About Author : Decimus Iunius Iuvenalis, known in English as Juvenal, was a Roman poet active in the late 1st and early 2nd century AD, author of the Satires. The details of the author’s life are unclear, although references within his text to known persons of the late 1st and early 2nd centuries AD fix his terminus post quem. In accord with the vitriolic manner of Lucilius – the originator of the genre of Roman satire – and within a poetic tradition that also included Horace and Persius, Juvenal wrote at least 16 poems in dactylic hexameter covering an encyclopedic range of topics across the Roman world. While the Satires are a vital source for the study of ancient Rome from a vast number of perspectives, their hyperbolic, comedic mode of expression makes the use of statements found within them as simple fact problematic, to say the least.
Juvenal Quotes and Quotations
Nature never says one thing Wisdom another.
All wish to be learned but no one is willing to pay the price.
Luxury is more deadly than any foe.
All wish to possess knowledge but few comparatively speaking are willing to pay the price.
Two things only the people actually desire bread and circuses.
Ardeat ipsa licet tormentia gaudet amantis. Though she may herself burn she delights in her lover’s torment.
But who is to guard the guards themselves.
Peace visits not the guilty mind.
One path alone leads to a life of peace The path of virtue.
Fortune can for her pleasure fools advance And toss them on the wheels of Chance.
Count it the greatest sin to prefer life to honor and for the sake of living to love what makes life worth having.
A healthy mind in a healthy body.
Refrain from doing ill for one all powerful reason lest our children should copy our misdeeds we are all to prone to imitate whatever is base and depraved.
Be gentle with the young.
Be rich to yourself and poor to your friends.
Think it the greatest impiety to prefer life to disgrace and for the sake of life to lose the reason for living.
You should pray for a sound mind in a sound body.
The people that one bestowed commands consulships legions and all else now concerns itself no more and longs eagerly for just two things bread and circuses .
It is not easy for men to rise whose qualities are thwarted by poverty.
January 15th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
“All wish to possess knowledge, but few, comparatively speaking, are willing to pay the price.”….Juvenal
Thanks for the above Juvenal quote. Howeer, I’d also like to know how it is said in the
ORIGINAL Latin. Anybody can help? Also WHICH satire is it found in? Thanks.