Juvenal (c.60–c.140,) Latin name Decimus Junius Juvenalis, was the greatest of the Roman satirists. Juvenal’s sixteen verse Satires are a savage and rhetorical denunciation of Roman society under the emperor Domitian—the corruption of society and the idiocies and brutalities of humankind.
Nothing definite is known about Juvenal’s life. His time overlapped with an eventful epoch of Roman history, one in which the failings of the government and the depravities of society were especially grave and evident.
Satires is most bitter against foreigners—Greeks, Syrians, and particularly Jews who, he felt, caused the decline and fall of the old Roman way of life.
Juvenal’s vivid portrayals of Roman life inspired such satirists as Giovanni Boccaccio, Nicolas Boileau, and Lord Byron. The phrase “Juvenalian satire” still represents a critique of contemporary people and institutions in Juvenal’s style.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Juvenal
No other protection is wanting, provided you are under the guidance ot prudence.
—Juvenal
Topics: Prudence
A third heir seldom enjoys what has been dishonestly acquired.
—Juvenal
Topics: Inheritance
Censure pardons the ravens, but rebukes the doves.
—Juvenal
One man meets an infamous punishment for that crime which confers a diadem upon another.
—Juvenal
Topics: Punishment
Indulgence rare to pleasures lendeth zest
—Juvenal
Topics: One liners
Revenge is always the weak pleasure of a little and narrow mind.
—Juvenal
Topics: Revenge, Open-mindedness, Anger
We are too quick to imitate depraved examples.
—Juvenal
Topics: Example
When did reason ever direct our desires or our fears?
—Juvenal
Topics: Fear
No one every suddenly became depraved.
—Juvenal
Topics: Desires
The short bloom of our brief and narrow life flies far away. While we are calling for flowers and wine and woman, old age is upon us.
—Juvenal
Topics: Aging, Age
Here we all live in a state of ambitious poverty.
—Juvenal
Topics: The Poor, Poverty
Whenever fortune wishes to joke, she lifts people from what is humble to the highest extremity of affairs.
—Juvenal
We deem those happy who from the experience of life have learned to bear its ills, without being overcome by them.
—Juvenal
Topics: Persistence, Adversity, Happiness
Many individuals have, like uncut diamonds, shining qualities beneath a rough exterior.
—Juvenal
Topics: Quality
A hairy body, and arms stiff with bristles, give promise of a manly soul.
—Juvenal
Topics: Men
Now we suffer the evils of a long peace; luxury more cruel than war broods over us and avenges a conquered world.
—Juvenal
Topics: Luxury, Wealth
Seldom do people discern
Eloquence under a threadbare cloak.
—Juvenal
Topics: Poverty
The smell of profit is clean and sweet, whatever the source.
—Juvenal
Topics: Wealth
Yes, know thyself: in great concerns or small, be this thy care, for this, my friend, is all.
—Juvenal
An incurable itch for scribbling takes possession of many, and grows inveterate in their insane breasts.
—Juvenal
Topics: Writing
Like warmed-up cabbage served at each repast, The repetition kills the wretch at last.
—Juvenal
Writing is the incurable itch that possesses many.
—Juvenal
Topics: Writing, Writers, Authors & Writing
Few people can distinguish the genuinely good from the reverse.
—Juvenal
Topics: Character
A man who has nothing can whistle in a robber’s face.
—Juvenal
Topics: The Poor, Poverty
A lucky man is rarer than a white crow.
—Juvenal
Topics: Luck
No one delights more in vengeance than a woman.
—Juvenal
Topics: Vengeance
Honesty is praised and starves.
—Juvenal
Topics: Honesty
No man ever arrived suddenly at the summit of vice.
—Juvenal
Topics: Vice
Hold it the greatest sin to prefer existence to honor, and for the sake of life to lose the reasons for living.
—Juvenal
Topics: Existence
We should pray for a sane mind in a sound body.
—Juvenal
Topics: Prayer
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
Persius Roman Poet
Martial Ancient Roman Latin Poet
Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) Roman Poet
Virgil Roman Poet
Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) Roman Poet
Marcus Manilius Roman Poet
Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) Roman Stoic Philosopher
Pliny the Younger Roman Senator, Writer
Claudian Roman Poet
Catullus Roman Latin Poet