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.
QUINTILIANVerse satire indeed is entirely our own.
More Quintilian Quotes
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Forbidden pleasures alone are loved immoderately; when lawful, they do not excite desire.
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When defeat is inevitable, it is wisest to yield.
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The obscurity of a writer is generally in proportion to his incapacity.
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The gifts of nature are infinite in their variety, and mind differs from mind almost as much as body from body.
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We excuse our sloth under the pretext of difficulty.
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One thing, however, I must premise, that without the assistance of natural capacity, rules and precepts are of no efficacy.
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(Slaughter) means blood and iron.
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Lately we have had many losses.
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Consequently the student who is devoid of talent will derive no more profit from this work than barren soil from a treatise on agriculture.
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We should not speak so that it is possible for the audience to understand us, but so that it is impossible for them to misunderstand us.
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Vain hopes are like certain dreams of those who wake.
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By writing quickly we are not brought to write well, but by writing well we are brought to write quickly.
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Suffering itself does less afflict the senses than the apprehension of suffering.
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The learned understand the reason of art; the unlearned feel the pleasure.
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One should aim not at being possible to understand, but at being impossible to misunderstand.
QUINTILIAN






