Roman quotes by subject

On this page you will find a list of inspiring Roman quotes organized by subject.

Aging

Let us never know what old age is. Let us know the happiness time brings, not count the years. Decimius Magnus Ausonius (c. 310 AD – c. 395 AD)

Advice in old age is foolish; for what can be more absurd than to increase our provisions for the road the nearer we approach to our journey’s end. Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC)

Beauty

Rare is the union of beauty and purity. Juvenal (1st century AD - 2nd century AD)

Censure

Censure acquits the raven, but pursues the dove. Juvenal (1st century AD - 2nd century AD)

Corruption

When the state is most corrupt, then the laws are most multiplied. Tacitus (56 AD -120 AD)

Courage

A man of courage is also full of faith. Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC)

Live as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts. Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC)

Sometimes even to live is an act of courage. Lucius A. Seneca (5 BC-65 AD)

It is easier to find men who will volunteer to die, than to find those who are willing to endure pain with patience. Julius Caesar (100 BC –44 BC)

Fear

Under the influence of fear, which always leads men to take a pessimistic view of things, they magnified their enemies' resources, and minimized their own. Livy (64 or 59 BC – AD 17)

Fear is proof of a degenerate mind. Publius Vergilius Maro (70 BC – 19 BC)

Grief has limits, whereas apprehension has none. For we grieve only for what we know has happened, but we fear all that possibly may happen. Pliny the Elder (23 AD – 79 AD)

A person's fears are lighter when the danger is at hand. Lucius A. Seneca (5 BC-65 AD)

Nothing is so wretched or foolish as to anticipate misfortunes. What madness is it to be expecting evil before it comes. Lucius A. Seneca (5 BC-65 AD)

We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality. Lucius A. Seneca (5 BC-65 AD)

Fear is not in the habit of speaking truth. Tacitus (56 AD -120 AD)

Forgiveness

Forgive many things in others; nothing in yourself. Decimius Magnus Ausonius (c. 310 AD – c. 395 AD)

Fortune

If fortune favors you do not be elated; if she frowns do not despond. Decimius Magnus Ausonius (c.310 AD – c. 395 AD)

For in all adversity of fortune the worst sort of misery is to have been happy. Boethius (480 AD - 524 AD)

Live as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts. Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC)

Fortune blinds men when she does not wish them to withstand the violence of her onslaughts. Livy (64 or 59 BC – AD 17)

The result showed that fortune helps the brave. Livy (64 or 59 BC – AD 17)

Nothing is so wretched or foolish as to anticipate misfortunes. What madness is it to be expecting evil before it comes. Lucius A. Seneca (5 BC-65 AD)

I am mindful of human weakness, and I reflect upon the might of Fortune and know that everything that we do is exposed to a thousand chances. Scipio Africanus (236 BC – 183 BC)

Prosperity is the measure or touchstone of virtue, for it is less difficult to bear misfortune than to remain uncorrupted by pleasure. Tacitus (56 AD -120 AD)

Freedom

No one is free who does not lord over himself. Claudius (10 BC - 54 AD)

The old Romans all wished to have a king over them because they had not yet tasted the sweetness of freedom. Livy (64 or 59 BC – AD 17)

He who is brave is free. Lucius A. Seneca (5 BC-65 AD)

Friendship

Friendship improves happiness and abates misery, by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief. Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BCE)

One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood. Lucius A. Seneca (5 BC-65 AD)

Be assured those will be thy worst enemies, not to whom thou hast done evil, but who have done evil to thee. And those will be thy best friends, not to whom thou hast done good, but who have done good to thee. Tacitus (56 AD -120 AD)

Glory

He will have true glory who despises it. Livy (64 or 59 BC – AD 17)

Glory follows virtue as if it were its shadow. Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC)

Goodness

To do nothing evil is good; to wish nothing evil is better. Claudius (10 BC - 54 AD)

Gratitude

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others. Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC)

When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love. Marcus Aurelius (121 AD -180 AD)

It is always easier to requite an injury than a service: gratitude is a burden, but revenge is found to pay.Tacitus (56 AD -120 AD)

Men are slower to recognize blessings than misfortunes. Livy (64 or 59 BC – AD 17)

The greatest wealth is to live content with little, for there is never want where the mind is satisfied. Titus Lucretius Carus (c. 99 BC – c. 55 BC)

Happiness

True true happiness is... to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future. Lucius A. Seneca (5 BC-65 AD)

We see many who are struggling against adversity who are happy, and more although abounding in wealth, who are wretched. Tacitus (56 AD -120 AD)

