Civil War Quotes

“God cheats men into living on by hiding how blessed it is to die.”
― Lucanus, De bello civili libri X (Bibliotheca scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana)

“And they are ignorant that the purpose of the sword is to save every man from slavery.”
― Marcus Annaeus Lucanus, Civil War

“quod defles, illud amasti.”
― Lucan, Lucan; The Civil War Books I-X

“Whether the author of the universe, when the fire gave place and he first took in his hand the shapeless realm of raw matter, established the chain of causes for all eternity, and bound himself as well by universal law, and portioned out the universe, which endures the ages prescribed for it, by a fixed line of destiny; or whether nothing is ordained and Fortune, moving at random, brings round the cycle of events, and chance is master of mankind - in either case, let they purpose, whatever it be, be sudden; let the mind of man be blind to coming doom; he fears, but leave him hope.”
― Lucan, Lucan: The Civil War

“Unutterable are the things we fear, but soon our fears will be exceeded.”
― Lucan, Lucan's Pharsalia

“hic sacra domus carique penates, hic mihi Roma fuit.”
― Lucan, Lucan; The Civil War Books I-X

“There, with just a small rampart between, 180 they pitch their camps. Not obscured by distance, eyes on both sides behold well-known faces, they see brothers, their own sons, and fathers— the unspeakable civil crime is now unmasked.”
― Lucan, Civil War

“Even those who lack tombs are covered by the sky.”
― Lucan, Civil War

“The winners had the gods. But the losers had Cato.”
― Lucan, Civil War

“No escape lies open; our countrymen surround us, 510 intent on having our throats. Resolve to die and all fear will dissolve. Desire what you can’t avoid.”
― Lucan, Civil War

“Unutterable are the things we fear, but soon our fears will be exceeded”
― Marcus Annaeus Lucanus, Civil War

“to plunge so deep takes more than any sword: such gaping wounds belong to civic hands.”
― Marcus Annaeus Lucanus, Civil War

“From Iolcus the sea was first challenged, when the untried Argo scorned the shore and brought together nations that before were strangers; she first matched mankind against the raging winds and waves of ocean, and by her means a new form of death was added to the old.”
― Lucan, Lucan: The Civil War

“Inde lacessitum primo mare, cum rudis Argo
Miscuit ignotas temerato litore gentes
Priamque cum ventis pelagique furentibus undis
Conposuit mortale genus, fatisque per ilam
Accesit mors una ratem.”
― Lucan, Lucan: The Civil War

“Sive parens rerum, cum primum informia regna
Materiamque rudem flamma cedente recpit,
Fixit in aeternum causas, qua cuncta coercet
Se quoque lege tenens, et saecula iussa ferentem
Fatorum inmoto divisit limite mundum;
Sive nihil positom est sed fors incerta vagatur
Fertque refertque vices, et habet mortalia casus:
Sit subitum, quodcumque paras; sit caeca future
Mens hominum fati; liceat sperare timenti.”
― Lucan, Lucan: The Civil War