Quotes By 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.

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

It seldom happens that a premature shoot of genius ever arrives at maturity.

Vain hopes are like certain dreams of those who wake.

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.

Verse satire indeed is entirely our own.

To swear, except when necessary, is becoming to an honorable man.

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

As regards parents, I should like to see them as highly educated as possible, and I do not restrict this remark to fathers alone.

When defeat is inevitable, it is wisest to yield.

Everything that has a beginning comes to an end.

Those who wish to appear wise among fools, among the wise seem foolish.

While we are examining into everything we sometimes find truth where we least expected it.

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

A liar should have a good memory.

In almost everything, experience is more valuable than precept.

Though ambition itself be a vice, yet it is often times the cause of virtues.

While we are making up our minds as to when we shall begin, the opportunity is lost.

A laugh costs too much when bought at the expense of virtue.

Nature herself has never attempted to effect great changes rapidly.

For the mind is all the easier to teach before it is set.

The prosperous can not easily form a right idea of misery.

The perfection of art is to conceal art.

It is fitting that a liar should be a man of good memory.

It is the nurse that the child first hears, and her words that he will first attempt to imitate.

We excuse our sloth under the pretext of difficulty.

That which prematurely arrives at perfection soon perishes.

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

Though ambition in itself is a vice, yet it is often the parent of virtues.

Forbidden pleasures alone are loved immoderately; when lawful, they do not excite desire.