Let us live, my Lesbia, and let us love. Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus
CATULLUSNow Spring restores the balmy heat, now Zephyr’s sweet breezes calm the rage of the equinoctial sky.
More Catullus Quotes
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Away with you, water, destruction of wine!
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It is difficult to lay aside a confirmed passion.
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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.
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Give up wanting to deserve any thanks from anyone, or thinking anybody can be grateful.
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My lady’s sparrow is dead, the sparrow which was my lady’s delight
CATULLUS -
I hate and love. You ask, perhaps, how can that be? I know not, but I feel the agony.
CATULLUS -
We see not our own backs.
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But you shall not escape my iambics.
CATULLUS -
To whom do I give my new elegant little book? Cui dono lepidum novum libellum?
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It is difficult to suddenly give up a long love. Difficile est longum subito deponere amorem
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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.
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What a woman says to an eager lover, write it on running water, write it on air.
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For the godly poet must be chaste himself, but there is no need for his verses to be so.
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Oh, this age! How tasteless and ill bred it is!
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The vows that woman makes to her fond lover are only fit to be written on air or on the swiftly passing stream.
CATULLUS






