Pectora Quotes
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Quid non mortalia pectora cogis, Auri sacra fames?
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More Pectora Quotes
Quid non mortalia pectora cogis, Auri sacra fames?
virgil— Fell lust of gold! abhorred, accurst!
What will not men to slake such thirst?Lines 56–57 (translated by John Conington); of Polydorus's murder.Cf. Dryden's translation:
O sacred hunger of pernicious gold!
What bands of faith can impious lucre hold?Cf. also Symmons' translation:
Dire lust of gold! how mighty thy controll
To bend to crime man's impotence of soul!
Improbe Amor, quid non mortalia pectora cogis!
virgil— Curst Love! what lengths of tyrant scorn
Wreak'st not on those of woman born?Line 412 (translated by John Conington); referring to the unwise actions undertaken by Dido, actuated by amorous passion.Cf. Dryden's translation:
All-pow'rful Love! what changes canst thou cause
In human hearts, subjected to thy laws!
Aurea rumpunt tecta quietem, Vigilesque trahit purpura noctes. O si pateant pectora ditum, Quantos intus sublimis agit Fortuna metus.
— Golden palaces break man's rest, and purple robes cause watchful nights.
— Oh, if the breasts of the rich could be seen into, what terrors high fortune places within!
— Seneca, Hercules Œtæus, 646.
Quid non mortalia pectora cogis, Auri sacra fames?
— Accursed thirst for gold! what dost thou not compel mortals to do?
— Virgil, Æneid (29-19 BC), III. 56.
O miseras hominum menteis! oh, pectora cæca!
— How wretched are the minds of men, and how blind their understandings.
— Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, II. 14.
Pro superi! quantum mortalia pectora cæcæ, Noctis habent.
— Heavens! what thick darkness pervades the minds of men.
— Ovid, Metamorphoses, VI. 472.
Quid non mortalia pectora cogis, Auri sacra fames?
— Cf. Dryden's translation:
O sacred hunger of pernicious gold!
What bands of faith can impious lucre hold?
— Cf. also Symmons' translation:
Dire lust of gold! how mighty thy controll
To bend to crime man's impotence of soul!
Improbe Amor, quid non mortalia pectora cogis!
— Cf. Dryden's translation:
All-pow'rful Love! what changes canst thou cause
In human hearts, subjected to thy laws!
