Quintilian quotes
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“Whilst we deliberate how to begin a thing, it grows too late to begin it.”
-- Quintilian -
“Write quickly and you will never write well; write well, and you will soon write quickly.”
-- QuintilianSource : Quintilian (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Quintilian (Illustrated)”, p.528, Delphi Classics
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“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 -
“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.”
-- Quintilian -
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“As regards parents, I should like to see them as highly educated as possible, and I do not restrict this remark to fathers alone.”
-- Quintilian -
“While we are making up our minds as to when we shall begin. the opportunity is lost.”
-- Quintilian -
“Our minds are like our stomaches; they are whetted by the change of their food, and variety supplies both with fresh appetite.”
-- Quintilian -
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“Everything that has a beginning comes to an end.”
-- Quintilian -
“A mediocre speech supported by all the power of delivery will be more impressive than the best speech unaccompanied by such power.”
-- QuintilianSource : Quintilian (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Quintilian (Illustrated)”, p.572, Delphi Classics
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“The gifts of nature are infinite in their variety, and mind differs from mind almost as much as body from body.”
-- Quintilian -
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“We excuse our sloth under the pretext of difficulty.”
-- QuintilianSource : "Institutio Oratoria". Textbook by Marcus Fabius Quintilianus, I. 12,
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“One should aim not at being possible to understand, but at being impossible to misunderstand.”
-- Quintilian -
“Suffering itself does less afflict the senses than the apprehension of suffering.”
-- Quintilian -
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“For the mind is all the easier to teach before it is set.”
-- Quintilian -
“A Woman who is generous with her money is to be praised; not so, if she is generous with her person”
-- Quintilian -
“Give bread to a stranger, in the name of the universal brotherhood which binds together all men under the common father of nature.”
-- Quintilian -
“Men, even when alone, lighten their labors by song, however rude it may be.”
-- Quintilian -
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“It is easier to do many things than to do one thing continuously for a long time.”
-- Quintilian -
“For comic writers charge Socrates with making the worse appear the better reason.”
-- Quintilian -
“It is much easier to try one's hand at many things than to concentrate one's powers on one thing.”
-- Quintilian -
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“(Slaughter) means blood and iron. [Lat., Coedes videtur significare sanguinem et ferrum.]”
-- Quintilian -
“Although virtue receives some of its excellencies from nature, yet it is perfected by education. [Lat., Virtus, etiamsi quosdam impetus a natura sumit, tamen perficienda doctrina est.]”
-- Quintilian -
“To swear, except when necessary, is becoming to an honorable man. [Lat., In totum jurare, nisi ubi necesse est, gravi viro parum convenit.]”
-- Quintilian -
“The soul languishing in obscurity contracts a kind of rust, or abandons itself to the chimera of presumption; for it is natural for it to acquire something, even when separated from any one.”
-- Quintilian -
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“Too exact, and studious of similitude rather than of beauty. [Lat., Nimis in veritate, et similitudinis quam pulchritudinis amantior.]”
-- Quintilian -
“Though ambition in itself is a vice, yet it is often the parent of virtues. [Lat., Licet ipsa vitium sit ambitio, frequenter tamen causa virtutem est.]”
-- Quintilian -
“Satiety is a neighbor to continued pleasures. [Lat., Continuis voluptatibus vicina satietas.]”
-- Quintilian -
“Those who wish to appear wise among fools, among the wise seem foolish. [Lat., Qui stultis videri eruditi volunt, stulti eruditis videntur.]”
-- QuintilianSource : "Institutes of Oratory (Volume X)". Book by Quintilian, 95 CE.
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“Give me the boy who rouses when he is praised, who profits when he is encouraged and who cries when he is defeated. Such a boy will be fired by ambition; he will be stung by reproach, and animated by preference; never shall I apprehend any bad consequences from idleness in such a boy.”
-- Quintilian -
“Minds that are stupid and incapable of science are in the order of nature to be regarded as monsters and other extraordinary phenomena; minds of this sort are rare. Hence I conclude that there are great resources to be found in children, which are suffered to vanish with their years. It is evident, therefore, that it is not of nature, but of our own negligence, we ought to complain.”
-- Quintilian -
“The learned understand the reason of art; the unlearned feel the pleasure.”
-- Quintilian -
“When we cannot hope to win, it is an advantage to yield.”
-- Quintilian -
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“In almost everything, experience is more valuable than precept.”
-- QuintilianSource : "De Institutione Oratoria" by Marcus Fabius Quintilianus as reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations, p. 244-45., 1922.
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“It is fitting that a liar should be a man of good memory.”
-- Quintilian -
“When defeat is inevitable, it is wisest to yield.”
-- Quintilian -
“Though ambition may be a fault in itself, it is often the mother of virtues.”
-- Quintilian -
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“Vain hopes are like certain dreams of those who wake.”
-- Quintilian -
“For all the best teachers pride themselves on having a large number of pupils and think themselves worthy of a bigger audience.”
