Explore the most impactful and insightful quotes and sayings by Juvenal, and enrich your perspective with the wisdom. Share these inspiring Juvenal quotes pictures with your friends on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, or your personal blogs, completely free. Here are the top 290 Juvenal quotes for you to read and share.
The man whose purse is empty can cheerfully sing before the robber. -- Juvenal
Nothing is so intolerable as a woman with a long purse. -- Juvenal
When great assurance accompanies a bad undertaking, such is often mistaken for confiding sincerity by the world at large. -- Juvenal
There will he nothing more that posterity can add to our immoral habits; our descendants must have the same desires and act the same follies as their sires. Every vice has reached its zenith. -- Juvenal
Trust to a plank, draw precarious breath,
At most seven inches from the jaws of death. -- Juvenal
Do you expect, forsooth, that a mother will hand down to her children principles which differ from her own? -- Juvenal
Whenever fortune wishes to joke, she lifts people from what is humble to the highest extremity of affairs. -- Juvenal
For the gods, instead of what is most pleasing, will give what is most proper. Man is dearer to them than he is to himself.
[Lat., Nam pro jucundis aptissima quaeque dabunt di,
Carior est illis homo quam sibi.] -- Juvenal
Man, wretched man, whene'er he stoops to sin, Feels, with the act, a strong remorse within. -- Juvenal
All things may be bought in Rome with money. -- Juvenal
An undying hatred, and a wound never to be healed. -- Juvenal
Satire is what closes Saturday night. -- Juvenal
No one every suddenly became depraved. -- Juvenal
The brief span of our poor unhappy life to its final hour Is hastening on; and while we drink and call for gay wreaths, Perfumes, and young girls, old age creeps upon us, unperceived. -- Juvenal
Cheerless poverty has no harder trial than this, that it makes men the subject of ridicule.
[Lat., Nil habet infelix paupertas durius in se
Quam quod ridiculos homines facit.] -- Juvenal
Savage bears agree with one another. -- Juvenal
Integrity is praised, and starves. -- Juvenal
It is sheer folly when all is gone to lose even one's passage money. -- Juvenal
This is his first punishment, that by the verdict of his own heart no guilty man is acquitted. -- Juvenal
By his own verdict no guilty man was ever acquitted. -- Juvenal
What day is so festal it fails to reveal some theft? -- Juvenal
It is sheer madness to live in want in order to be wealthy when you die. -- Juvenal
Revenge, we find, the abject pleasure of an abject mind. -- Juvenal
The same dish cooked over and over again wears out the irksome life of the teacher. -- Juvenal
Astrology reveals the will of the gods. -- Juvenal
Savage bears keep at peace with one another.
[Lat., Saevis inter se convenit ursis.] -- Juvenal
No wicked man knows happiness, and least of all the seducer of others. -- Juvenal
The sweetest pleasures soonest cloy, And its best flavour temperance gives to joy. -- Juvenal
We are all easily taught to imitate what is base and depraved.
[Lat., Dociles imitandis
Turpibus ac pravis omnes sumus.] -- Juvenal
Let the straight-limbed laugh at the club-footed, the white skinned at the blackamoor. -- Juvenal
No man becomes bad all at once. -- Juvenal
No one ever reached the worst of a vice at one leap. -- Juvenal
Give them bread and circuses and they will never revolt -- Juvenal
Vice can deceive under the guise and shadow of virtue. -- Juvenal
He who wants to get rich wants to get rich quickly. -- Juvenal
Let me moderate our sorrows. The grief of a man should not exceed proper bounds, but be in proportion to the blow he has received.
[Lat., Ponamus nimios gemitus: flagrantior aequo
Non debet dolor esse viri, nec vulnere major.] -- Juvenal
Trust not to outward show.
