Q

Quintilian

12 quotes

Quintilian is one of those voices you encounter and immediately want to hear more from. Whether reflecting on Alone or Teacher, Quintilian brought uncommon clarity to every subject. Our collection holds 14 quotes from Quintilian, each offering a different angle on Alone, Teacher, Nature, Men, and Imagination. To get a sense of their style, try: "Forbidden pleasures alone are loved immoderately when lawful, they do not excite desire."

“Our minds are like our stomaches they are whetted by the change of their food, and variety supplies both with fresh appetite.”

— Quintilian

Food

All Quotes by Quintilian

“When we cannot hope to win, it is an advantage to yield.”

— Quintilian

Hope

“Forbidden pleasures alone are loved immoderately when lawful, they do not excite desire.”

— Quintilian

Alone

“The gifts of nature are infinite in their variety, and mind differs from mind almost as much as body from body.”

— Quintilian

Nature

“Fear of the future is worse than one's present fortune.”

— Quintilian

Fear

“Vain hopes are like certain dreams of those who wake.”

— Quintilian

Dreams

“Men, even when alone, lighten their labors by song, however rude it may be.”

— Quintilian

Alone

“Our minds are like our stomaches they are whetted by the change of their food, and variety supplies both with fresh appetite.”

— Quintilian

Food

“To my mind the boy who gives least promise is one in whom the critical faculty develops in advance of the imagination.”

— Quintilian

Imagination

“In almost everything, experience is more valuable than precept.”

— Quintilian

Experience

“It is worth while too to warn the teacher that undue severity in correcting faults is liable at times to discourage a boy's mind from effort.”

— Quintilian

Teacher

“As regards parents, I should like to see them as highly educated as possible, and I do not restrict this remark to fathers alone.”

— Quintilian

Alone

“The perfection of art is to conceal art.”

— Quintilian

Art