Catullus quotes
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“It is difficult to lay aside a confirmed passion.”
-- Catullus -
“Better a sparrow, living or dead, than no birdsong at all.”
-- Catullus -
“I hate and love. You ask, perhaps, how can that be? I know not, but I feel the agony.”
-- Catullus -
“The vows that woman makes to her fond lover are only fit to be written on air or on the swiftly passing stream.”
-- Catullus -
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“We see not our own backs.”
-- Catullus -
“What woman says to fond lover should be written on air or the swift water. [Lat., Mulier cupido quod dicit amanti, In vento et rapida scribere oportet aqua.]”
-- Catullus -
“Who now travels that dark path from whose bourne they say no one returns. [Lat., Qui nunc it per iter tenebricosum Illue unde negant redire quemquam.]”
-- Catullus -
“I hate and I love. Perchance you ask why I do that. I know not, but I feel that I do and I am tortured. [Lat., Odi et amo. Quare id faciam, fortasse requiris. Nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior.]”
-- Catullus -
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“Nothing is more silly than silly laughter.”
-- CatullusSource : "Carmina". XXXIX, 16,
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“There is nothing more foolish than a foolish laugh. Risu inepto res ineptior nulla est”
-- Catullus -
“To whom do I give my new elegant little book? Cui dono lepidum novum libellum?”
-- Catullus -
“Stop wishing to merit anyone's gratitude or thinking that anyone can become grateful.”
-- Catullus -
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“There is nothing more silly than a silly laugh.”
-- Catullus -
“Brother, hello and good-bye. Frater, ave atque vale”
-- Catullus -
“It is difficult to suddenly give up a long love. Difficile est longum subito deponere amorem”
-- Catullus -
“Let us live, my Lesbia, and let us love. Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus”
-- Catullus -
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“Give up wanting to deserve any thanks from anyone, or thinking anybody can be grateful.”
-- CatullusSource : 'Carmina' no. 73
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“Now Spring restores the balmy heat, now Zephyr's sweet breezes calm the rage of the equinoctial sky.”
-- Catullus -
“The confounding of all right and wrong, in wild fury, has averted from us the gracious favor of the gods.”
-- CatullusSource : "Carmina". LXIV. 406,
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“Every one has his faults: but we do not see the wallet on our own backs.”
-- CatullusSource : "Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations" by Jehiel Keeler Hoyt, p. 265-67, Carmina, XXII. 20, 1922.
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“My lady's sparrow is dead, the sparrow which was my lady's delight”
-- Catullus -
“What a woman says to an eager lover, write it on running water, write it on air.”
-- Catullus -
“Give me a thousand kisses, then a hundred, then a thousand more.”
-- CatullusSource : Gaius Valerius Catullus, Peter Green (2005). “The Poems of Catullus”, p.49, Univ of California Press
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“Godlike the man who sits at her side, who watches and catches that laughter which (softly) tears me to tatters: nothing is left of me, each time I see her...”
-- CatullusSource : Gaius Valerius Catullus (1983). “The Poems of Catullus: A Bilingual Edition”, p.110, Univ of California Press
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“I hate and love. And why, perhaps you’ll ask. I don’t know: but I feel, and I’m tormented.”
-- Catullus -
“I hate and I love. And if you ask me how, I do not know: I only feel it, and I am torn in two.”
-- CatullusSource : Gaius Valerius Catullus (1983). “The Poems of Catullus: A Bilingual Edition”, p.197, Univ of California Press
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“So a maiden, while she remains untouched, remains dear to her own; but when she has lost her chaste flower with sullied body, she remains neither lovely to boys nor dear to girls.”
-- Catullus -
“I write of youth, of love, and have access by these to sing of cleanly wantonness.”
-- Catullus -
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“My mind's sunk so low, Claudia, because of you, wrecked itself on your account so bad already, that I couldn't like you if you were the best of women, -or stop loving you, no matter what you do.”
-- Catullus -
“Oh, this age! How tasteless and ill bred it is!”
-- CatullusSource : Gaius Valerius Catullus (1988). “Catullus, Tibullus, and Pervigilium Veneris”, Loeb Classical Library
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“Away with you, water, destruction of wine!”
-- CatullusSource : Gaius Valerius Catullus (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Catullus (Illustrated)”, p.27, Delphi Classics
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