Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Virgil (Roman Poet)

Virgil (70 BCE–19 BCE,) born Publius Vergilius Maro, was a great Roman Latin poet. He set the archetype of a poet for whom poetry is both a way of life and a means for the deepest individual, cultural, and spiritual inquiry. Virgil’s grand epic, the Aeneid, is one of the most venerated and influential literary works in Western cultural history.

Virgil was born in Cisalpine Gaul in northern Italy. His father was a landlord and a farmer, prominent enough to provide Virgil with a solid education in Cremona, Milan, and finally Rome, where he arrived at the age of 17. He intended to become a lawyer but was too introverted to speak publicly. He also missed the Italian countryside, so he returned to his family’s farm and wrote poetry.

Virgil’s poetic triumph is expressed in three monumental works. His earliest, The Eclogues, celebrated idyllic rustic life and contrasted the present with the natural and the simple life. Virgil’s description of the rural landscape became popular because it reminded everyone of a simple time before a series of civil wars.

At a time when civil wars were tearing down Rome, the regime asked Virgil to write a poem that would influence Romans, who had left the countryside to return home and become farmers again. The Georgics, considered by many his finest work, is a didactic poem about grain production, trees, animal husbandry, and beekeeping. Although the poems formed a practical handbook, they were also entertaining and full of nationalistic paean conveying the love of the land and the lasting wisdom of rural values.

Roman Emperor Augustus was impressed with Virgil’s work and provided him a generous stipend to live on for the rest of his life, which he spent writing. Virgil wrote his epic poem, The Aeneid, based on Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey and presented the soldier Aeneas, traveling home from the Trojan war to found a new city that would develop into Rome.

Virgil wrote The Aeneid first in prose, and then meticulously transformed it into metered poetry. The poem was unfinished when Virgil died—to be precise, it is almost complete except for a few metrically incomplete lines of verse. The Aeneid is celebrated for its patriotic goal and its probing of the inner meaning of heroism and man’s fate.

Before Virgil died, he instructed that the poem should be destroyed. It is believed that Emperor Augustus himself overrode Virgil’s final desire and saved the Aeneid for posterity. It became the heart of the Roman school curriculum and has been in print for over 2,000 years.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Virgil

I too must attempt a way by which I can raise myself above the ground, and soar triumphant through the lips of men.
—Virgil
Topics: Ambition

Trust not too much to an enchanting face.
—Virgil
Topics: Beauty

The hour is ripe, and yonder lies the way.
—Virgil
Topics: Getting Going, Inaction, Procrastination

Go on and increase in valor for this is the path to immortality.
—Virgil
Topics: Valor, Bravery

Believe one who has proved it. Believe an expert.
—Virgil
Topics: Belief

The flocks fear the wolf, the crops the storm, and the trees the wind.
—Virgil
Topics: Fear

Impotent fury rages powerless and to no purpose.
—Virgil
Topics: Anger

Blessed is he who has been able to win knowledge of the causes of things.
—Virgil

Too happy would you be, did ye but know your own advantages.
—Virgil
Topics: Silver Linings, Blessings

I have lived, and I have run the course which fortune allotted me; and now my shade shall descend illustrious to the grave.
—Virgil
Topics: Death, Dying

Fame hides her head among the clouds.
—Virgil
Topics: Fame

Let us go singing as far as we go; the road will be less tedious.
—Virgil
Topics: Passion, Enthusiasm

Fear betrays unworthy souls.
—Virgil

Whatever may happen, every kind of fortune is to be overcome by bearing it.
—Virgil
Topics: Fortune

Each person, makes their own terrible passion their God.
—Virgil
Topics: God

Evil is nourished and grows by concealment.
—Virgil
Topics: Evil

Perhaps one day this too will be pleasant to remember.
—Virgil
Topics: Memory, Resilience

Trust not the horse, O Trojans. Be it what it may, I fear the Grecians even when they offer gifts.
—Virgil
Topics: Charity, Giving

The noblest motive is the public good.
—Virgil
Topics: Patriotism, God

Press no further with hate.
—Virgil
Topics: Hate, Hatred

Age carries all things away, even the mind.
—Virgil

Harsh necessity, and the newness of my kingdom, force me to do such things and to guard my frontiers everywhere.
—Virgil
Topics: Security, Defense

Thus all things are doomed to change for the worse and retrograde.
—Virgil
Topics: Change

They are able because they think they are able.
—Virgil
Topics: Assurance, Ability, Confidence

It manus in gyrum; paullatim singula viresDeperdunt proprias; color est E pluribus unus. Spins round the stirring hand; lose by degreesTheir separate powers the parts, and comes at lastFrom many several colors one that rules.
—Virgil

Fortune favors the brave.
—Virgil

Everyone is dragged on by their favorite pleasure.
—Virgil
Topics: Pleasure

Trust not too much to appearances.
—Virgil
Topics: Appearance

They attack the one man with their hate and their shower of weapons. But he is like some rock which stretches into the vast sea and which, exposed to the fury of the winds and beaten against by the waves, endures all the violence.
—Virgil
Topics: Character

Every kind of fortune is to be overcome by bearing it.
—Virgil
Topics: Endurance, Perseverance, Resolve

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