The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
.pdftamarisks; if we sing of the woods, let them be woods of consular dignity. Now has come the last age according to the oracle at Cumae; the great series of lifetimes starts anew. Now too the virgin goddess returns, the golden days of Saturn’s reign return, now a new race descends from high
heaven.
‘Eclogue’ no. 4, l. 1
Incipe, parve puer, risu cognoscere matrem.
Begin, baby boy, to recognize your mother with a smile.
‘Eclogue’ no. 4, l. 60
Incipe, parve puer: qui non risere parenti,
Nec deus hunc mensa, dea nec dignata cubili est.
Begin, baby boy: if you haven’t had a smile for your parent, then neither will a god think you
worth inviting to dinner, nor a goddess to bed.
‘Eclogue’ no. 4, l. 62
Ambo florentes aetatibus, Arcades ambo, Et cantare pares et respondere parati.
Both in the flower of their youth, Arcadians both, and matched and ready alike to start a song
and to respond.
‘Eclogue’ no. 7, l. 4
Saepibus in nostris parvam te roscida mala (Dux ego vester eram) vidi cum matre legentem. Alter ab undecimo tum me iam acceperat annus, Iam fragilis poteram a terra contingere ramos: Ut vidi, ut perii, ut me malus abstulit error!
In our orchard I saw you picking dewy apples with your mother (I was showing you the way). I had just turned twelve years old, I could reach the brittle branches even from the ground: how I
saw you! how I fell in love! how an awful madness swept me away!
‘Eclogue’ no. 8, l. 37
Nunc scio quid sit Amor.
Now I know what Love is.
‘Eclogue’ no. 8, l. 43
Non omnia possumus omnes.
We can’t all do everything.
‘Eclogue’ no. 8, l. 63 (attributed to Lucilius, Macrobius ‘Saturnalia’ vi.1.35)
Et me fecere poetam
Pierides, sunt et mihi carmina, me quoque dicunt Vatem pastores; sed non ego credulus illis. Nam neque adhuc Vario videor nec dicere Cinna Digna, sed argutos inter strepere anser olores.
Me too the Muses made write verse. I have songs of my own, the shepherds call me also a poet; but I’m not inclined to trust them. For I don’t seem yet to write things as good either as
Varius or as Cinna, but to be a goose honking amongst tuneful swans.
‘Eclogue’ no. 9, l. 32
Omnia vincit Amor: et nos cedamus Amori.
Love conquers all things: let us too give in to Love.
‘Eclogue’ no. 10, l. 69
Ite domum saturae, venit Hesperus, ite capellae.
Go on home, you have fed full, the evening star is coming, go on, my she-goats.
‘Eclogue’ no. 10, l. 77
Ultima Thule.
Farthest Thule.
‘Georgics’ no. 1, l. 30
Nosque ubi primus equis Oriens adflavit anhelis Illic sera rubens accendit lumina Vesper.
And when the rising sun has first breathed on us with his panting horses, over there the red
evening-star is lighting his late lamps.
‘Georgics’ no. 1, l. 250
Ter sunt conati imponere Pelio Ossam
Scilicet atque Ossae frondosum involvere Olympum; Ter pater exstructos disiecit fulmine montis.
Three times they endeavoured to pile Ossa on Pelion, no less, and to roll leafy Olympus on top
of Ossa; three times our Father scattered the heaped-up mountains with a thunderbolt.
‘Georgics’ no. 1, l. 281
O fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint, Agricolas!
O farmers excessively fortunate if only they recognized their blessings!
‘Georgics’ no. 2, l. 458
Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas.
Lucky is he who has been able to understand the causes of things.
‘Georgics’ no. 2, l. 490
Fortunatus et ille deos qui novit agrestis.
Fortunate too is the man who has come to know the gods of the countryside.
‘Georgics’ no. 2, l. 493
Optima quaeque dies miseris mortalibus aevi Prima fugit; subeunt morbi tristisque senectus Et labor, et durae rapit inclementia mortis.
All the best days of life slip away from us poor mortals first; illnesses and dreary old age and
Ils ne se servent de la pensèe que pour autoriser leurs injustices, et n’emploient les paroles que pour dèguiser leurs pensèes.
[Men] use thought only to justify their injustices, and speech only to conceal their thoughts.
‘Dialogues’ no. 14 ‘Le Chapon et la Poularde’
Le mieux est l’ennemi du bien.
The best is the enemy of the good.
‘Art Dramatique’ in ‘Dictionnaire Philosophique’ (1764)
La superstition met le monde entier en flammes; la philosophie les èteint.
Superstition sets the whole world in flames; philosophy quenches them.
‘Superstition’ in ‘Dictionnaire Philosophique’ (1764)
Tous les genres sont bons hors le genre ennuyeux.
All styles are good save the tiresome kind.
‘L’Enfant Prodigue’ (1736) preface
Si Dieu n’existait pas, il faudrait l’inventer.
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.
‘Èpîtres’ no. 96 ‘A l’Auteur du livre des trois imposteurs’
Ce corps qui s’appelait et qui s’appelle encore le saint empire romain n’ètait en aucune maniére ni saint, ni romain, ni empire.
This agglomeration which was called and which still calls itself the Holy Roman Empire was
neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.
‘Essai sur les moeurs et l’esprit des nations’ (1769) lxx
En effet, l’histoire n’est que le tableau des crimes et des malheurs.
Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.
‘L’Ingènu’ (1767) ch. 10.
Quoi que vous fassiez, ècrasez l’infâme, et aimez qui vous aime.
Whatever you do, stamp out abuses, and love those who love you.
Letter to M. d’Alembert, 28 November 1762
Il est plaisant qu’on fait une vertu du vice de chastetè; et voilá encore une drôle de chastetè que celle qui méne tout droit les hommes au pèchè d’Onan, et les filles aux pâles couleurs!
It is amusing that a virtue is made of the vice of chastity; and it’s a pretty odd sort of chastity at
that, which leads men straight into the sin of Onan, and girls to the waning of their colour.
Letter to M. Mariott, 28 March 1766
Je ne suis pas comme une dame de la cour de Versailles, qui disait: c’est bien dommage que l’aventure de la tour de Babel ait produit la confusion des langues; sans cela tout le monde aurait toujours parlè français.
I am not like a lady at the court of Versailles, who said: ‘What a dreadful pity that the bother at the tower of Babel should have got language all mixed up; but for that, everyone would always have spoken French.’