„Sei geduldig und stark; irgendwann wird dieser Schmerz dir nützlich sein.“
Perfer et obdura, dolor hic tibi proderit olim.
Ovid Berühmte Zitate
„Lass deinen Haken immer werfen; Im Pool, wo man es am wenigsten erwartet, wird es Fische geben.“
Casus ubique valet; semper tibi pendeat hamus
Quo minime credas gurgite, piscis erit.
Tristes, I,9,5
Original lat.: "Donec eris felix, multos numerabis amicos. Tempora si fuerint nubila, solus eris."
„Die Hoffnung ist es, die die Liebe nährt.“
Metamorphosen Buch IX, 750
Original lat.: "spes est, quae pascat amorem."
Zitate über Liebe von Ovid
„Um geliebt zu werden, sei liebenswürdig.“
Ars amatoria II, 107
Original lat.: "ut ameris, amabilis esto."
„Wieviel Muscheln am Strand, soviel Schmerzen bietet die Liebe.“
Remedia Amoris (Heilmittel gegen die Liebe) Buch II, 519
Original lat.: "Litore quot conchae, tot sunt in amore dolores."
„Gewähre Erholung; der Acker, der sich erholt, gibt reichlich, // Was er dir schuldet, zurück.“
Kunst zu lieben, 2, 351
Original lat.: "Da requiem: requietus ager bene credita reddit."
Zitate über Kunst von Ovid
„So viele Sterne der Himmel, so viele Mädchen hat dein Rom.“
Liebeskunst (Ars amatoria) I, 59
Original lat.: "Quot caelum stellas, tot habet tua Roma puellas."
„Nichts ist mächtiger als die Gewohnheit.“
Liebeskunst (Ars amatoria) II, 345
Original lat.: "nil adsuetudine maius."
Variante: Nichts ist mächtiger als Gold.
Liebeskunst (Ars amatoria) I, 633f. Übersetzt von Michael von Albrecht. Stuttgart: Philipp Reclam Jun., 1992, S. 47 ISBN 3-15-000357-1
Original lat.: "Iuppiter ex alto periuria ridet amantum / et iubet Aeolios inrita ferre Notos."
„Schönheit ist vergänglich, und wie mit den Jahren sie zunimmt, nimmt sie auch ab.“
Liebeskunst (Ars amatoria) II, 113f
Original lat.: "Forma bonum fragile est, quantumque accedit ad annos // Fit minor."
Ovid Zitate und Sprüche
„Traurig wirst du sein, wenn du allein sein wirst.“
Remedia Amoris (Heilmittel gegen die Liebe), 583
Original lat.: "Tristis eris, si solus eris."
„In der Mitte wirst du am sichersten gehen.“
Metamorphosen Buch II, 137
Original lat.:"Medio tutissimus ibis"

„Der Tropfen höhlt den Stein.“
Ex Ponto (Briefe aus der Verbannung) IV, Brief X (an Albinovanus) 5 (meist zitiert als Steter Tropfen höhlt den Stein)
Original lat.: "gutta cavat lapidem."
Außerdem Ars amatoria 1, 476: "Harte Felsen werden von weichem Wasser ausgehöhlt." ("dura […] molli saxa cavantur aqua")
„Eine Gesinnung, die sich des Rechten bewusst ist, lacht über die Lügen des Gerüchts.“
Festkalender (Fasti) Buch IV, 311
Original lat.: "conscia mens recti famae mendacia risit."
„Hundert Gründe gibt es, weshalb ich immer verliebt bin.“
Liebesgedichte (Amores) Buch II, Gedicht IV
Original lat.: "centum sunt causae, cur ego semper amem."
„Die Tat ist vergangen, die Denkmäler bleiben.“
Festkalender (Fasti) Buch IV, 709
Original lat.: "factum abiit, monimenta manent."
„Keine Berechnung kann das Schicksal besiegen.“
Tristia (Gedichte der Trübsal), Buch III Gedicht VI
Original lat.: "ratio fatum vincere nulla valet."
„Vergeude keine Zeit mit Bitten!“
Metamorphosen XI, 286
Original lat.: "ne tempora perde precando!"
„Woher kommt dem Menschen so großer Hunger nach verbotenen Speisen?“
Metamorphosen Buch XV, 138
Original lat.: "inde fames homini vetitorum tanta ciborum."
„Wir streben immer zum Verbotenen und begehren das, was uns versagt wird.“
Amores III, 4:17
Original lat.: "Nitimur in vetitum semper cupimusque negata."