[Lat., Fronti nulla fides.] -- Juvenal
Majestic mighty Wealth is the holiest of our gods. -- Juvenal
Revenge is sweeter than life itself. So think fools. -- Juvenal
Rare is the union of beauty and purity. -- Juvenal
Be rich for yourself and poor to your friends. -- Juvenal
Today there's more fellowship among snakes than among mankind. Wild beasts spare those with similar markings. -- Juvenal
Our virtues are most frequently but vices disguised. -- Juvenal
The grape becomes tinted from the grape it comes in contact with. -- Juvenal
If now a friend denies not what was given him in trust,
If he restores an ancient purse with all its coins and rust,
This prodigy of honesty deserves to be enrolled
In Tuscan books, and with a sacrificial lamb extolled. -- Juvenal
Never does Nature say one thing and Wisdom another. -- Juvenal
Death alone discloses how insignificant are the puny bodies of men. -- Juvenal
The greatest hardship of poverty is that it tends to make men ridiculous. -- Juvenal
A rare bird on this earth, like nothing so much as a black swan. -- Juvenal
One man meets an infamous punishment for that crime which confers a diadem on others. -- Juvenal
The face, not the woman is the attraction. -- Juvenal
O Poverty, thy thousand ills combined Sink not so deep into the generous mind, As the contempt and laughter of mankind. -- Juvenal
But with what incessant and grievous ills is old age surrounded! -- Juvenal
When talent fails, indignation writes the verse. -- Juvenal
Luxury is more deadly than any foe. -- Juvenal
The examples of vice at home corrupt us more quickly and easily than others, since they steal into our minds under the highest authority. -- Juvenal
Be, as many now are, luxurious to yourself, parsimonious to your friends.
[Lat., Esto, ut nunc multi, dives tibi pauper amicis.] -- Juvenal
Of the woes Of unhappy poverty, none is more difficult to bear Than that it heaps men with ridicule. -- Juvenal
..but who will guard the guardians? -- Juvenal
The tongue is the worst part of a bad servant. -- Juvenal
No man ever became very wicked all at once. -- Juvenal
No man ever became extremely wicked all at once. -- Juvenal
Have the courage to do something which deserves transportation if you want to be somebody. -- Juvenal
But grant the wrath of Heaven be great, 'tis slow.
[Lat., Ut sit magna tamen certe lenta ira deorum est.] -- Juvenal
Where talent is lacking, anger writes poetry. -- Juvenal
Nature never says one thing, Wisdom another.
[Lat., Nunquam aliud Natura aliud Sapientia dicit.] -- Juvenal
The smell of money is good, come whence it may. [Alluding to Vespasian's tax on ordure.] -- Juvenal
To eat at another's table is your ambition's height.
[Lat., Bona summa putes, aliena vivere quadra.] -- Juvenal
Be gentle with the young. -- Juvenal
The venal herd.
[Lat., Venale pecus.] -- Juvenal
A rare bird upon the earth and very much like a black swan. -- Juvenal
Every vice makes its guilt the more conspicuous in proportion to the rank of the offender.
[Lat., Omne animi vitium tanto conspectius in se
Crimen habet, quanto major qui peccat habetur.] -- Juvenal
Nothing is more audacious than these women when detected; they assume anger, and take courage from the very crime itself. -- Juvenal
The noiseless foot of Tune steals swiftly by
And ere we dream of manhood, age is nigh. -- Juvenal
Rarely they rise by virtue's aid who lie plunged in the depth of helpless poverty. -- Juvenal
Dedicate one's life to truth -- Juvenal
There's scarce a case comes on but you shall find
A woman's at the bottom.
[Lat., Nulla fere causa est in qua non femina litem moverit.] -- Juvenal
Here we all live in a state of ambitious poverty. -- Juvenal
This precept descended from Heaven: know thyself. -- Juvenal
Luck often raises vulgarity to a high position, to create mirth for the beholders. -- Juvenal
Some men make money not for the sake of living, but ache In the blindness of greed and live just for their fortune's sake. -- Juvenal
Where have you ever found that man who stopped short after the perpetration of a single crime? -- Juvenal
Let him love none and be by none beloved! -- Juvenal
Must this with farce and folly rack my
head unpunish'd ? that with sing-song,
Whine me dead? -- Juvenal
Virtue is the only and true nobility.
[Lat., Nobilitas sola est atque unica virtus.] -- Juvenal
Drooping along the ground the vine misses its widowed elm. -- Juvenal
Honesty's praised, then left to freeze. -- Juvenal
There's a lust in man, no charm can tame, of loudly publishing our neighbor's shame. -- Juvenal
Virture offers the only path in this life that leads to tranquility. -- Juvenal
Few tyrants go down to the infernal regions by a natural death. -- Juvenal
For He, who gave this vast machine to roll, Breathed Life in then, in us a Reasoning Soul; That kindred feelings might our state improve, And mutual wants conduct to mutual love. -- Juvenal
It is not easy for men to rise whose qualities are thwarted by poverty. -- Juvenal
There is nothing which power cannot believe of itself, when it is praised as equal to the gods.
