Monday Quotes

1. When one has weighed the sun in the balance, and measured the steps of the moon, and mapped out the seven heavens, there still remains oneself. Who can calculate the orbit of his own soul?
--Oscar Wilde, De Profundis

2. Nostalgia of any kind isn't a longing for the time, it's a longing for the person you were, the place you held, and the people who were around you. That has changed, but it was going to change anyway. It always does. --Katharine Pilkington

3. The deepest feeling always shows itself in silence; not in slience, but restraint. --Marianne Moore

4. Life is short and the art is long. Experience is fleeting, experiment treacherous, and judgement difficult. --Hippocrates

5. Unbelievers always want other people to act like Christians. --Orson Scott Card, Ender's Shadow

Propertius 1.20

Hoc pro continuo te, Galle, monemus amore, quod tibi ne vacuo defluat ex animo: saepe imprudenti fortuna occurrit amanti: crudelis Minyis sic erat Ascanius.	We warn you, Gallus, for your continued love, because for you lest it flow out from your empty mind: often Fortune happens to the imprudent lover: thus the cruel Ascanius was to Minyis.
est tibi non infra specie, non nomine dispar, 5 Theiodamanteo proximus ardor Hylae: huic tu, sive leges Umbrae rate flumina silvae, sive Aniena tuos tinxerit unda pedes, sive Gigantei spatiabere litoris ora, sive ubicumque vago fluminis hospitio, 10	To you is a love not inferior in appearance, not unlike the name of Hyla, the relative of Theiodamanteus: To this you, whether you gather established rivers of the Umbrian forest,
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Nympharum semper cupidas defende rapinas (non minor Ausoniis est amor Adryasin); ne tibi sit duros montes et frigida saxa, Galle, neque expertos semper adire lacus. quae miser ignotis error perpessus in oris 15 Herculis indomito fleverat Ascanio.	asdf
namque ferunt olim Pagasae navalibus Argo     egressam longe Phasidos isse viam, et iam praeteritis labentem Athamantidos undis     Mysorum scopulis applicuisse ratem.                 20	For they say that once the Argo had sailed from the Pagasan dock on a long journey to Phasis, And now with the waves having been passed over, the slippery ship landed at the rocks of Mysos.
hic manus heroum, placidis ut constitit oris,     mollia composita litora fronde tegit. at comes invicti iuvenis processerat ultra     raram sepositi quaerere fontis aquam.	Here the band of heroes, so that it might set up on the peaceful shores, covered the beach with arranged leaves. But the comerade of the unconquered young man had wandered to the distance to search for the rare water of a distant fountain.
hunc duo sectati fratres, Aquilonia proles                 25     (nunc superat Zetes, nunc superat Calais), oscula suspensis instabant carpere plantis,     oscula et alterna ferre supina fuga.	Here the two brothers were following, the sons of Aquilonia (now Zetes is ahead, now Calais), they were pursuing to snatch kisses with suspended grasps, and altnerately to bear flights from his upturned kisses.
ille sed extrema pendentes ludit in ala     et volucris ramo summovet insidias.                 30 iam Pandioniae cessit genus Orithyiae: ah dolor! ibat Hylas, ibat Hamadryasin.	But he plays in the distant hanging down wings and wards off with a branch their plots in flight. For the kin of Orithyae, of Pandioniae ends: oh sadness! Hylas was leaving, was leaving to the Hamadryads.
hic erat Arganthi Pege sub vertice montis,     grata domus Nymphis umida Thyniasin, quam supra nulli pendebant debita curae                 35     roscida desertis poma sub arboribus,	Here was Pege of Arganthi below the top of the mountains, the damp home dear to Thynias's Nymphs, over which dewey apples with no cares were hanging under wild trees ,
et circum irriguo surgebant lilia prato candida purpureis mixta papaveribus. quae modo decerpens tenero pueriliter ungui proposito florem praetulit officio, 40 et modo formosis incumbens nescius undis errorem blandis tardat imaginibus. tandem haurire parat demissis flumina palmis innixus dextro plena trahens umero. cuius ut accensae Dryades candore puellae 45 miratae solitos destituere choros prolapsum et leviter facili traxere liquore, tum sonitum rapto corpore fecit Hylas. cui procul Alcides ter 'Hyla!' respondet: at illi nomen ab extremis montibus aura refert. 50 his, o Galle, tuos monitus servabis amores, formosum ni vis perdere rursus Hylan.	asdf
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Propertius 4.9

