Quintilian Quotes and Sayings - Page 1

“Whilst we deliberate how to begin a thing, it grows too late to begin it.”
-- Quintilian

#Procrastination #Too Late #Grows

“Write quickly and you will never write well; write well, and you will soon write quickly.”
-- Quintilian

#Writing #Wells

“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

#Writing #Impossible #Should

“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

#Writing #Language #Introducing

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

#Motivational #Memories #Honesty

“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

#Father #Pregnancy #Parent

“While we are making up our minds as to when we shall begin. the opportunity is lost.”
-- Quintilian

#Opportunity #Mind #Lost

“Our minds are like our stomaches; they are whetted by the change of their food, and variety supplies both with fresh appetite.”
-- Quintilian

#Life #Food #Mind

“The perfection of art is to conceal art.”
-- Quintilian

#Art #Perfection #Art Is

“Everything that has a beginning comes to an end.”
-- Quintilian

#Ends

“A mediocre speech supported by all the power of delivery will be more impressive than the best speech unaccompanied by such power.”
-- Quintilian

#Training #Speech #Impressive

“The gifts of nature are infinite in their variety, and mind differs from mind almost as much as body from body.”
-- Quintilian

#Mind #Body #Infinite

“We excuse our sloth under the pretext of difficulty.”
-- Quintilian

#Life #Sloth #Excuse

“One should aim not at being possible to understand, but at being impossible to misunderstand.”
-- Quintilian

#Writing #Impossible #Should

“She abounds with lucious faults.”
-- Quintilian

#Dating #Faults

“Suffering itself does less afflict the senses than the apprehension of suffering.”
-- Quintilian

#Suffering #Doe #Anticipation

“For the mind is all the easier to teach before it is set.”
-- Quintilian

#Mind #Easier #Teach

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

#Persons #Generous

“Give bread to a stranger, in the name of the universal brotherhood which binds together all men under the common father of nature.”
-- Quintilian

#Father #Men #Names

“Men, even when alone, lighten their labors by song, however rude it may be.”
-- Quintilian

#Song #Men #Rude

“Verse satire indeed is entirely our own.”
-- Quintilian

#Satire #Verses

“It is easier to do many things than to do one thing continuously for a long time.”
-- Quintilian

#Long #Easier #Variety

“For comic writers charge Socrates with making the worse appear the better reason.”
-- Quintilian

#Reason #Comic

“It is much easier to try one's hand at many things than to concentrate one's powers on one thing.”
-- Quintilian

#Hands #Trying #Easier

“(Slaughter) means blood and iron. [Lat., Coedes videtur significare sanguinem et ferrum.]”
-- Quintilian

#War #Mean #Iron

“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

#Virtue

“To swear, except when necessary, is becoming to an honorable man. [Lat., In totum jurare, nisi ubi necesse est, gravi viro parum convenit.]”
-- Quintilian

#Men #Becoming #Honorable

“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

#Soul #Rust #Obscurity

“Too exact, and studious of similitude rather than of beauty. [Lat., Nimis in veritate, et similitudinis quam pulchritudinis amantior.]”
-- Quintilian

#Beauty #Studious

“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

#Ambition #Parent #Vices