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.
CATULLUSI hate and love. You ask, perhaps, how can that be? I know not, but I feel the agony.
More Catullus Quotes
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What women say to lovers, you’ll agree, One writes on running water or on air.
CATULLUS -
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 -
It is difficult to lay aside a confirmed passion.
CATULLUS -
It is difficult to suddenly give up a long love. Difficile est longum subito deponere amorem
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Every one has his faults: but we do not see the wallet on our own backs.
CATULLUS -
There is nothing more silly than a silly laugh.
CATULLUS -
I write of youth, of love, and have access by these to sing of cleanly wantonness.
CATULLUS -
Give me a thousand kisses, then a hundred, then a thousand more.
CATULLUS -
But you shall not escape my iambics.
CATULLUS -
Who now travels that dark path from whose bourne they say no one returns. [Lat., Qui nunc it per iter tenebricosum Illue unde negant redire quemquam.]
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 -
Let us live, my Lesbia, and let us love. Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus
CATULLUS -
My mind’s sunk so low, Claudia, because of you, wrecked itself on your account so bad already, that I couldn’t like you if you were the best of women, -or stop loving you, no matter what you do.
CATULLUS -
Away with you, water, destruction of wine!
CATULLUS -
What woman says to fond lover should be written on air or the swift water. [Lat., Mulier cupido quod dicit amanti, In vento et rapida scribere oportet aqua.]
CATULLUS -
To whom do I give my new elegant little book? Cui dono lepidum novum libellum?
CATULLUS -
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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Godlike the man who sits at her side, who watches and catches that laughter which (softly) tears me to tatters: nothing is left of me, each time I see her.
CATULLUS -
Oh, this age! How tasteless and ill bred it is!
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 -
I hate and I love, and who can tell me why?
CATULLUS -
We see not our own backs.
CATULLUS -
There is nothing more foolish than a foolish laugh.
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