Amphitryoniades qua tempestate iuuencos egerat a stabulis, o Erythea, tuis, uenit ad inuictos pecorosa Palatia montis, et statuit fessos fessus et ipse boues, qua Velabra suo stagnabant flumine quoque nauta per urbanas uelificabat aquas.	In the season when Amphitryoniades man had driven young bulls from your stables, O Erythea, he came from cattle-rich Palatia to your unconquered mountains, and he, tired himself, set up tired cows, at the place the Vebabra was halting its flow and the sailor was sailing through urban waters.
sed non infido manserunt hospite Caco incolumes: furto polluit ille Iouem. incola Cacus erat, metuendo raptor ab antro, per tria partitos qui dabat ora sonos.	But Cacus, the unfaithful host did not leave them uninjured: he dishonored Jupiter with a theft. Cacus was a transplant, a robber from a fearful cave, who was making different sounds through three mouths.
hic, ne certa forent manifestae signa rapinae, auersos cauda traxit in antra boues, nec sine teste deo: furem sonuere iuuenci, furis et implacidas diruit ira fores.	He, lest certain signs of blunder were evident, dragged struggling cows by the tail into the caves, but not without the god as a witness: to denounce the thief of the bulls, rage pulled down the savage doors of the robber.
Maenalio iacuit pulsus tria tempora ramo Cacus, et Alcides sic ait: "ite, boues, Herculis ite boues, nostrae labor ultime clauae, bis mihi quaesitae, bis mea praeda, boues, aruaque mugitu sancite Bouaria longo: nobile erit Romae pascua uestra Forum."	Pounded three times by the Herculean club, Cacus lay down, and Alcide [Hercules] thus said: "Go, cows, go as cows of Hercules, the final labor of my cudgel, sought twice by me, twice my pillage, cows, and dedicate by mooing long and loud the Bovarian altar: your pasture will be the noble Forum of Roma."
dixerat, et sicco torquet sitis ora palato, terraque non ullas feta ministrat aquas. sed procul inclusas audit ridere puellas, lucus ubi umbroso fecerat orbe nemus, femineae loca clausa deae fontesque piandos impune et nullis sacra retecta uiris.	He had spoken, and thirst twisted his mouth with a dry palate, and the fertile land administered not any water. But nearby he heard that cloistered girls were laughing, where a wooded grove had formed a shady circle, a closed space for the feminine goddess, and with appeased fountains sacred things revealed to no man without punishment.
deuia puniceae uelabant limina uittae, putris odorato luxerat igne casa, populus et longis ornabat frondibus aedem, multaque cantantis umbra tegebat auis.	Crimson bands covered the remote threshholds, a putrid hovel was shining with smelly fire, a poplar tree adorned the temple with huge leaves, and shadows hid the multitude of singing birds.
huc ruit in siccam congesta puluere barbam, et iacit ante fores uerba minora deo: "uos precor, o luci sacro quae luditis antro, pandite defessis hospita fana uiris.	He rushed there, with dust thick in his dry beard, and said before the doors these less than godly words: "I pray to you, you who play in the cave of the grove, spread your welcoming temple to a tired man.
fontis egens erro circaque sonantia lymphis; et caua succepto flumine palma sat est. audistisne aliquem, tergo qui sustulit orbem? ille ego sum: Alciden terra recepta uocat.	A wanderer, in need of a spring and around the sounds of a spring; and the hollow of a hand is enough for accepting water. Do you hear of someone, who carried the world on his back? I am that man: the world accepted by me calls me Alcide.
