Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions – everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses.

— Juvenal

Juvenal Quotes

When the mischief is done the door is shut.

— Juvenal

Those things please more, which are more expensive.

— Juvenal

There is no reliance to be placed on appearance.

— Juvenal

The only gain from the friendship of the great is a fine dinner.

— Juvenal

They whose sole bliss is eating can give but that one brutish reason why they live.

— Juvenal

Ask for a valiant heart which has banished the fear of death, which looks upon the length of days as one of the least of nature’s gifts; which is able to suffer every kind of hardship, is proof against anger, craves for nothing, and reckons the trials and gruelling labours of Hercules as more desirable blessings than the amorous ease and the banquets and cushions of Sardanapallus. The things that I recommend you can grant to yourself.

— Juvenal

When Alexander The Great was alive the world was not big enough to contain his ambition but while Alexander chafed at the confines of the world in life, in death, “a coffin was enough.

— Juvenal

Would you not like to fill up a whole note-book at the street crossings when you see a forger borne along upon the necks of six porters, and exposed to view on this side and on that in his almost naked litter, and reminding you of the lounging Maecenas: one who by help of a scrap of paper and a moistened seal has converted himself into a fine and wealthy gentleman?

— Juvenal

It is a poor thing to lean upon the fame of others, lest the pillars give way and the house fall down in ruin.

— Juvenal

So Nature ordains; no evil example corrupts us so soon and so rapidly as one that has been set at home, since it comes into the mind on high authority.

— Juvenal

Is it a simple form of madness to lose a hundred thousand sesterces, and not have a shirt to give to a shivering slave?

— Juvenal

For no deity is held in such reverence amongst us as Wealth; though as yet, O baneful money, thou hast no temple of thine own; not yet have we reared altars to Money in like manner as we worship Peace and Honour, Victory and Virtue.

— Juvenal

Benign Philosophy, by degrees, strips from us most of our vices, and all our mistakes; it is she that first teaches us the right.

— Juvenal

Many a man has met death from the rushing flood of his own eloquence; others from the strength and wondrous thews in which they have trusted.

— Juvenal

Had we but wisdom, thou wouldst have no Divinity, O Fortune: it is we that make thee into a Goddess!

— Juvenal

The world was not big enough for Alexander the Great, but a coffin was.

— Juvenal

Who will watch the watchers?

— Juvenal

If nature’s inspiration fails, indignation will beget the poem.

— Juvenal

We deem those happy who from the experience of life have learned to bear its ills, without being overcome by them.

— Juvenal

Mens Sana In Corpore Sano.

— Juvenal
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