[Lat., Nihil est quod credere de se
Non possit, quum laudatur dis aequa potestas.] -- Juvenal
Make all fair allowance for the mistakes of youth. -- Juvenal
An incurable itch for scribbling takes possession of many, and grows inveterate in their insane breasts. -- Juvenal
The fisherman could perhaps be bought for less than the fish. -- Juvenal
The Sicilian tyrants never devised a greater punishment than envy. -- Juvenal
The abject pleasure of an abject mind
And hence so dear to poor weak woman kind.
[Lat., Vindicta
Nemo magis gaudet, quam femina.] -- Juvenal
Vice deceives us when dressed in the garb of virtue. -- Juvenal
Of what avail are pedigrees? -- Juvenal
The love of pelf increases with the pelf.
[Lat., Crescit amor nummi quantum ipsa pecunia crescit.] -- Juvenal
There is never a lawsuit but a woman is at the bottom of it. -- Juvenal
A third heir seldom enjoys what has been dishonestly acquired. -- Juvenal
To eat off another man's plate. [To live an another's expense.] -- Juvenal
Remote though your farm may be, It's something to be the lord of one green lizard-and free. -- Juvenal
A child is owed the greatest respect; if you have ever have something disgraceful in mind, don't ignore your son's tender years. -- Juvenal
The itch of scribbling. -- Juvenal
Besides what endless brawls by wives are bred,
The curtain lecture makes a mournful bed. -- Juvenal
The traveler without money will sing before the robber.
[Lat., Cantabit vacuus coram latrone viator.] -- Juvenal
To have slaved so many years for nothing! -- Juvenal
A man's word Is believed just to the extent of the wealth in his coffers stored. -- Juvenal
Generally, common sense is rare in the (higher) rank. -- Juvenal
Of what use are pedigrees, or to be thought of noble blood, or the display of family portraits, O Ponticus? -- Juvenal
Rarus enim ferme sensus communis in illa Fortuna."
["Generally common sense is rare in that (higher) rank."] -- Juvenal
To keep up as good a cuisine as your father. -- Juvenal
A third heir seldom profits by ill-gotten wealth. -- Juvenal
Sit mens sana in corpore sano
(a healthy mind in a healthy body) -- Juvenal
A sound mind in a sound body is a thing to be prayed for. -- Juvenal
Rarely do we meet in one combined, a beauteous body and a virtuous mind. -- Juvenal
Wisdom is the conqueror of fortune.
[Lat., Victrix fortunae sapientia.] -- Juvenal
The grape gains its purple tinge by looking at another grape.
[Lat., Uvaque conspecta livorem ducit ab uva.] -- Juvenal
Many commit the same crime with a very different result. One bears a cross for his crime; another a crown. -- Juvenal
For the short-lived bloom and contracted span of brief and wretched life is fast fleeting away! While we are drinking and calling for garlands, ointments, and women, old age steals swiftly on with noiseless step. -- Juvenal
Examples of vicious courses practiced in a domestic circle corrupt more readily and more deeply when we behold them in persons in authority. -- Juvenal
A man who has nothing can whistle in a robber's face. -- Juvenal
There is great unanimity among the dissolute.
[Lat., Magna inter molles concordia.] -- Juvenal
Conscience, the executioner, shaking her secret scourge. -- Juvenal
For whoever meditates a crime is guilty of the deed.
[Lat., Nam scelus intra se tacitum qui cogitat ullum,
Facti crimen habet.] -- Juvenal
No one ever became extremely wicked suddenly. -- Juvenal
Led on by impulse, and blind and ungovernable desires. -- Juvenal
Dare to do something worthy of transportation and a prison, if you mean to be anybody. -- Juvenal
All wish to possess knowledge, but few, comparatively speaking, are willing to pay the price. -- Juvenal
Who is to guard the guards themselves? -- Juvenal
It is a wretched thing to rest upon the fame of others, lest, the supporting pillar being removed, the superstructure should collapse in ruin. -- Juvenal
All arts his own, the hungry Greekling counts; And bid him mount the skies, the skies he mounts. -- Juvenal
Every man's credit is proportioned to the money which he has in his chest.
