Quintilian quotes:

God, that all-powerful Creator of nature and architect of the world, has impressed man with no character so proper to distinguish him from other animals, as by the faculty of speech.

Whilst we deliberate how to begin a thing, it grows too late to begin it.

While we are making up our minds as to when we shall begin, the opportunity is lost.

A liar should have a good memory.

Nothing is more dangerous to men than a sudden change of fortune.

The mind is exercised by the variety and multiplicity of the subject matter, while the character is moulded by the contemplation of virtue and vice.

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

Consequently the student who is devoid of talent will derive no more profit from this work than barren soil from a treatise on agriculture.

We excuse our sloth under the pretext of difficulty.

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

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.

It is fitting that a liar should be a man of good memory.

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

Vain hopes are like certain dreams of those who wake.

Prune what is turgid, elevate what is commonplace, arrange what is disorderly, introduce rhythm where the language is harsh, modify where it is too absolute.

While we are making up our minds as to when we shall begin. the opportunity is lost.

For it would have been better that man should have been born dumb, nay, void of all reason, rather than that he should employ the gifts of Providence to the destruction of his neighbor.

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

It is the nurse that the child first hears, and her words that he will first attempt to imitate.

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

Without natural gifts technical rules are useless.

We must form our minds by reading deep rather than wide.

The pretended admission of a fault on our part creates an excellent impression.

Where evil habits are once settled, they are more easily broken than mended.

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

An evil-speaker differs from an evil-doer only in the want of opportunity.

Nature herself has never attempted to effect great changes rapidly.

To swear, except when necessary, is becoming to an honorable man.

It is much easier to try one's hand at many things than to concentrate one's powers on one thing.

Give me the boy who rouses when he is praised, who profits when he is encouraged and who cries when he is defeated. Such a boy will be fired by ambition; he will be stung by reproach, and animated by preference; never shall I apprehend any bad consequences from idleness in such a boy.

The prosperous can not easily form a right idea of misery.

Verse satire indeed is entirely our own.

In a crowd, on a journey, at a banquet even, a line of thought can itself provide its own seclusion.

To swear, except when necessary, is becoming to an honorable man. [Lat., In totum jurare, nisi ubi necesse est, gravi viro parum convenit.]

A laugh, if purchased at the expense of propriety, costs too much.

That which prematurely arrives at perfection soon perishes.

In almost everything, experience is more valuable than precept.

It is easier to do many things than to do one thing continuously for a long time.

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

While we are examining into everything we sometimes find truth where we least expected it.

For the mind is all the easier to teach before it is set.

Those who wish to appear wise among fools, among the wise seem foolish.

(Slaughter) means blood and iron. [Lat., Coedes videtur significare sanguinem et ferrum.]

A great part of art consists in imitation. For the whole conduct of life is based on this: that what we admire in others we want to do ourselves.

A laugh costs too much when bought at the expense of virtue.

A liar must have a good memory. -Mendacem oportet esse memorem

A liar ought to have a good memory.

A man who tries to surpass another may perhaps succeed in equaling inot actually surpassing him, but one who merely follows can never quite come up with him: a follower, necessarily, is always behind.

A mediocre speech supported by all the power of delivery will be more impressive than the best speech unaccompanied by such power.

A religion without mystics is a philosophy.

A Woman who is generous with her money is to be praised; not so, if she is generous with her person

Although virtue receives some of its excellencies from nature, yet it is perfected by education. [Lat., Virtus, etiamsi quosdam impetus a natura sumit, tamen perficienda doctrina est.]

Ambition is a vice, but it may be the father of virtue.

By writing quickly we are not brought to write well, but by writing well we are brought to write quickly.

Conscience is a thousand witnesses.

Everything that has a beginning comes to an end.

For all the best teachers pride themselves on having a large number of pupils and think themselves worthy of a bigger audience.

For comic writers charge Socrates with making the worse appear the better reason.

From writing rapidly it does not result that one writes well, but from writing well it results that one writes rapidly.

Give bread to a stranger, in the name of the universal brotherhood which binds together all men under the common father of nature.

He who speaks evil only differs from his who does evil in that he lacks opportunity.

If you direct your whole thought to work itself, none of the things which invade eyes or ears will reach the mind.

It is the heart which inspires eloquence.

It seldom happens that a premature shoot of genius ever arrives at maturity.

Lately we have had many losses.

Let us never adopt the maxim, Rather lose our friend than our jest.

Medicine for the dead is too late

Men of quality are in the wrong to undervalue, as they often do, the practise of a fair and quick hand in writing; for it is no immaterial accomplishment.

Minds that are stupid and incapable of science are in the order of nature to be regarded as monsters and other extraordinary phenomena; minds of this sort are rare. Hence I conclude that there are great resources to be found in children, which are suffered to vanish with their years. It is evident, therefore, that it is not of nature, but of our own negligence, we ought to complain.

Nothing can be pleasing which is not also becoming.

One should aim not at being possible to understand, but at being impossible to misunderstand.

One thing, however, I must premise, that without the assistance of natural capacity, rules and precepts are of no efficacy.

Satiety is a neighbor to continued pleasures. [Lat., Continuis voluptatibus vicina satietas.]

Sayings designed to raise a laugh are generally untrue and never complimentary. Laughter is never far removed from derision.

She abounds with lucious faults.

Study depends on the goodwill of the student, a quality that cannot be secured by compulsion.

Suffering itself does less afflict the senses than the apprehension of suffering.

That which offends the ear will not easily gain admission to the mind.

The learned understand the reason of art; the unlearned feel the pleasure.

The obscurity of a writer is generally in proportion to his incapacity.

The perfection of art is to conceal art.

The soul languishing in obscurity contracts a kind of rust, or abandons itself to the chimera of presumption; for it is natural for it to acquire something, even when separated from any one.

There is no one who would not rather appear to know than to be taught.

Those who wish to appear learned to fools, appear as fools to the learned.

Those who wish to appear wise among fools, among the wise seem foolish. [Lat., Qui stultis videri eruditi volunt, stulti eruditis videntur.]

Though ambition in itself is a vice, yet it is often the parent of virtues. [Lat., Licet ipsa vitium sit ambitio, frequenter tamen causa virtutem est.]

Though ambition may be a fault in itself, it is often the mother of virtues.

Too exact, and studious of similitude rather than of beauty. [Lat., Nimis in veritate, et similitudinis quam pulchritudinis amantior.]

Usage is the best language teacher.

Virtue, though she gets her beginning from nature, yet receives her finishing touches from learning.

We should not write so that it is possible for the reader to understand us, but so that it is impossible for him to misunderstand us.

When defeat is inevitable, it is wisest to yield.

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

While we ponder when to begin, it becomes too late to do.

Write quickly and you will never write well; write well, and you will soon write quickly.