quis facta Herculeae non audit fortia clauae et numquam ad uastas irrita tela feras, atque uni Stygias homini luxisse tenebras? [accipit: haec fesso uix mihi terra patet.]	Who has not heard the mighty deeds of Hercules club and his spear never useless against huge wildings, and that Stygian dark corners shone for the one man? [This land scarcely is open for weary me.]
quodsi Iunoni sacrum faceretis amarae, non clausisset aquas ipsa nouerca suas. sin aliquem uultusque meus saetaeque leonis terrent et Libyco sole perusta coma, idem ego Sidonia feci seruilia palla officia et Lydo pensa diurna colo, mollis et hirsutum cepit mihi fascia pectus, et manibus duris apta puella fui."	If you built holy places of altars to Juno, she herself, a stepmother, might not shut her doors. But if my face and leonine mane frighten anyone and my hair burned through by the Libyan sun, I am the same who worked in the official tunic of a Sidonian slave-girl and I work daily with a Lydian distaff, a soft ribbon binds my hair chest, and I was suited to be a girl with rough hands."
talibus Alcides; at talibus alma sacerdos puniceo canas stamine uincta comas: "parce oculis, hospes, lucoque abscede uerendo; cede agedum et tuta limina linque fuga. interdicta uiris metuenda lege piatur quae se summota uindicat ara casa.	With such words spoke Alcide; but at such words the nourishing priestess said, her gray hairs held back with a red ribbon: Spare your eyes, guest, and depart from our sacred grove; submit and leave and abandon this doorstep run away safe. It is designated pure of men and avengedy by a frightful law, that altar which is safe in this grove.
magno Tiresias aspexit Pallada uates, fortia dum posita Gorgone membra lauat. di tibi dent alios fontis: haec lympha puellis auia secreti limitis unda fluit."	Tiresias the prophet looked on Pallada to great cost, while she bathed her strong limbs with her Gorgone set aside. Let the gods give to you another fountain: this watery wave flows for girls of a secret path."
sic anus: ille umeris postis concussit opacos, nec tulit iratam ianua clausa sitim. at postquam exhausto iam flumine uicerat aestum, ponit uix siccis tristia iura labris:	Thus said the old woman: that man pounded the darkened doorposts with his upper arms, and the closed gate did not bear his angry thirst. But immediately after he quenched his passion with the tapped-out spring, with his lips scarcely dry, he promulgated this law:
"angulus hic mundi nunc me mea fata trahentem accipit: haec fesso uix mihi terra patet. Maxima quae gregibus deuota est Ara repertis, ara per has" inquit "maxima facta manus, haec nullis umquam pateat ueneranda puellis, Herculis aeternum nec sit inulta sitis."	This corner of the world now accpets me, dragging my fates: this land is scarcely open to weary me. This Greatest Altar is devoted to the discovered herd, the greatest altar of all those my hand made, this will ever be open for worship by no women, so that is not will be eternally unpunished for Hercules' thirst."
hunc, quoniam manibus purgatum sanxerat orbem, sic Sanctum Tatiae composuere Cures. Sancte pater salue, cui iam fauet aspera Iuno: Sancte, uelis libro dexter inesse meo.	This man, since with his hands he had dedicated the cleansed world, thus the Curian people had built the sacred temple of the Tatian. Farewll, sacred father, to whom bitter Juno now favors: Sacred one, wish favor to be with my book.