[Lat., Quantum quisque sua nummorum condit in area,
Tantum habet et fidei.] -- Juvenal
The doings of men, their prayers, fear, wrath, pleasure, delights, and recreations, are the subject of this book.
[Lat., Quicquid agunt homines, votum, timor, ira, voluptas, gaudia, discursus, nostri est farrago libelli.] -- Juvenal
When your armour is on, it is too late to retreat. -- Juvenal
He never sought to stem the current. [Of a statesman who accommodates his views to public opinion.] -- Juvenal
The traveller with empty pockets will sing in the thief 's face. -- Juvenal
A pauper traveller will sing before a beggar. -- Juvenal
No other protection is wanting, provided you are under the guidance of prudence. -- Juvenal
The wise man sets bounds even to his innocent desires. -- Juvenal
Remorse is the fruit of crime. -- Juvenal
Fate would have no divinity if we were wise: it is we who make her a goddess and place her in heaven. -- Juvenal
One has no protecting power save prudence.
[Lat., Nullum numen habes si sit prudentia.] -- Juvenal
Nature, in giving tears to man, confessed that he Had a tender heart; this is our noblest quality. -- Juvenal
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? - Who will watch the watchers? -- Juvenal
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes.
Which roughly translates as
Who will Guard the Guardians, or
Who watches the watchers. -- Juvenal
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Who supervises the supervisors themselves? -- Juvenal
Whatever is committed from a bad example, is displeasing even to its author. -- Juvenal
For women's tears are but the sweat of eyes. -- Juvenal
An excess of hoarded wealth is the death of many. -- Juvenal
The greatest reverence is due to a child! If you are contemplating a disgraceful act, despise not your child's tender years. -- Juvenal
Travelers with naught sing in the robber's face -- Juvenal
Seek not to shine by borrow'd lights alone. -- Juvenal
Every great house is full of haughty servants. -- Juvenal
Nobody ever became depraved all at once.
[Lat., Nemo repente fuit turpissimus.] -- Juvenal
There's no effrontery like that of a woman caught in the act; her very guilt inspires her with wrath and insolence. -- Juvenal
The pupil will eclipse his tutor, I warrant. -- Juvenal
There is hardly a case in which the dispute was not caused by a woman. -- Juvenal
To gain a livelihood at the expense of all that makes life worth the having. -- Juvenal
Those who do not wish to kill any one, wish they had the power.
[Lat., Et qui nolunt occidere quemquam
Posse volunt.] -- Juvenal
Autumn is the harvest of greedy death. -- Juvenal
It is difficult not to write satire. -- Juvenal
Tears ready to do duty at a minute's notice. -- Juvenal
Limits the Romans' anxieties to two things - bread and games. -- Juvenal
Fortune can, for her pleasure, fools advance,
And toss them on the wheels of Chance. -- Juvenal
The care of a large estate is an unpleasant thing. -- Juvenal
The finishing stroke of all sorrow. -- Juvenal
Censure acquits the raven, but pursues the dove. -- Juvenal
Dare to do something worth of exile and prison if you mean to be anybody. -- Juvenal
What is more cruel than a tyrant's ear? -- Juvenal
Bid the hungry Greek go to heaven, he will go.
[Lat., Graeculus esuriens in coelum, jusseris, ibit.] -- Juvenal
No nice extreme a true Italian knows;
But bid him go to hell, to hell he goes. -- Juvenal
I will it, I order it, let my will stand for a reason. -- Juvenal
Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse. -- Juvenal
Every fault of the mind becomes more conspicuous and more guilty in proportion to the rank of the offender -- Juvenal
Quis costodiet ipsos custodies? (Who will watch the watchers?) -- Juvenal
When the mischief is done the door is shut. -- Juvenal
Seldom do people discern eloquence under a threadbare cloak -- Juvenal
He who wishes to become rich wishes to become so immediately. -- Juvenal
Nature confesses that she has bestowed on the human race hearts of softest mould, in that she has given us tears. -- Juvenal
Hold it the greatest sin to prefer existence to honour, and for the sake of life to lose the reasons for living. -- Juvenal
A woman is most merciless when shame goads on her hate -- Juvenal
All wish to be learned, but no one is willing to pay the price. -- Juvenal
while your mother in law still lives, domestic harmony / is out of the question. -- Juvenal
Many commit the same crimes with a very different result. One bears a cross for his crime; another a crown.
