Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Juvenal, fully Decimus Junius Juvenalis NULL

Roman Satirist and Poet

""Every fault of the mind becomes more conspicuous and more guilty in proportion to the rank of the offender" - Persons in high station are not only answerable for their own conduct, but for the example they may hold out to others. This, joined to their advantages of education, aggravates their vices and loads them with a greater share of responsibility."

"Every error of the mind is the more conspicuous and culpable in proportion to the rank of the person who commits it."

"All wish to possess knowledge, but few, comparatively speaking, are willing to pay the price."

"Bad passions become more odious in proportion as the motives to them are weakened; and gratuitous vice cannot be too indignantly exposed to reprehension. No man ever arrived suddenly at the summit of vice."

"Everything on earth is praised by somebody, criticized by somebody else - but loyalty and truthfulness are praised by all."

"He who within his breast meditates a crime has all the guilt of the deed."

"It is a wretched thing to lean on the reputation of others, lest the pillars being withdrawn the roof should fall in ruins."

"Many individuals have, like uncut diamonds, shining qualities beneath a rough exterior."

"Men do not easily rise whose poverty hinders their merit."

"Nature, in giving tears to man, confessed that he had a tender heart: this is our noblest quality."

"No evil man is happy."

"No guilty man is ever acquitted at the bar of his own conscience."

"In appearances place no trust."

"Integrity is praised and starves."

"No man ever became extremely wicked all at once."

"Poverty persuades a man to do and suffer everything that he may escape from it."

"Rare indulgence produces greater pleasure."

"Rarely they rise by virtue’s aid who lie plunged in the depth of helpless poverty."

"Remorse is the fruit of crime."

"Revenge is always the weak pleasure of a little and narrow mind."

"Revenge is the abject pleasure of an abject mind."

"Revenge is the poor delight of little minds."

"The man whose purse is empty can cheerfully sing before the robber."

"The one and only nobility is virtue."

"The thirst for fame is much greater than that for virtue; for who would embrace virtue itself if you take away its rewards."

"The very inclination to sin entails penalties."

"There will be nothing more that posterity can add to our immoral habits; our descendants must have the same desires and act the same follies as their sires. Every vice has reached its zenith."

"We deem those happy who, from the experience of life, have learned to bear its ills, without being overcome by them. A father may turn his back on his child, brothers and sisters may become inveterate enemies, husbands may desert their wives, wives their husbands. But a mother’s love endures through all; in good repute, in bad repute, in the face of the world’s condemnation, a mother still loves on and still hopes that her child may turn from his evil ways, and repent; still she remembers the infant smiles that once filled her bosom with rapture, the merry laugh, the joyful shout of his childhood, the opening promise of his youth; and she can never be brought to think him all unworthy."

"Nature and wisdom never are at strife."

"Never does nature say one thing and wisdom another."

"Only death reveals what a nothing the body is for man."

"Revenge is sweeter than life itself. So think fools."

"Some men make money not for the sake of living, but ache in blindness of greed and live for their fortune's sake."

"The entire flock dies in the fields of the disease introduced by one."

"Wisdom is the conqueror of fortune."

"All wish to know, but none to pay the fee. "