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Too exact, and studious of similitude rather than of beauty.

Quintilian

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

Ambition Father Vice Virtue
Consequently the student who is devoid of talent will derive no more profit from this work than barren soil from a treatise on agriculture.
QUINTILIAN

Agriculture Profit Student Talent Work
Without natural gifts technical rules are useless.
QUINTILIAN

Gift Natural Rule Technical
We excuse our sloth under the pretext of difficulty.
QUINTILIAN

Difficult Excuse Ourselves
Medicine for the dead is too late.
QUINTILIAN

Death Medicine One Liner
A mediocre speech supported by all the power of delivery will be more impressive than the best speech unaccompanied by such power.
QUINTILIAN

Accompany Average Impression Support
One should aim not at being possible to understand, but at being impossible to misunderstand.
QUINTILIAN

Goal Perspective Possible
By writing quickly we are not brought to write well, but by writing well we are brought to write quickly.
QUINTILIAN

Difference Literature Poet Writing
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.
QUINTILIAN

Better Born Destruction Dumb Man Neighbor Reason
Write quickly and you will never write well; write well, and you will soon write quickly.
QUINTILIAN

Poet Quick Writing Yourself
The pretended admission of a fault on our part creates an excellent impression.
QUINTILIAN

Admission Creation Excellence Impression Pretend
That which offends the ear will not easily gain admission to the mind.
QUINTILIAN

Admission Ear Easy Mindset Offend
Lately we have had many losses.
QUINTILIAN

Late Lose One Liner
Nothing is more dangerous to men than a sudden change of fortune.
QUINTILIAN

Change Dangerous Fortune
Vain hopes are like certain dreams of those who wake.
QUINTILIAN

Awake Dreams Hope
Virtue, though she gets her beginning from nature, yet receives her finishing touches from learning.
QUINTILIAN

Beginning Herself Learning Nature Touch Virtue

Too exact, and studious of similitude rather than of beauty.

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Too exact, and studious of similitude rather than of beauty.

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Popular Authors

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