Tibullus > Quotes

“I myself have seen this woman draw the stars from the sky; she diverts the course of a fast-flowing river with her incantations; her voice makes the earth gape, it lures the spirits from the tombs, send the bones tumbling from the dying pyre. At her behest, the sad clouds scatter; at her behest, snow falls from a summer's sky.”
― Tibullus, The works of Tibullus

“Who was the first that forged the deadly blade? Of rugged steel his savage soul was made.”
― Tibullus

“Let other men gather bright gold to themselves and own many acres of well-ploughed soil, let endless worry trouble them, with enemies nearby, and the peals of the war trumpets driving away sleep: let my moderate means lead me to a quiet life, as long as my fireside glows with endless flame.

Let me plant the tender vines at the proper time, tall fruit trees, myself a rustic, with skilled hands:nor let hope fail, but deliver the pile-up fruits, and the rich vintage in overflowing vats, since i worship wherever there's a stump left in the fields, or an old stone at the crossroads, wreathed with flowers: and whatever fruit of mine the new season brings I set as an offering before the god of the fields. --Tibullus cca. 55 BC – 19 BC”
― Tibullus

“In solis sis tibi turba locis”
― Tibullus, Tibullus: Elegies I

“in lonely places, be a crowd unto yourself.”
― Tibullus, Yale Classics - Roman Classical Literature (Annotated): Enriched Edition. A Latin Canon of Epic, Satire, Rhetoric, History, Philosophy, and Rome's Literary Imagination