So a maiden, whilst she remains untouched, so long is she dear to her own; when she has lost her chaste flower with sullied body, she remains neither lovely to boys nor dear to girls.
CATULLUSThere is nothing more silly than a silly laugh.
More Catullus Quotes
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Stop wishing to merit anyone’s gratitude or thinking that anyone can become grateful.
CATULLUS -
What a woman says to an eager lover, write it on running water, write it on air.
CATULLUS -
I hate and I love. Perchance you ask why I do that. I know not, but I feel that I do and I am tortured. [Lat., Odi et amo. Quare id faciam, fortasse requiris. Nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior.]
CATULLUS -
The confounding of all right and wrong, in wild fury, has averted from us the gracious favor of the gods.
CATULLUS -
Give up wanting to deserve any thanks from anyone, or thinking anybody can be grateful.
CATULLUS -
For the godly poet must be chaste himself, but there is no need for his verses to be so.
CATULLUS -
Now Spring restores the balmy heat, now Zephyr’s sweet breezes calm the rage of the equinoctial sky.
CATULLUS -
Oh, this age! How tasteless and ill bred it is!
CATULLUS -
It is difficult to lay aside a confirmed passion.
CATULLUS -
I can imagine no greater misfortune for a cultured people than to see in the hands of the rulers not only the civil, but also the religious power.
CATULLUS -
I hate and I love. And if you ask me how, I do not know: I only feel it, and I am torn in two.
CATULLUS -
The vows that woman makes to her fond lover are only fit to be written on air or on the swiftly passing stream.
CATULLUS -
To whom do I give my new elegant little book? Cui dono lepidum novum libellum?
CATULLUS -
I write of youth, of love, and have access by these to sing of cleanly wantonness.
CATULLUS -
But you shall not escape my iambics.
CATULLUS