Haste

All things will be clear and distinct to the man who does not hurry; haste is blind and improvident. Livy (64 or 59 BC – AD 17)

History

To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC)

Home

Home is where the heart is. Pliny the Elder (23 AD – 79 AD)

Humility

The higher we are placed, the more humbly we should walk. Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC)

Intelligence

Many difficulties which nature throws in our way, may be smoothed away by the exercise of intelligence. Livy (64 or 59 BC – AD 17)

Love

Who would give a law to lovers. Love is unto itself a higher law. Boethius (480 AD - 524 AD)

If you wished to be loved, love. Lucius A. Seneca (5 BC-65 AD)

Music

Music is part of us, and either ennobles or degrades our behavior. Boethius (480 AD - 524 AD)

Positive thinking

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature. Marcus Aurelius (121 AD -180 AD)

I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. Scipio Africanus (236 BC – 183 BC)

A man’s life is what his thoughts make of it. Marcus Aurelius (121 AD - 180 AD)

Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking. Marcus Aurelius (121 AD - 180 AD)

You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength. Marcus Aurelius (121 AD - 180 AD)

When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love. Marcus Aurelius (121 AD - 180 AD)

Nothing is miserable unless you think it is so. Boethius (480 AD - 524 AD)

As a rule, men worry more about what they can't see than about what they can. Julius Caesar (100 BC –44 BC)

The sun has not yet set for all time. Livy (64 or 59 BC – AD 17)

Reading

If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need. Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC)

Religion

So potent was religion in persuading to evil deeds. Titus Lucretius Carus (c. 99 BC – c. 55 BC)

Such are the heights of wickedness to which men are driven by religion. Titus Lucretius Carus (c. 99 BC – c. 55 BC)

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful. Lucius A. Seneca (5 BC-65 AD)

Fear created the first gods in the world. Caecilius Statius (c. 220 BC – c. 166 BC)

Stupidity

Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error. Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 CE)

It is the peculiar quality of a fool to perceive the faults of others and to forget his own. Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 CE)

The wise are instructed by reason, average minds by experience, the stupid by necessity and the brute by instinct. Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC)

Truth

Another one of the old poets, whose name has escaped my memory at present, called Truth the daughter of Time. Aulus Gellius (125 AD – 180 AD or later)

Truth, they say, is but too often in difficulties, but is never finally suppressed. Livy (64 or 59 BC – AD 17)

Truth is confirmed by inspection and delay; falsehood by haste and uncertainty. Tacitus (56 AD -120 AD)

Victory

The victory is true only when the enemies themselves admit their defeat. Claudius (10 BC - 54 AD)

Victory puts us on a level with heaven. Titus Lucretius Carus (c. 99 BC – c. 55 BC)

Virtue

It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment. Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC)

Glory follows virtue as if it were its shadow. Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC)

War

Prepare for war, since you have been unable to endure a peace (in Latin: bellum parate, quoniam pacem pati non potuistis). Scipio Africanus (236 BC – 183 BC)

Wars, both civil and foreign, I undertook throughout the world, on sea and land, and when victorious I spared all citizens who sued for pardon. The foreign nations which could with safety be pardoned I preferred to save rather than to destroy. Augustus (63 BC–14 AD)

There are laws for peace as well as war. Livy (64 or 59 BC – AD 17)

Nowhere are our calculations more frequently upset than in war. Livy (64 or 59 BC – AD 17)

Pleasant it to behold great encounters of warfare arrayed over the plains, with no part of yours in peril. Titus Lucretius Carus (c. 99 BC – c. 55 BC)

Peace is obtained by war. Publius Vergilius Maro (70 BC – 19 BC)

A bad peace is even worse than war. Tacitus (56 AD -120 AD)

We find that the Romans owed the conquest of the world to no other cause than continual military training, exact observance of discipline in their camps, and unwearied cultivation of the other arts of war. Vegetius (c. 4th century AD)

Wiseness

The wise are instructed by reason, average minds by experience, the stupid by necessity and the brute by instinct. Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC)

No mortal man, moreover is wise at all moments. Pliny the Elder (23 AD – 79 AD)

Women

If we could survive without a wife, citizens of Rome, all of us would do without that nuisance; but since nature has so decreed that we cannot manage comfortably with them, nor live in any way without them, we must plan for our lasting preservation rather than for our temporary pleasure. Augustus (63 BC–14 AD)

When a woman has lost her chastity she will shrink from nothing. Tacitus (56 AD -120 AD)

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