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Wikipedia Summary for Juvenal
Decimus Junius Juvenalis (Latin: [ˈdɛkɪmʊs ˈjuːniʊs jʊwɛˈnaːlɪs]), known in English as Juvenal ( JOO-vən-əl), was a Roman poet active in the late first and early second century AD. He is the author of the collection of satirical poems known as the Satires. The details of the author's life are unclear, although references within his text to known persons of the late first and early second centuries AD fix his earliest date of composition. One recent scholar argues that his first book was published in 100 or 101. Because of a reference to a recent political figure, his fifth and final surviving book must date from after 127.
Juvenal wrote at least 16 poems in the verse form dactylic hexameter. These poems cover a range of Roman topics. This follows Lucilius—the originator of the Roman satire genre, and it fits within a poetic tradition that also includes Horace and Persius. The Satires are a vital source for the study of ancient Rome from a number of perspectives, although their comic mode of expression makes it problematic to accept the content as strictly factual. At first glance the Satires could be read as a critique of pagan Rome. That critique may have ensured their preservation by the Christian monastic scriptoria although the majority of ancient texts did not survive.
The tongue is the worst part of a bad servant.
Rare indulgence produces greater pleasure.
Rare is the union of beauty and purity.
When the mischief is done the door is shut.
So rare is the union of beauty with modesty.
No one rejoices more in revenge than woman.
Rare indulgence produces greater pleasure.
One path alone leads to a life of peace. The path of virtue ¦.
Every crime will bring remorse to the man who committed it.
Two things only the people actually desire. Bread and circuses.
Give them bread and circuses and they will never revolt.
Luxury destroys more efficiently than war.
Great power which incites great envy, hurls some men to destruction; they are drowned in a long splendid stream of honors.
No man e'er reached the heights of vice at first.
The poor were wise, who, by the rich oppressed,
Withdrew, and sought a secret place of rest.
Lost money is wept for with real tears.
Every man's credit is proportioned to the money which he has in his chest.
Go, madman! rush over the wildest Alps, that you may please children and be made the subject of declamation.
One man receives crucifixion as the reward of injustice, another a regal crown.
But who will guard the guardians themselves?
Whatever is committed from a bad example, is displeasing even to its author.
But shall we call those noble, who disgrace
Their lineage, proud of an illustrious race?
There's more fellowship among snakes than among mankind.
Wild beasts spare those with similar markings.
Their conversation was brief, and their desire was to be silent.
Death alone discloses how insignificant are the puny bodies of men.
A rare bird upon the earth.
Some men make fortunes, but not to enjoy them;
Blinded by avarice, they live to make fortunes.
Astrology reveals the will of the gods.
I will it, I order it, let my will stand for a reason.
Even savage animals can agree among themselves.
Avarice increases with the increasing pile of gold.
Nothing is more audacious than these women when detected; they assume anger, and take courage from the very crime itself.
Wisdom is the conqueror of fortune.
Lat., Victrix fortunae sapientia.
For whoever meditates a crime is guilty of the deed.
Many commit the same crimes with a very different result. One bears a cross for his crime; another a crown.
When a man's life is at stake no delay is too long.
Lat., Nulla unquam de morte cunctatio longa est.
To keep up as good a cuisine as your father.
Panem et circenses.
An excess of hoarded wealth is the death of many.
Who'd bear to hear the Gracchi chide sedition?
Honesty's praised, then left to freeze.
Be gentle with the young.
But who guards the guardians?
The grape becomes tinted from the grape it comes in contact with.
Rarely they rise by virtue's aid who lie plunged in the depth of helpless poverty.
Every great house is full of haughty servants.
When talent fails, indignation writes the verse.
Led on by impulse, and blind and ungovernable desires.
Many have an irresistible itch for writing.
From where can your authority and license as a parent come from, when you who are old, do worse things?
Majestic mighty Wealth is the holiest of our gods.
When the mischief is done the door is shut.
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!
Of what use are pedigrees, or to be thought of noble blood, or the display of family portraits, O Ponticus?
Of what avail are pedigrees?
She knows no difference 'twixt head and privities who devours immense oysters at midnight.
The only path to a tranquil life is through virtue.
Lat., Semita certe
Tranquillae per virtutem patet unica vitae.
The smell of profit is clean and sweet, whatever the source.
One man meets an infamous punishment for that crime which confers a diadem on others.
No other protection is wanting, provided you are under the guidance of prudence.
The greatest reverence is due to a child! If you are contemplating a disgraceful act, despise not your child's tender years.
The care of a large estate is an unpleasant thing.
Remorse is the fruit of crime.
In the present state of the world it is difficult not to write lampoons.
It is sheer madness to live in want in order to be wealthy when you die.
Seek not to shine by borrow'd lights alone.
The Sicilian tyrants never devised a greater punishment than envy.
Let nothing offensive to the ear or the eye enter these thresholds, within which youth dwells.
The guilty are alarmed and turn pale at the slightest thunder.
The tongue is the vile slave's vilest part.
Luck often raises vulgarity to a high position, to create mirth for the beholders.
What is more cruel than a tyrant's ear?
Examples of vicious courses practiced in a domestic circle corrupt more readily and more deeply when we behold them in persons in authority.
Who watches the watchmen?
By his own verdict no guilty man was ever acquitted.
Of the woes Of unhappy poverty, none is more difficult to bear Than that it heaps men with ridicule.
An undying hatred, and a wound never to be healed.
Make all fair allowance for the mistakes of youth.
When your armour is on, it is too late to retreat.
We are too quick to imitate depraved examples.
No one ever suddenly became depraved.
No one every suddenly became depraved.
No one becomes depraved all at once.
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.
Some men make fortunes, but not to enjoy them for, blinded by avarice, they live to make fortunes.
Bad men hate sin through fear of punishment; good men hate sin through their love of virtue.
Like warmed-up cabbage served at each repast, The repetition kills the wretch at last.
Such men as fortune raises from a mean estate to the highest elevation by way of a joke.
Whenever fortune wishes to joke, she lifts people from what is humble to the highest extremity of affairs.
The skilful class of flatterers praise the discourse of an ignorant friend and the face of a deformed one.
The fisherman could perhaps be bought for less than the fish.
No nice extreme a true Italian knows;
But bid him go to hell, to hell he goes.
The grape gains its purple tinge by looking at another grape.
Lat., Uvaque conspecta livorem ducit ab uva.
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.
Men who ape the saint and play the sinner.
Those who desire to become rich, desire it at once.
He who wishes to become rich wishes to become so immediately.
The people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions, and all else, now concerns itself no more, and longs eagerly for just two things: bread and circuses!
There's no effrontery like that of a woman caught in the act; her very guilt inspires her with wrath and insolence.
There's a lust in man, no charm can tame, of loudly publishing our neighbor's shame.