The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

Me too the Muses made write verse. I have songs of my own, the shepherds call me also a
poet; but I’m not inclined to trust them. For I don’t seem yet to write things as good either as
Varius or as Cinna, but to be a goose honking amongst tuneful swans.
‘Eclogue’ no. 9, l. 32
Omnia vincit Amor: et nos cedamus Amori.
Love conquers all things: let us too give in to Love.
‘Eclogue’ no. 10, l. 69
Ite domum saturae, venit Hesperus, ite capellae.
Go on home, you have fed full, the evening star is coming, go on, my she-goats.
‘Eclogue’ no. 10, l. 77
Ultima Thule.
Farthest Thule.
‘Georgics’ no. 1, l. 30
Nosque ubi primus equis Oriens adflavit anhelis
Illic sera rubens accendit lumina Vesper.
And when the rising sun has first breathed on us with his panting horses, over there the red
evening-star is lighting his late lamps.
‘Georgics’ no. 1, l. 250
Ter sunt conati imponere Pelio Ossam
Scilicet atque Ossae frondosum involvere Olympum;
Ter pater exstructos disiecit fulmine montis.
Three times they endeavoured to pile Ossa on Pelion, no less, and to roll leafy Olympus on top
of Ossa; three times our Father scattered the heaped-up mountains with a thunderbolt.
‘Georgics’ no. 1, l. 281
O fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint,
Agricolas!
O farmers excessively fortunate if only they recognized their blessings!
‘Georgics’ no. 2, l. 458
Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas.
Lucky is he who has been able to understand the causes of things.
‘Georgics’ no. 2, l. 490
Fortunatus et ille deos qui novit agrestis.
Fortunate too is the man who has come to know the gods of the countryside.
‘Georgics’ no. 2, l. 493
Optima quaeque dies miseris mortalibus aevi
Prima fugit; subeunt morbi tristisque senectus
Et labor, et durae rapit inclementia mortis.
All the best days of life slip away from us poor mortals first; illnesses and dreary old age and