[Lat., Multi committunt eadem diverso crimina fato;
Ille crucem scleris pretium tulit, hic diadema.] -- Juvenal
If you are capable of submitting to insult you ought to be insulted. -- Juvenal
From where can your authority and license as a parent come from, when you who are old, do worse things? -- Juvenal
Money lost is bewailed with unfeigned tears. -- Juvenal
Lost money is bewailed with deeper sighs Than friends, or kindred, and with louder cries. -- Juvenal
Fond man! though all the heroes of your line Bedeck your halls, and round your galleries shine In proud display; yet take this truth from me
Virtue alone is true nobility! -- Juvenal
There are many things which may not be uttered by men in threadbare coats. -- Juvenal
It is a wretched thing to live on the fame of others. -- Juvenal
The skilful class of flatterers praise the discourse of an ignorant friend and the face of a deformed one. -- Juvenal
From the disease of one the whole flock perishes. -- Juvenal
Bad men hate sin through fear of punishment; good men hate sin through their love of virtue. -- Juvenal
The gods alone know, what kind of wife a man will have. -- Juvenal
They whose sole bliss is eating can give but that one brutish reason why they live. -- Juvenal
No god is absent where prudence dwells. -- Juvenal
Many suffer from the incurable disease of writing, and it becomes chronic in their sick minds. -- Juvenal
You should pray for a healthy mind in a healthy body. -- Juvenal
When did reason ever direct our desires or our fears? -- Juvenal
Like warmed-up cabbage served at each repast, The repetition kills the wretch at last. -- Juvenal
Everything in Rome has its price. -- Juvenal
Peace visits not the guilty mind. -- Juvenal
Let nothing offensive to the ear or the eye enter these thresholds, within which youth dwells. -- Juvenal
The love of popularity holds you in a vice. -- Juvenal
Those who desire to become rich, desire it at once. -- Juvenal
He who meditates a crime secretly within himself has all the guilt of the act. -- Juvenal
The act of God injures no one. -- Juvenal
No one becomes depraved all at once. -- Juvenal
Now we suffer the evils of a long peace; luxury more cruel than war broods over us and avenges a conquered world. -- Juvenal
One path alone leads to a life of peace. The path of virtue. -- Juvenal
Luxury destroys more efficiently than war. -- Juvenal
The dowry, not the wife, is the object of attraction. -- Juvenal
The only path to a tranquil life is through virtue.
[Lat., Semita certe
Tranquillae per virtutem patet unica vitae.] -- Juvenal
It is but the weak and little mind that rejoices in revenge -- Juvenal
Trust me no tortures which the poets feign
Can match the fierce unutterable pain
He feels, who night and day devoid of rest
Carries his own accuser in his breast. -- Juvenal
We are too quick to imitate depraved examples. -- Juvenal
Ut who will guard the guardians? -- Juvenal
A lucky man is rarer than a white crow. -- Juvenal
This is my wish, this is my command, my pleasure is my reason -- Juvenal
The greatest respect is owed to a child. -- Juvenal
Men who only live to eat. -- Juvenal
Dare to do things worthy of imprisonment if you mean to be of consequence. -- Juvenal
The tongue is the vile slave's vilest part. -- Juvenal
The love of money grows as the money itself grows. -- Juvenal
Censure pardons the ravens but rebukes the doves. [The innocent are punished and the wicked escape.] -- Juvenal
One globe seemed all too small for the youthful Alexander. -- Juvenal
Do not pluck the beard of a dead lion.
[Lat., Noli
Barbam vellere mortuo leoni.] -- Juvenal
Honesty is admired, and starves. -- Juvenal
Who'd bear to hear the Gracchi chide sedition? -- Juvenal
Avarice increases with the increasing pile of gold. -- Juvenal
In their palate alone is their reason of existence.
