Too exact, and studious of similitude rather than of beauty.
QUINTILIANA man who tries to surpass another may perhaps succeed in equaling in not actually surpassing him, but one who merely follows can never quite come up with him: a follower, necessarily, is always behind.
More Quintilian Quotes
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Everything that has a beginning comes to an end.
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Forbidden pleasures alone are loved immoderately; when lawful, they do not excite desire.
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Our minds are like our stomaches; they are whetted by the change of their food, and variety supplies both with fresh appetite.
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Virtue, though she gets her beginning from nature, yet receives her finishing touches from learning.
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Conscience is a thousand witnesses.
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We must form our minds by reading deep rather than wide.
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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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Though ambition in itself is a vice, yet it is often the parent of virtues.
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An evil-speaker differs from an evil-doer only in the want of opportunity.
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Whilst we deliberate how to begin a thing, it grows too late to begin it.
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It seldom happens that a premature shoot of genius ever arrives at maturity.
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That which prematurely arrives at perfection soon perishes.
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A mediocre speech supported by all the power of delivery will be more impressive than the best speech unaccompanied by such power.
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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