empire's national poet. Also referred to as Vergil, or Virgil in English.

Sourced:

• "Yield not to evils, but attack all the more boldly."
  • Eclogues

• "Trust one who has gone through it."
  • Eclogues

The Aeneid

• "Fortune favours the brave."

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• "Each of us bears his own Hell."

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• "It is easy to go down into Hell; night and day, the gates of dark Death stand wide; but to climb back again, to retrace one's steps to the upper air - there's the rub, the task."

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• "insanam uatem aspicies, quae rupe sub ima
  fata canit foliisque notas et nomina mandat.
  quaecumque in foliis descripsit carmina uirgo
  digerit in numerum atque antro seclusa relinquit:
  illa manent immota locis neque ab ordine cedunt.
  uerum eadem, uerso tenuis cum cardine uentus
  impulit et teneras turbauit ianua frondes,
  numquam deinde cauo uolitantia prendere saxo
  nec reuocare situs aut iungere carmina curat:
  inconsulti abeunt sedemque odere Sibyllae."
• "The mad prophetic Sibyl you shall find,
  Dark in a cave, and on a rock reclin'd.
  She sings the fates, and, in her frantic fits,
  The notes and names, inscrib'd, to leafs commits.
  What she commits to leafs, in order laid,
  Before the cavern's entrance are display'd:
  ...many not succeeding, most upbraid
  The madness of the visionary maid,
  And with loud curses leave the mystic shade."
  • Book III, lines 443-452; Latin; Translator: John Dryden

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• "hic tibi ne qua morae fuerint dispendia tanti,
  quamuis increpitent socii et ui cursus in altum
  uela uocet, possisque sinus implere secundos,
  quin adeas uatem precibusque oracula poscas
  ipsa canat uocemque uolens atque ora resoluat.
  illa tibi Italiae populos uenturaque bella
  et quo quemque modo fugiasque ferasque laborem
  expediet, cursusque dabit uenerata secundos.
  haec sunt quae nostra liceat te uoce moneri."
• "Think it not loss of time a while to stay,
  Tho' thy companions chide thy long delay;
  Tho' summon'd to the seas, tho' pleasing gales
  Invite thy course, and stretch thy swelling sails:
  But beg the sacred priestess to relate
  With willing words, and not to write thy fate...
  She shall direct thy course, instruct thy mind,
  And teach thee how the happy shores to find.
  This is what Heav'n allows me to relate:
  Now part in peace; pursue thy better fate, "
  • Book III, lines 453-461; Latin; Translator: John Dryden

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• "quidquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentis."
• "Whatever it is, I fear the Greeks - especially bringing gifts."
  • Book II, line 49; Latin; Translation: Andrew M. Wilson

Attributed:

• "Let us go singing as far as we go: the road will be less tedious"

• "Look with favour upon a bold beginning"

• "Love conquers all things; let us too surrender to Love"
  • translated from Latin: "Omnia vincit amor; et nos cedamus amori."
• "O tyrant love, to what do you not drive the hearts of men"

• "Practice and thought might gradually forge many an art"

• "They can conquer who believe they can"
  • Variant:They can because they think they can.

• "Sing, Muse, the cause!"