„Auch wenn es dich empört: Das unerlaubte Vergnügen macht Spaß.“
Liebesgedichte (Amores) Buch III, Gedicht IV
Original lat.: "indignere licet, iuvat inconcessa voluptas."
„Der Fisch, der einmal vom Haken verletzt wurde, vermutet Haken in jedem Brot.“
Ex Ponto (Briefe aus der Verbannung) II, Brief VII (an Atticus) 9
Original lat.: "Qui semel est laesus fallaci piscis ab hamo // omnibus unca cibis aera subesse putat."
„Es ist erlaubt, sich vom Feind belehren zu lassen.“
Metamorphosen, IV, 428
Original lat.: "Fas est et ab hoste doceri."
„Glücklich, wer, was er liebt, tapfer zu verteidigen wagt.“
Liebesgedichte (Amores) Buch II, Gedicht V
Original lat.: "felix, qui quod amat defendere fortiter audet."
„Als Myrrha den Vater hörte, seufzte sie aus tiefstem Herzen.“
Metamorphosen, Buch 10, Vers 402f
Original lat.: "Myrrha patre audito suspiria duxit ab imo // pectore."
Metamorphosen, Buch 6, Vers 29
Original lat.: "Seris venit usus ab annis."
„Auch das Weinen bietet eine gewisse Lust.“
Tristien, Buch IV, 3. Elegie, 37
Original lat.: "est quaedam flere voluptas;"
„Auch wenn die Kräfte fehlen, ist doch der [gute] Wille zu loben.“
Ex Ponto (Briefe aus der Verbannung) III, Brief IV (an Rufinus), 79
Original lat.: "Ut desint vires tamen est laudanda voluntas."
„Aufgeregte Gemüter zittern vor Hoffnung und Furcht.“
Festkalender (Fasti) Buch III, 362
Original lat.: "sollicitae mentes speque metuque pavent."
„Das Bessere seh ich und lob ich, Schlechterem folget das Herz.“
Metamorphosen, 7,20f. (Ü: Voß)
Original lat.: "video meliora proboque, deteriora sequor."
Heilmittel gegen die Liebe
Original lat.: "Adfluit incautis insidiosus Amor. // Desidiam puer ille sequi solet, odit agentes:"
„Keusch ist, die niemand gefragt hat.“
Liebesgedichte (Amores) Buch I, Gedicht VIII, 43
Original lat.: "casta est, quam nemo rogavit."
„Süß ist's, die Zeit auf die Bearbeitung der Äcker zu verwenden.“
Ex Ponto (Briefe aus der Verbannung) II, 69
Original lat.: "Tempus in agrorum cultu consumere dulce est."
Ars amatoria III, 425f
Original lat.: "Casus ubique valet; semper tibi pendeat hamus // Quo minime credas gurgite, piscis erit."
„Um zu genesen, musst du viel Schmerzhaftes ertragen.“
Remedia Amoris (Heilmittel gegen die Liebe)
Ovid: Zitate auf Englisch
“Love is a thing full of anxious fears.”
Res est solliciti plena timoris amor.
I, 12
Heroides (The Heroines)
“A field becomes exhausted by constant tillage.”
Continua messe senescit ager.
Book III, line 82
Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love)
“The gods behold all righteous actions.”
Di pia facta vident.
II, 117
Fasti (The Festivals)
“The result justifies the deed.”
Exitus acta probat.
Variant translation: The ends justify the means.
II, 85
Heroides (The Heroines)
“For those things which were done either by our fathers, or ancestors, and in which we ourselves had no share, we can scarcely call our own.”
Nam genus et proavos et quae non fecimus ipsi,
Vix ea nostra voco.
Metamorphoses (Transformations)
“The mind, conscious of rectitude, laughed to scorn the falsehood of report.”
Conscia mens recti famae mendacia risit
IV, 311. Compare: "And the mind conscious of virtue may bring to thee suitable rewards", Virgil, The Aeneid, i, 604
Fasti (The Festivals)
“Right it is to be taught even by the enemy.”
Fas est et ab hoste doceri.
Variant translation: It is right to learn, even from the enemy.
Book IV, 428
Metamorphoses (Transformations)
“Let him who loves, where love success may find,
Spread all his sails before the prosp'rous wind;
But let poor youths who female scorn endure,
And hopeless burn, repair to me for cure.”
Siquis amat quod amare iuvat, feliciter ardens
Gaudeat, et vento naviget ille suo.
At siquis male fert indignae regna puellae,
Ne pereat, nostrae sentiat artis opem.
Quelle: Remedia Amoris (The Cure for Love), Lines 13-16
“And he turned his mind to unknown arts.”
Et ignotas animum dimittit in artes.