[Lat., In solo vivendi causa palata est.] -- Juvenal
Nothing is more intolerable than a wealthy woman. -- Juvenal
There is nothing worse than words of kindness that lie. -- Juvenal
Honesty is praised and left in the cold. -- Juvenal
But who guards the guardians? -- Juvenal
Difficile est satiram non scribere
[It is hard not to write a satire] -- Juvenal
The guilty are alarmed and turn pale at the slightest thunder. -- Juvenal
The thirst after fame is greater than that after virtue; for who embraces virtue if you take away its rewards? -- Juvenal
So much greater is our thirst for glory than for virtue. -- Juvenal
Everything is Greek, when it is more shameful to be ignorant of Latin. -- Juvenal
Wisdom is the winner over good luck. -- Juvenal
Yes, know thyself: in great concerns or small, be this thy care, for this, my friend, is all. -- Juvenal
Those things please more, which are more expensive. -- Juvenal
Wisdom triumphs over chance. -- Juvenal
They do not easily rise whose abilities are repressed by poverty at home.
[Lat., Haud facile emergunt quorum virtutibus obstat
Res angusta domi.] -- Juvenal
Indignation leads to the making of poetry.
[Lat., Facit indignatio versum.] -- Juvenal
The smell of profit is clean and sweet, whatever the source. -- Juvenal
What man have you ever seen who was contented with one crime only? -- Juvenal
A hairy body, and arms stiff with bristles, give promise of a manly soul. -- Juvenal
When a man's life is at stake no delay is too long. -- Juvenal
We do not commonly find men of superior sense amongst those of the highest fortune. -- Juvenal
Every crime will bring remorse to the man who committed it -- Juvenal
I only feel, but want the power to paint. -- Juvenal
Poverty is bitter, but it has no harder pang than that it makes men ridiculous. -- Juvenal
She knows no difference 'twixt head and privities who devours immense oysters at midnight. -- Juvenal
Only death reveals what a nothing the body of man is. -- Juvenal
Men who ape the saint and play the sinner. -- Juvenal
The thirst for fame is much greater than that for virtue; for who would embrace virtue itself if you take away its rewards?
[Lat., Tanto major famae sitis est quam
Virtutis: quis enim virtutem amplectitur ipsam
Praemia se tollas.] -- Juvenal
He will be the last to discover the disgrace of his house. -- Juvenal
Refrain from doing ill; for one all powerful reason, lest our children should copy our misdeeds; we are all too prone to imitate whatever is base and depraved. -- Juvenal
Pleasures are enhanced by a moderate indulgence. -- Juvenal
Common sense among men of fortune is rare. -- Juvenal
No one ever became thoroughly bad in one step. -- Juvenal
I wish it, I command it. Let my will take the place of a reason. -- Juvenal
Give up all hope of peace so long as your mother-in-law is alive. -- Juvenal
Great power which incites great envy, hurls some men to destruction; they are drowned in a long splendid stream of honors. -- Juvenal
See the effect of commercial intercourse. -- Juvenal
Many have an irresistible itch for writing. -- Juvenal
To lay down one's life for the truth. -- Juvenal
Even savage animals can agree among themselves. -- Juvenal
Many individuals have, like uncut diamonds, shining qualities beneath a rough exterior. -- Juvenal
No one ever suddenly became depraved. -- Juvenal
There is no reliance to be placed on appearance. -- Juvenal
Beasts of like kind will spare those of kindred spots. -- Juvenal
Some men make fortunes, but not to enjoy them for, blinded by avarice, they live to make fortunes. -- Juvenal
Two things only the people actually desire: bread and circuses. -- Juvenal
The arrows are from her dowry. -- Juvenal
One gets a cross for his crime, the other a crown. -- Juvenal
I will have this done, so I order it done; let my will replace reasoned judgement. -- Juvenal
The only gain from the friendship of the great is a fine dinner. -- Juvenal
The abuse of cabmen in a block. -- Juvenal
Nature and wisdom always say the same. -- Juvenal
It is unmistakable madness to live in poverty only to die rich. -- Juvenal
Such men as fortune raises from a mean estate to the highest elevation by way of a joke. -- Juvenal
Writing in the incurable itch that possesses many. -- Juvenal
