Quintilian > Quotes

“We should not write so that it is possible for the reader to understand us, but so that it is impossible for him to misunderstand us.”
― Quintilian

“A liar should have a good memory.”
― Quintilian

“There is no one who would not rather appear to know than to be taught.”
― Quintilian

“Those who wish to appear wise among fools, among the wise seem foolish ”
― Quintilian

“Write quickly and you will never write well; write well, and you will soon write quickly.”
― Marcus Fabius Quintilianus

“In writing are the roots, in writing are the foundations of eloquence; by writing resources are stored up, as it were, in a sacred repository, when they may be drawn forth for sudden emergencies, or as circumstances require.”
― Quintilian

“Reading is the least laborious of all the tasks that fall to the student's lot.”
― Quintilian

“A Woman who is generous with her money is to be praised; not so, if she is generous with her person”
― Quintilian

“Erasure is as important as writing. Prune what is turgid, elevate what is commonplace, arrange what is disorderly, introduce rhythm where the language is harsh, modify where it is too absolute. . . . The best method of correction is to put aside for a time what we have written, so that when we come to it again it may have an aspect of novelty, as of being another man's work; in this way we may preserve ourselves from regarding our writings with the affection that we lavish upon a newborn child.”
― Quintilian, De Institutione Oratoria

“We must form our minds by reading deep rather than wide.”
― Marcus Fabius Quintilianus

“Nothing is more dangerous to men than a sudden change in fortune.”
― Quintilian

“We give to necessity the praise of virtue.”
― Marcus Fabius Quintilianus

“The mind is formed by reading deep rather than reading wide”
― Quintilian Quintilian

“Силата на духа и страстта правят хората красноречиви.”
― Quintilian

“Skúsenosť bez vzdelania je viac ako vzdelanie bez skúsenosti.”
― Marcus Fabius Quintilianus

“[20] nam est certe aliquid consummata eloquentia, neque ad earn pervenire natura humani ingenii prohibet. quod si non contingat, altius tamen ibunt, qui ad summa nitentur, quam qui, praesumpta desperatione quo velint evadendi, protinus circa ima substiterint. [20] Perfect eloquence is assuredly a reality, which is not beyond the reach of human intellect. Even if we fail to reach it, those whose aspirations are highest, will attain to greater heights than those who abandon themselves to premature despair of ever reaching the goal and halt at the very foot of the ascent.”
― Marcus Fabius Quintilianus, Complete Works of Quintilian

“Let the orator, therefore, be such a man as may be called truly wise, not
blameless in morals only (for that, in my opinion, though some disagree with
me, is not enough), but accomplished also in science, and in every
qualification for speaking — a character such as, perhaps, no man ever was.
But we are not the less, for that reason, to aim at perfection, for which most
of the ancients strove; though they thought that no wise man had yet been
found, they nevertheless laid down directions for gaining wisdom. For the
perfection of eloquence is assuredly something, nor does the nature of the
human mind forbid us to reach it; but if to reach it be not granted us, yet those
who shall strive to gain the summit will make higher advances than those
who, prematurely conceiving a despair of attaining the point at which they
aim, shall at once sink down at the foot of the ascent.”
― Marcus Fabius Quintilianus

“Art originates in experiment”
― Quintilian, The Institutio Oratoria Of Quintilian