Juvenal > Quotes

“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? - Who will watch the watchers?”
― Juvenal, The Sixteen Satires

“Never does Nature say one thing and Wisdom another.”
― Juvenal, The Sixteen Satires

“Many commit the same crime with a very different result. One bears a cross for his crime; another a crown.”
― Juvenal, The Satires

“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (Who watches the watchmen?)”
― Juvenal

“The people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions, and all else, now concerns itself no more, and longs eagerly for just two things: bread and circuses!”
― Juvenal

“No man becomes bad all at once.”
― Juvenal

“All wish to possess knowledge, but few, comparatively speaking, are willing to pay the price.”
― Juvenal

“Sit mens sana in corpore sano
(a healthy mind in a healthy body)”
― Juvenal

“Many suffer from the incurable disease of writing, and it becomes chronic in their sick minds.”
― Juvenal

“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes.

Which roughly translates as

Who will Guard the Guardians, or
Who watches the watchers.”
― Juvenal

“It is to be prayed that the mind be sound in a sound body.
Ask for a brave soul that lacks the fear of death,
which places the length of life last among nature’s blessings,
which is able to bear whatever kind of sufferings,
does not know anger, lusts for nothing and believes
the hardships and savage labors of Hercules better than
the satisfactions, feasts, and feather bed of an Eastern king.
I will reveal what you are able to give yourself;
For certain, the one footpath of a tranquil life lies through virtue.”
― Juvenal, The Sixteen Satires

“Dedicate one's life to truth”
― Juvenal

“Honesty is admired, and starves.”
― Juvenal, Satires, Book I

“It is difficult not to write satire.”
― Decimus Iunius Iuvenalis

“Ask for a valiant heart which has banished the fear of death, which looks upon the length of days as one of the least of nature's gifts; which is able to suffer every kind of hardship, is proof against anger, craves for nothing, and reckons the trials and gruelling labours of Hercules as more desirable blessings than the amorous ease and the banquets and cushions of Sardanapallus. The things that I recommend you can grant to yourself.”
― Juvenal

“Where talent is lacking, anger writes poetry.”
― Juvenal

“When Alexander The Great was alive the world was not big enough to contain his ambition but while Alexander chafed at the confines of the world in life, in death, “a coffin was enough.”
― Juvenal

“It is a poor thing to lean upon the fame of others, lest the pillars give way and the house fall down in ruin.”
― Juvenal, The Sixteen Satires

“Writing in the incurable itch that possesses many.”
― Juvenal

“while your mother in law still lives, domestic harmony / is out of the question.”
― Juvenal

“orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano.”
― Juvenal

“Is it a simple form of madness to lose a hundred thousand sesterces, and not have a shirt to give to a shivering slave?”
― Juvenal, The Sixteen Satires

“Panem et circenses.”
― Juvenal, The satyrs of Decimus Junius Juvenalis and of Aulus Persius Flaccus

“..but who will guard the guardians?”
― Juvenal

“Fate would have no divinity if we were wise: it is we who make her a goddess and place her in heaven.”
― Decimus Junius Juvenalis

“So Nature ordains; no evil example corrupts us so soon and so rapidly as one that has been set at home, since it comes into the mind on high authority.”
― Juvenal, The Sixteen Satires

“For no deity is held in such reverence amongst us as Wealth; though as yet, O baneful money, thou hast no temple of thine own; not yet have we reared altars to Money in like manner as we worship Peace and Honour, Victory and Virtue”
― Juvenal, The Sixteen Satires

“Besides what endless brawls by wives are bred,
The curtain lecture makes a mournful bed.”
― Juvenal, The satyrs of Decimus Junius Juvenalis and of Aulus Persius Flaccus

“Rarus enim ferme sensus communis in illa Fortuna."


["Generally common sense is rare in that (higher) rank."]”
― Juvenal, Satires, Book I

“A lucky man is rarer than a white crow.”
― Juvenal