Quintilian quotes - page 2

We must form our minds by reading deep rather than wide. (Quintilian)
Forbidden pleasures alone are loved immoderately; when lawful, they do not excite desire.
Quintilian
Men, even when alone, lighten their labors by song, however rude it may be.
Quintilian
He who speaks evil only differs from his who does evil in that he lacks opportunity.
Quintilian
That which prematurely arrives at perfection soon perishes.
Quintilian
It seldom happens that a premature shoot of genius ever arrives at maturity.
Quintilian
The prosperous can not easily form a right idea of misery.
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
In either case the orator should bear clearly in mind throughout his whole speech what the fiction is to which he has committed himself, since we are apt to forget our falsehoods, and there is no doubt about the truth of the proverb that a liar should have a good memory.
Quintilian
Accordingly, the first essential is that those feelings should prevail with us that we wish to prevail with the judge, and that we should be moved ourselves before we attempt to move others.
Quintilian
For it is an ordinance of nature that nothing great can be achieved in a moment, and that all the fairest tasks are attended with difficulty, while on births as well she has imposed this law, that the larger the animal, the longer should be the period of gestation. (Quintilian)
For it is feeling and force of imagination that makes us eloquent.
Quintilian
For it had been better for men to be born dumb and devoid of reason than to turn the gifts of providence to their mutual destruction.
Quintilian
In almost everything, experience is more valuable than precept.
Quintilian
Fear of the future is worse than one's present fortune.
Quintilian
While we are examining into everything we sometimes find truth where we least expected it.
Quintilian
Where evil habits are once settled, they are more easily broken than mended.
Quintilian
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.
Quintilian
We excuse our sloth under the pretext of difficulty.
Quintilian
The gifts of nature are infinite in their variety, and mind differs from mind almost as much as body from body.
Quintilian
Tollat te, qui non novit. (Quintilian)
Nihil intrare potest in affectum, quod in aure velut quodam vestibulo statum offendit.
Quintilian
Scribitur ad narrandum, non ad probandum.
Quintilian
Nothing can be pleasing which is not also becoming.
Quintilian
But I fancy that I hear some (for there will never be wanting men who would rather be eloquent than good) saying "Why then is there so much art devoted to eloquence? Why have you given precepts on rhetorical coloring and the defense of difficult causes, and some even on the acknowledgment of guilt, unless, at times, the force and ingenuity of eloquence overpowers even truth itself? For a good man advocates only good causes, and truth itself supports them sufficiently without the aid of learning."
Quintilian