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Explore 329 quotes by people from Italy

The longest-lived and the shortest-lived man, when they come to die, lose one and the same things.

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations

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Topic

Death as equalizer Length of life

Author

Marcus Aurelius

Source

Meditations

Medium

Personal journal

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Greek

Time

180 180s 2nd century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations. c. 180, bk. 2.

Current Citation

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations, edited and translated by Martin Hammond. Penguin Classics, 2015, bk. 2.

How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks, but only at what he does himself, to make it just and holy.

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations

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Topic

Comparing oneself to others

Author

Marcus Aurelius

Source

Meditations

Medium

Personal journal

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Greek

Time

180 180s 2nd century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations. c. 180, bk. 4.

Current Citation

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations, edited and translated by Martin Hammond. Penguin Classics, 2015, bk. 4.

Every lover is a warrior, and Cupid has his camps.

Ovid

Amores

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Topic

Love is a battlefield

Author

Ovid

Source

Amores

Medium

Poem

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

Latin

Time

16 BC 10s BC 1st century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Ovid. Amores. c. 16 BC, bk. 1, no. 9.

Current Citation

Ovid. "Amores." The Love Poems, translated by A. D. Melville. Oxford University Press, 2008, bk. 1, no. 9.

If all evil were prevented, much good would be absent from the universe. A lion would cease to live, if there were no slaying of animals; and there would be no patience of martyrs if there were no tyrannical persecution.

St. Thomas Aquinas

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Topic

Problem of evil

Author

St. Thomas Aquinas

Source

Summa Theologicae

Genre

Religious literature

Language

Latin

Time

1265 1260s 13th century

Era

Middle Ages

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Saint Thomas Aquinus. Summa Theologica. c. 1274, pt. 1.

Current Citation

Saint Thomas Aquinus. The Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas, translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Provinc. Christian Classics, 1981, pt. 1.

Time is a violent torrent; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away.

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations

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Topic

Relentlessness of time Time Circle of life

Author

Marcus Aurelius

Source

Meditations

Medium

Personal journal

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Greek

Time

180 180s 2nd century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations. c. 180, bk. 4.

Current Citation

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations, edited and translated by Martin Hammond. Penguin Classics, 2015, bk. 4.

Let them hate, so long as they fear.

Caligula

Quoted in Lives of the Caesars, by Suetonius

More information about this quote

Topic

Fear in politics Hate Fear Authoritarianism

Speaker

Caligula

Author

Suetonius

Source

Lives of the Caesars

Genre

Biography Historical literature

Language

Latin

Time

1st century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 0

Citation

Accius, Lucius. Atreus. c. 86 BC, Rome, Italy.

Lovely and honorable it is to die for one's country.

Horace

Odes

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Topic

Dying for one's country Patriotism

Author

Horace

Source

Odes

Medium

Poem

Language

Latin

Time

23 BC 20s BC 1st century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Horace. Carmina [Odes]. 23 BC, bk. 3, no. 2.

Current Citation

Horace. "Odes." The Complete Odes and Epodes, translated by David West. Oxford University Press, 2008, bk. 3, no. 2.

There sighs, lamentations and loud wailings resounded through the starless air, so that at first it made me weep; strange tongues, horrible language, words of pain, tones of anger, voices loud and hoarse, and with these the sound of hands, made a tumult which is whirling through that air forever dark, as sand eddies in a whirlpool.

Dante Alighieri

Inferno

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Topic

Hell

Author

Dante Alighieri

Source

Inferno The Divine Comedy

Medium

Poem

Genre

Narrative poem Epic poem Religious literature

Language

Latin

Time

1321 1320s 14th century

Era

Middle Ages

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Alighieri, Dante. "Inferno [Hell]." La Comedia di Dante Alleghieri [The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri]. Foligno: Johann Numeister and Evangelista Angelini da Trevi, 1472.

Current Citation

Alighieri, Dante. "Inferno." The Divine Comedy, edited by David H. Higgins, translated by C. H. Sisson. Oxford University Press, 2008.

For of all gainful professions, nothing is better, nothing more pleasing, nothing more delightful, nothing better becomes a well-bred man than agriculture.

Cicero

On Duties

More information about this quote

Topic

Farming

Author

Cicero

Source

On Duties

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Latin

Time

44 BC 40s BC 1st century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Cicero, Marcus Tullius. De Officiis [On Obligations]. c. 44 BC, bk. 1, ch. 42, sect. 151.

Current Citation

Cicero, Marcus Tullius. On Obligations, translated by P. G. Walsh. Oxford University Press, 2008, bk. 1, ch. 42, sect. 151.

I should be judged as a captain who went from Spain to the Indies to conquer a people numerous and warlike, whose manners and religion are very different from ours, who live in sierras and mountains, without fixed settlements, and where by divine will I have placed under the sovereignty of the King and Queen our Lords, an Other World, whereby Spain, which was reckoned poor, is become the richest of countries.

Christopher Columbus

Letter to Dona Juana de Torres, October of 1500

More information about this quote

Topic

Colonization of the Americas

Author

Christopher Columbus

Source

Letter to Dona Juana de Torres, October of 1500

Medium

Letter

Language

English

Time

1500 1500s 16th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Columbus, Christopher. Letter to Dona Juana de Torres. Oct. 1500.

