Top 200 Juvenal Quotes (2025 Update)
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101. “Nature and wisdom always say the same.”

— Juvenal

102. “When your armour is on, it is too late to retreat.”

— Juvenal

103. “Who is to guard the guards themselves?”

— Juvenal

104. “Savage bears agree with one another.”

— Juvenal

105. “A man who has nothing can whistle in a robber’s face.”

— Juvenal

106. “Give up all hope of peace so long as your mother-in-law is alive.”

— Juvenal

107. “There is hardly a case in which the dispute was not caused by a woman.”

— Juvenal

108. “The short bloom of our brief and narrow life flies fast away. While we are calling for flowers and wine and women, old age is upon us.”

— Juvenal

109. “Every crime will bring remorse to the man who committed it.”

— Juvenal

110. “The man whose purse is empty can cheerfully sing before the robber.”

— Juvenal

111. “All arts his own, the hungry Greekling counts; And bid him mount the skies, the skies he mounts.”

— Juvenal

112. “No one every suddenly became depraved.”

— Juvenal

113. “Beasts of like kind will spare those of kindred spots.”

— Juvenal

114. “When talent fails, indignation writes the verse.”

— Juvenal

115. “Nature confesses that she has bestowed on the human race hearts of softest mould, in that she has given us tears.”

— Juvenal

116. “Led on by impulse, and blind and ungovernable desires.”

— Juvenal

117. “The fisherman could perhaps be bought for less than the fish.”

— Juvenal

118. “To lay down one’s life for the truth.”

— Juvenal

119. “By his own verdict no guilty man was ever acquitted.”

— Juvenal

120. “The people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions, and all else, now concerns itself no more, and longs eagerly for just two things: bread and circuses!”

— Juvenal

121. “Even savage animals can agree among themselves.”

— Juvenal

122. “Had we but wisdom, thou wouldst have no Divinity, O Fortune: it is we that make thee into a Goddess!”

— Juvenal

123. “It is a wretched thing to rest upon the fame of others, lest, the supporting pillar being removed, the superstructure should collapse in ruin.”

— Juvenal

124. “He who wants to get rich wants to get rich quickly.”

— Juvenal

125. “The sweetest pleasures soonest cloy, And its best flavour temperance gives to joy.”

— Juvenal

126. “All wish to know, but few the price will pay.”

— Juvenal

127. “Rare indulgence produces greater pleasure.”

— Juvenal

128. “The grape becomes tinted from the grape it comes in contact with.”

— Juvenal

129. “The tongue is the vile slave’s vilest part.”

— Juvenal

130. “What is more cruel than a tyrant’s ear?”

— Juvenal

131. “There is never a lawsuit but a woman is at the bottom of it.”

— Juvenal

132. “Two things only the people actually desire: bread and circuses.”

— Juvenal

133. “I will have this done, so I order it done; let my will replace reasoned judgement.”

— Juvenal

134. “Virture offers the only path in this life that leads to tranquility.”

— Juvenal

135. “Of what avail are pedigrees?”

— Juvenal

136. “The face, not the woman is the attraction.”

— Juvenal

137. “Would you not like to fill up a whole note-book at the street crossings when you see a forger borne along upon the necks of six porters, and exposed to view on this side and on that in his almost naked litter, and reminding you of the lounging Maecenas: one who by help of a scrap of paper and a moistened seal has converted himself into a fine and wealthy gentleman?”

— Juvenal

138. “No one rejoices more in revenge than woman.”

— Juvenal

139. “The only gain from the friendship of the great is a fine dinner.”

— Juvenal

140. “In the present state of the world it is difficult not to write lampoons.”

— Juvenal

141. “They whose sole bliss is eating can give but that one brutish reason why they live.”

— Juvenal

142. “A third heir seldom enjoys what has been dishonestly acquired.”

— Juvenal

143. “Writing in the incurable itch that possesses many.”

— Juvenal

144. “Death alone discloses how insignificant are the puny bodies of men.”

— Juvenal

145. “Every great house is full of haughty servants.”

— Juvenal

146. “Have the courage to do something which deserves transportation if you want to be somebody.”

— Juvenal

147. “There will he 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.”

— Juvenal

148. “When great assurance accompanies a bad undertaking, such is often mistaken for confiding sincerity by the world at large.”

— Juvenal

149. “Nothing is more audacious than these women when detected; they assume anger, and take courage from the very crime itself.”

— Juvenal

150. “The greatest hardship of poverty is that it tends to make men ridiculous.”

— Juvenal