Pectora Quotes
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Quid non mortalia pectora cogis, Auri sacra fames?
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More Pectora Quotes
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?
— Fell lust of gold! abhorred, accurst!
What will not men to slake such thirst?
— Virgil, Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book III, lines 56-57 (translated by John Conington).
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!
