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Ovid Quotes (-43-17)
Poet, King
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About Ovid
Publius Ovidius Naso (20 March 43 BC – 17 AD) was a Roman poet, commonly known to the English-speaking world as Ovid. Along with Virgil and Horace, Ovid is one of the three canonical poets of Latin literature, generally considered the greatest master of the elegiac couplet.
Best Ovid Quotes
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Explore our curated collection of the most famous and impactful Ovid quotes.
“Chaos, rudis indigestaque moles.”
“Qui nolet fieri desidiosus, amet!”
“Nomenque erit indelebile nostrum.”
Ovid Quotes by Topic
Find exactly what you are looking for by browsing this categorized list of Ovid quotes by topic.
Ovid on Love 19 quotes
View all 19 quotes on Love →Ovid on Time 9 quotes
View all 9 quotes on Time →Ovid on Poetry about love 6 quotes
View all 6 quotes on Poetry about love →Ovid on Death 5 quotes
“Quocunque adspicias, nihil est nisi mortis imago.
Wherever you look there is nothing but the image of death.”
Ovid on Composition (language) 4 quotes
“I write, and throw into the flame what’s writ; A little ash is all that comes of it.”
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Ovid on Writing style 2 quotes
View all 2 quotes on Writing style →Ovid on Zeugmata 2 quotes
View all 2 quotes on Zeugmata →Ovid on Religious views on love 2 quotes
“Jupiter ex alto perjuria ridet amantum.
Jupiter from on high laughs at the perjuries of lovers.”
Ovid on Bugonia 2 quotes
“He said: ‘Do you ask how to recover your bees? Kill a heifer and bury its carcase in the earth, Buried it will produce what you ask of me.’ The shepherd obeyed: the beast’s putrid corpse Swarmed: one life destroyed created thousands.”
Ovid on Vegetarianism 2 quotes
“O impious use! to Nature's laws oppos'd, Where bowels are in other bowels clos'd: Where fatten'd by their fellow's fat, they thrive; Maintain'd by murder, and by death they live. 'Tis then for nought, that Mother Earth provides The stores of all she shows, and all she hides, If men with fleshy morsels must be fed, And chaw with bloody teeth the breathing bread: What else is this, but to devour our guests, And barb'rously renew Cyclopean feasts! We, by destroying life, our life sustain; And gorge th' ungodly maw with meats obscene.”
Ovid on English proverbs (alphabetically by proverb)
What Ovid Said About Others
Discover personal opinions Ovid shared regarding contemporaries.
Ovid on Geoffrey Hill
Ovid on Briseis
Ovid on Orpheus
“[Orpheus] had abstained from the love of women, either because things ended badly for him, or because he had sworn to do so. Yet, many felt a desire to be joined with the poet, and many grieved at rejection. Indeed, he was the first of the Thracian people to transfer his affection to young boys and enjoy their brief springtime, and early flowering this side of manhood.”
Quotes About Ovid
Gain deeper perspective through quotes about Ovid from others.
John Dryden on Ovid
“The fittest for my wound, Who best the gentle passions knows to move; Ovid, the soft philosopher of love: His Love Epistles for my friends I chose; For there I found the kindred of my woes.”
Osip Mandelstam THE WORD AND CULTURE translated into English on Ovid
William Shakespeare on Ovid
“Here are only numbers ratified; but, for the elegancy, facility, and golden cadence of poesy, caret. Ovidius Naso was the man: and why, indeed, Naso, but for smelling out the odoriferous flowers of fancy, the jerks of invention?”
About Ovid
Publius Ovidius Naso (20 March 43 BC – 17 AD) was a Roman poet, commonly known to the English-speaking world as Ovid. Along with Virgil and Horace, Ovid is one of the three canonical poets of Latin literature, generally considered the greatest master of the elegiac couplet.