Quintilian Quotes

We should not speak so that it is possible for the audience to understand us, but so that it is impossible for them to misunderstand us.

Whilst we deliberate how to begin a thing, it grows too late to begin it.

We must form our minds by reading deep rather than wide.

That which offends the ear will not easily gain admission to the mind.

A mediocre speech supported by all the power of delivery will be more impressive than the best speech unaccompanied by such power.

Study depends on the goodwill of the student, a quality that cannot be secured by compulsion.

It is the heart which inspires eloquence.

In almost everything, experience is more valuable than precept.

Virtue, though she gets her beginning from nature, yet receives her finishing touches from learning.

A laugh costs too much when bought at the expense of virtue.

We excuse our sloth under the pretext of difficulty.

Usage is the best language teacher.

One should aim not at being possible to understand, but at being impossible to misunderstand.

Write quickly and you will never write well; write well, and you will soon write quickly.

Those who wish to appear wise among fools, among the wise seem foolish.

An evil-speaker differs from an evil-doer only in the want of opportunity.

Forbidden pleasures alone are loved immoderately; when lawful, they do not excite desire.

Medicine for the dead is too late

That which prematurely arrives at perfection soon perishes.

Sayings designed to raise a laugh are generally untrue and never complimentary. Laughter is never far removed from derision.

The learned understand the reason of art; the unlearned feel the pleasure.

A great part of art consists in imitation. For the whole conduct of life is based on this: that what we admire in others we want to do ourselves.

Prune what is turgid, elevate what is commonplace, arrange what is disorderly, introduce rhythm where the language is harsh, modify where it is too absolute.

A religion without mystics is a philosophy.

The mind is exercised by the variety and multiplicity of the subject matter, while the character is moulded by the contemplation of virtue and vice.