-- Quintilian -
“Without natural gifts technical rules are useless.”
-- Quintilian -
“Where evil habits are once settled, they are more easily broken than mended.”
-- Quintilian -
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“Nature herself has never attempted to effect great changes rapidly.”
-- Quintilian -
“Forbidden pleasures alone are loved immoderately; when lawful, they do not excite desire.”
-- Quintilian -
“Consequently the student who is devoid of talent will derive no more profit from this work than barren soil from a treatise on agriculture.”
-- Quintilian -
“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 -
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“It is worth while too to warn the teacher that undue severity in correcting faults is liable at times to discourage a boy's mind from effort.”
-- Quintilian -
“We must form our minds by reading deep rather than wide.”
-- Quintilian -
“The mind is exercised by the variety and multiplicity of the subject matter, while the character is moulded by the contemplation of virtue and vice.”
-- Quintilian -
“It is the nurse that the child first hears, and her words that he will first attempt to imitate.”
-- Quintilian -
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“He who speaks evil only differs from his who does evil in that he lacks opportunity.”
-- Quintilian -
“A laugh costs too much when bought at the expense of virtue.”
-- QuintilianSource : "Institutio Oratoria". Textbook by Marcus Fabius Quintilianus, VI. 3. 5,
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“God, that all-powerful Creator of nature and architect of the world, has impressed man with no character so proper to distinguish him from other animals, as by the faculty of speech.”
-- QuintilianSource : "Institutes of Oratory (Volume II)". Book by Quintilian, 95 CE.
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“Study depends on the goodwill of the student, a quality that cannot be secured by compulsion.”
-- Quintilian -
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“Those who wish to appear learned to fools, appear as fools to the learned.”
-- Quintilian -
“In a crowd, on a journey, at a banquet even, a line of thought can itself provide its own seclusion.”
-- Quintilian -
“A great part of art consists in imitation. For the whole conduct of life is based on this: that what we admire in others we want to do ourselves.”
-- Quintilian -
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“Nothing is more dangerous to men than a sudden change of fortune.”
-- QuintilianSource : "Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations" by Jehiel Keeler Hoyt, p. 289-93, De Institutione Oratoria, CCLX, 1922.
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“There is no one who would not rather appear to know than to be taught.”
-- Quintilian -
“A man who tries to surpass another may perhaps succeed in equaling inot actually surpassing him, but one who merely follows can never quite come up with him: a follower, necessarily, is always behind.”
-- Quintilian -
“To my mind the boy who gives least promise is one in whom the critical faculty develops in advance of the imagination.”
-- Quintilian -
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“Sayings designed to raise a laugh are generally untrue and never complimentary. Laughter is never far removed from derision.”
-- Quintilian -
“An evil-speaker differs from an evil-doer only in the want of opportunity.”
-- QuintilianSource : "De Institutione Oratoria" by Marcus Fabius Quintilianus as reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations, p. 244-45., 1922.
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“Fear of the future is worse than one's present fortune.”
-- QuintilianSource : "De Institutione Oratoria", XII. 5, as quoted in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations, p. 289-93, 1922.
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“Let us never adopt the maxim, Rather lose our friend than our jest.”
-- Quintilian -
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“By writing quickly we are not brought to write well, but by writing well we are brought to write quickly.”
-- Quintilian -
“The obscurity of a writer is generally in proportion to his incapacity.”
-- Quintilian -
“Ambition is a vice, but it may be the father of virtue.”
-- Quintilian -
“While we ponder when to begin, it becomes too late to do.”
-- Quintilian -
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“It seldom happens that a premature shoot of genius ever arrives at maturity.”
-- Quintilian -
“While we are examining into everything we sometimes find truth where we least expected it.”
-- Quintilian -
“From writing rapidly it does not result that one writes well, but from writing well it results that one writes rapidly.”
-- Quintilian -
“That which prematurely arrives at perfection soon perishes.”
-- Quintilian -
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“Men of quality are in the wrong to undervalue, as they often do, the practise of a fair and quick hand in writing; for it is no immaterial accomplishment.”
-- Quintilian -
“One thing, however, I must premise, that without the assistance of natural capacity, rules and precepts are of no efficacy.”
-- Quintilian -
“The pretended admission of a fault on our part creates an excellent impression.”
-- Quintilian -
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“If you direct your whole thought to work itself, none of the things which invade eyes or ears will reach the mind.”
-- Quintilian -
“The prosperous can not easily form a right idea of misery.”
-- Quintilian -
“That which offends the ear will not easily gain admission to the mind.”
-- Quintilian -
“A liar must have a good memory. -Mendacem oportet esse memorem”
-- Quintilian -
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“Nothing can be pleasing which is not also becoming.”
-- Quintilian -
“Virtue, though she gets her beginning from nature, yet receives her finishing touches from learning.”
-- Quintilian
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