Book VIII, line 188
Metamorphoses (Transformations)
“Let the man who does not wish to be idle fall in love!”
Qui nolet fieri desidiosus, amet!
Book I; ix, 46
Amores (Love Affairs)
“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.”
Heu quantum scelus est in viscera viscera condi
ingestoque avidum pinguescere corpore corpus
alteriusque animans animantis vivere leto!
Scilicet in tantis opibus, quas, optima matrum,
terra parit, nil te nisi tristia mandere saevo
vulnera dente iuvat ritusque referre Cyclopum,
nec, nisi perdideris alium, placare voracis
et male morati poteris ieiunia ventris!
Book XV, 88–95 (from Wikisource)
Metamorphoses (Transformations)
“There is a god within us.
It is when he stirs us that our bosom warms; it is
his impulse that sows the seeds of inspiration.”
Est deus in nobis; agitante calescimus illo:
impetus hic sacrae semina mentis habet.
VI, lines 5-6; translation by Sir James George Frazer
Fasti (The Festivals)
“Water belongs to us all. Nature did not make the sun one person's property, nor air, nor water, cool and clear.”
Usus communis aquarum est.
Nec solem proprium natura nec aera fecit
nec tenues undas
Book VI, 349-351; translation by Michael Simpson https://books.google.ca/books?id=hDPmwbCSSPEC
Metamorphoses (Transformations)
“I am the poor man's poet; because I am poor myself and I have known what it is to be in love. Not being able to pay them in presents, I pay my mistresses in poetry.”
Pauperibus vates ego sum, quia pauper amavi;
Cum dare non possem munera, verba dabam.
Book II, lines 165–166 (tr. J. Lewis May)
Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love)
“Your right arm is useful in the battle; but when it comes to thinking you need my guidance. You have force without intelligence; while mine is the care for to-morrow. You are a good fighter; but is I who help Atrides select the time of fighting. Your value is in your body only; mine, in mind. And, as much as he who directs the ship surpasses him who only rows it, as much as the general exceeds the common soldier, so much greater am I than you. For in these bodies of ours the heart is of more value than the hand; all our real living is in that.”
Tibi dextera bello
utilis: ingenium est, quod eget moderamine nostro;
tu vires sine mente geris, mihi cura futuri;
tu pugnare potes, pugnandi tempora mecum
eligit Atrides; tu tantum corpore prodes,
nos animo; quantoque ratem qui temperat, anteit
remigis officium, quanto dux milite maior,
tantum ego te supero; nec non in corpore nostro
pectora sunt potiora manu: vigor omnis in illis.
Book XIII, 361–369; translation by Frank Justus Miller https://archive.org/details/metamorphoseswit02oviduoft
Metamorphoses (Transformations)
“They bear punishment with equanimity who have earned it.”
Aequo animo poenam, qui meruere, ferunt.
Book II, vii, 12
Amores (Love Affairs)
“We're slow to believe what wounds us.”
Tarde quae credita laedunt credimus.
II, 9-10; translation by A. S. Kline
Heroides (The Heroines)
“Time, the devourer of all things.”
Tempus edax rerum.
Book XV, 234
Metamorphoses (Transformations)
“Poetry comes fine-spun from a mind at ease.”
Carmina proveniunt animo deducta sereno.
I, i, 39
Tristia (Sorrows)
“Thus all things are but altered, nothing dies.”
Omnia mutantur, nihil interit.
Book XV, 165 (as translated by John Dryden); on the transmigration of souls.
Metamorphoses (Transformations)
“Yield to the opposer, by yielding you will obtain the victory.”
Book II, line 197
Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love)
“Love is a kind of warfare.”
Militiae species amor est.
Book II, line 233
Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love)
“Plenty has made me poor.”
Inopem me copia fecit.
Book III, 466
Variant translation: Abundance makes me poor.
Metamorphoses (Transformations)
“Beauty's a frail flower.”
Forma bonum fragile est.
Book II, line 113 (tr. James Michie)
Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love)
“Video meliora, proboque, deteriora sequor.”
I see better things, and approve, but I follow worse.
Book VII, 20
Metamorphoses (Transformations)
“Carmina proveniunt animo deducta sereno.”
Poetry comes fine-spun from a mind at ease.
I, i, 39
Tristia (Sorrows)
“The event proves well the wisdom of her [Phyllis'] course.”
Heroides (The Heroines)
Original: (la) Exitus acta probat.
The end proves the acts (were done), or the result is a test of the actions; Ovid's line 85 full translation:
Variant translations: The ends justify the means. All's well that ends well. NB: the end does not always equal the goal.
II, 85