Quintilian Quotes - Page 3

Give me the boy who rouses when he is praised, who profits when he is encouraged and who cries when he is defeated. Such a boy will be fired by ambition; he will be stung by reproach, and animated by preference; never shall I apprehend any bad consequences from idleness in such a boy.

A liar ought to have a good memory.

Men, even when alone, lighten their labors by song, however rude it may be.

While we ponder when to begin, it becomes too late to do.

Without natural gifts technical rules are useless.

Let us never adopt the maxim, Rather lose our friend than our jest.

It is much easier to try one's hand at many things than to concentrate one's powers on one thing.

Nature herself has never attempted to effect great changes rapidly.

He who speaks evil only differs from his who does evil in that he lacks opportunity.

Ambition is a vice, but it may be the father of virtue.

Those who wish to appear learned to fools, appear as fools to the learned.

To swear, except when necessary, is becoming to an honorable man. [Lat., In totum jurare, nisi ubi necesse est, gravi viro parum convenit.]

It is easier to do many things than to do one thing continuously for a long time.

For it would have been better that man should have been born dumb, nay, void of all reason, rather than that he should employ the gifts of Providence to the destruction of his neighbor.

Men of quality are in the wrong to undervalue, as they often do, the practise of a fair and quick hand in writing; for it is no immaterial accomplishment.

Nothing can be pleasing which is not also becoming.

Vain hopes are like certain dreams of those who wake.

The pretended admission of a fault on our part creates an excellent impression.

The obscurity of a writer is generally in proportion to his incapacity.

Too exact, and studious of similitude rather than of beauty. [Lat., Nimis in veritate, et similitudinis quam pulchritudinis amantior.]

It is fitting that a liar should be a man of good memory.

Minds that are stupid and incapable of science are in the order of nature to be regarded as monsters and other extraordinary phenomena; minds of this sort are rare. Hence I conclude that there are great resources to be found in children, which are suffered to vanish with their years. It is evident, therefore, that it is not of nature, but of our own negligence, we ought to complain.

It is the nurse that the child first hears, and her words that he will first attempt to imitate.

The gifts of nature are infinite in their variety, and mind differs from mind almost as much as body from body.

Though ambition in itself is a vice, yet it is often the parent of virtues. [Lat., Licet ipsa vitium sit ambitio, frequenter tamen causa virtutem est.]