Heroides Quotes

“Chance is always powerful. Let your hook be always cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish.”
― Ovid, Heroides

“We believe slowly when belief brings pain.”
― Ovid, Heroides

“The result justifies the deed
(Exitus acta probat)”
― Ovid, Heroides

“Read what is here. How could reading a letter harm you?

There might even be something in it that pleases you.

My secrets are carried, by these letters, over land and sea:

even enemies read letters received from their enemies.”
― Ovid, Heroides

“The rest night knows, and we, and the tower that sees, and the light that showed me a path through the sea.”
― Ovid, Heroides

“Is it fitting then, that I go out wearing robes dipped in costly purple while you, my lord, are in battle by the walls of Troy?
Should I arrange my hair while a great helmet weighs down his head? Should I put on new garments while he is burdened with heavy arms?”
― Ovid, Heroides

“Love has always been tempered by fear”
― Ovid, Heroides

“I hardly remember, but I remember.
There was only sorrow, everywhere
fear.
(Hermoine to Orestes”
― Ovid, Heroides

“By these tears, tears produced by what you have done,
turn your ship, take another tack, sail
back swiftly. And if I die before you return,
it will be you who carries my bones from this place.

(Ariadne to Theseus)”
― Ovid, Heroides

“Dying, must I die without my mother’s tears
and will no one’s fingers close my eyes?
Must my sad soul travel the alien airs?
Will no friendly hands arrange my limbs
anointing them with spices and fragrant herbs?
Are my bones to lie unburied, prey
to the birds that are waiting here by the shore?
Is this the tomb my kindness deserves?”
― Ovid, Heroides

“I hardly remember, but I remember.
There was only sorrow, everywhere
fear.”
― Ovid, Heroides

“Why does heaven itself oppose me, what stars
have ranked themselves against my poor self?
(Hermoine to Orestes)”
― Ovid, Heroides

“The Greeks think you mourn,
but you are making music and a gentle
maiden holds you in her warm embrace.
Why won't you fight? Because to fight is a risk
while a lyre and Venus at night bring
delight.”
― Ovid, Heroides