At two hours after midnight appeared the land, at a distance of two leagues. They handed all sails and set the treo, which is the mainsail without bonnets, and lay-to waiting for daylight Friday, when they arrived at an island of the Bahamas that was called in the Indians' tongue Guanahaní.

Christopher Columbus

Referring to an island located in what is now the Bahamas.

More information about this quote

Topic

Discovery of America

Author

Christopher Columbus

Medium

Personal journal

Language

Spanish

Time

1492 1490s 15th century

Era

Age of Exploration

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Columbus, Christopher. Journal entry. 12 Oct. 1492.

Current Citation

Columbus, Christopher. The Diario of Christopher Columbus's First Voyage to America 1492-1493, translated by Oliver Dunn and James E. Kelley, Jr. University of Oklahoma Press, 1991.

You may drive out Nature with a pitchfork, yet she will hurry back.

Horace

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Topic

Man and nature

Author

Horace

Source

Epistles 1

Medium

Letter

Language

Latin

Time

20 BC 20s 1st century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Horace. Epistularum liber primus [First Book of Letters]. 20 BC, bk. 1, epistle 10.

Current Citation

Horace. "Epistles." Satires and Epistles, translated by John Davie. Oxford University Press, 2011, bk. 1, epistle 10.

All art is but imitation of nature.

Seneca the Younger

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Topic

Nature of art Art

Author

Seneca the Younger

Source

Epistles (Seneca the Younger)

Medium

Letter

Language

Latin

Time

65 60s 1st century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Seneca the Younger. Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium [Moral Letters to Lucilius]. c. 65 AD.

Current Citation

Seneca, Lucius Annaeus. Letters on Ethics, translated by Margaret Graver and A. A. Long. University of Chicago Press, 2017.

Think of the life you have lived until now as over and, as a dead man, see what’s left as a bonus and live it according to Nature. Love the hand that fate deals you and play it as your own, for what could be more fitting?

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations

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Topic

Letting go of the past Making the most

Author

Marcus Aurelius

Source

Meditations

Medium

Personal journal

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Greek

Time

180 180s 2nd century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations. c. 180, bk. 7.

Current Citation

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations, edited and translated by Martin Hammond. Penguin Classics, 2015, bk. 7.

Wherefore not without cause has one of your own followers asked, "If God is, whence come evil things? If He is not, whence come good?"

Boethius

The Consolation of Philosophy

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Topic

Problem of evil

Author

Boethius

Source

The Consolation of Philosophy

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Latin

Time

523 520s 6th century

Era

Middle Ages

Authentication Score 0

Original Citation

Boethius. De Consolatione Philosophiae [On the Consolation of Philosophy]. 524, bk. 1, poem 4.

Current Citation

Boethius. The Consolation of Philosophy, translated by Victor Watts. Penguin Classics, 1999, bk. 1, poem 4.

I was shipwrecked before I got on board.

Seneca the Younger

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Topic

The human condition

Author

Seneca the Younger

Source

Epistles (Seneca the Younger)

Medium

Letter

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

Latin

Time

65 60s 1st century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Seneca the Younger. Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium [Moral Letters to Lucilius]. c. 65 AD.

Current Citation

Seneca, Lucius Annaeus. Letters on Ethics, translated by Margaret Graver and A. A. Long. University of Chicago Press, 2017.

The people are a many-headed beast.

Horace

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Topic

Fickleness of the mob The masses

Author

Horace

Source

Epistles 1

Medium

Letter

Language

Latin

Time

20 BC 20s 1st century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Horace. Epistularum liber primus [First Book of Letters]. 20 BC, bk. 1, epistle 2.

Current Citation

Horace. "Epistles." Satires and Epistles, translated by John Davie. Oxford University Press, 2011, bk. 1, epistle 2.

Whatever befalls you was prepared for you beforehand from eternity, and the thread of causes was spinning from everlasting both your existence and this which befalls you.

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations

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Topic

Fate Free will

Author

Marcus Aurelius

Source

Meditations

Medium

Personal journal

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Greek

Time

180 180s 2nd century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations. c. 180, bk. 10.

Current Citation

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations, edited and translated by Martin Hammond. Penguin Classics, 2015, bk. 10.

A great pilot can sail even when his canvas is rent.

Seneca the Younger

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Topic

Overcoming adversity Adversity Preparation Skill

Author

Seneca the Younger

Source

Epistles (Seneca the Younger)

Medium

Letter

Language

Latin

Time

65 60s 1st century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Seneca the Younger. Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium [Moral Letters to Lucilius]. c. 65 AD.

Current Citation

Seneca, Lucius Annaeus. Letters on Ethics, translated by Margaret Graver and A. A. Long. University of Chicago Press, 2017.

I have always read that the world, both land and water, was spherical, as the authority and researches of Ptolemy and all the others who have written this subject demonstrate and prove, as do the eclipses of the moon and other experiments that are made from east to west, and the elevation of the North Star from north to south.

Christopher Columbus

More information about this quote

Topic

Curvature of the earth The earth

Author

Christopher Columbus

Medium

Letter

Language

Spanish

Time

1498 1490s 15th century

Era

Age of Exploration

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Columbus, Christopher. Letter to the Sovereigns on the Third Voyage. Oct. 1498.

Current Citation

Columbus, Christopher. "Narrative of the third voyage of Christopher Columbus to the Indies, in which he discovered the mainland, dispatched to the sovereigns from the island of hispanola." The Four Voyages, translated by J. M. Cohen. Penguin Classics, 1992.