Propertius 1.22

Qualis et unde genus, qui sint mihi, Tulle, Penates,
    quaeris pro nostra semper amicitia.
si Perusina tibi patriae sunt nota sepulcra,
    Italiae duris funera temporibus,
cum Romana suos egit discordia cives—                 5
    sic mihi praecipue, pulvis Etrusca, dolor,
tu proiecta mei perpessa es membra propinqui,
    tu nullo miseri contegis ossa solo—
proxima suppositos contingens Umbria campos
    me genuit terris fertilis uberibus.

What kind of gods and of what race are the kind that belong to me,  Tullius,
you ask on account of our never-ending friendship.
If to you are known thee Perusian graves of our fathers,
the funerals of Italy in harsh times,
When Roman discord drove our cities--
thus to me sorrow especially, Etruscan dust,
you endured to the full the exposed limbs of my relative,
you cover up the bones of the miserable man with no soil--
Nearby Umbria, bordering on the subsitute plain
gave birth to me from her rich, fertile earth.

Propertius 1.21

Tu, qui consortem properas evadere casum,
    miles ab Etruscis saucius aggeribus,
quid nostro gemitu turgentia lumina torques?
    pars ego sum vestrae proxima militiae.
sic te servato possint gaudere parentes,                 5
    haec soror acta tuis sentiat e lacrimis:
Gallum per medios ereptum Caesaris enses
    effugere ignotas non potuisse manus;
et quaecumque super dispersa invenerit ossa
    montibus Etruscis, haec sciat esse mea.

You, who hurry to evade the common calamity,
a soldier, wounded, from the Etruscan ramparts,
why do you turn your swollen eyes to my groaning?
I, equally, am recently of your military campaign.
Thus let your parents able to rejoice in you, kept safe,
and let my sister sense of these events from your tears:
that Gallum, having broken through the middle of the sword gangs of Caeser,
was not able to flee to strange places;
And whatsoever bones she will have found dispersed
above the Etruscan mountains, that she might know these are mine.

Propertius 1.15:1-10

Propertius 1.15

Saepe ego multa tuae levitatis dura timebam,

hac tamen excepta, Cynthia, perfidia.

I was often fearing many harsh things of shallowness of yours, Cynthia, nevertheless, this betrayal was left out.

aspice me quanto rapiat fortuna periclo!
See that fortune might take me from such danger!
tu tamen in nostro lenta timore venis;
Nevertheless you come lazily to me, afraid.
et potes hesternos manibus componere crines 5

et longa faciem quaerere desidia,
And you are able to arrange yesterday's hair with your hands and to look at your own face with idleness.
nec minus Eois pectus variare lapillis,
.
ut formosa novo quae parat ire viro.

And not less to adorn your breast with Asian stones so that you, beautiful, might obtain a new man.

at non sic Ithaci digressu mota Calypso

desertis olim fleverat aequoribus: 10

And thus Calypso had not wept to the empty waves, disturbed by the Ithacan's departure.

multos illa dies incomptis maesta capillis
Unhappy, she had sat for many days with unkempt hair,
sederat, iniusto multa locuta salo,

et quamvis numquam post haec visura, dolebat

illa tamen, longae conscia laetitiae.

nec sic Aesoniden rapientibus anxia ventis 17

Hypsipyle vacuo constitit in thalamo:

Hypsipyle nullos post illos sensit amores,

ut semel Haemonio tabuit hospitio. 20

coniugis Euadne miseros elata per ignes

occidit, Argivae fama pudicitiae.

Alphesiboea suos ultast pro coniuge fratres, 15

sanguinis et cari vincula rupit amor.

quarum nulla tuos potuit convertere mores, 23

tu quoque uti fieres nobilis historia.

desine iam revocare tuis periuria verbis,

Cynthia, et oblitos parce movere deos;

audax ah nimium, nostro dolitura periclo,

si quid forte tibi durius inciderit!

alta prius retro labentur flumina ponto,

annus et inversas duxerit ante vices, 30

quam tua sub nostro mutetur pectore cura:

sis quodcumque voles, non aliena tamen.

tam tibi ne viles isti videantur ocelli,

per quos saepe mihi credita perfidiast!

hos tu iurabas, si quid mentita fuisses, 35

ut tibi suppositis exciderent manibus:

et contra magnum potes hos attollere Solem,

nec tremis admissae conscia nequitiae?

quis te cogebat multos pallere colores

et fletum invitis ducere luminibus? 40

quis ego nunc pereo, similis moniturus amantes

non ullis tutum credere blanditiis.

Tibullus 1.9:1-28

Quid mihi si fueras miseros laesurus amores,
Foedera per divos, clam violanda, dabas?
A miser, et siquis primo periuria celat,
Sera tamen tacitis Poena venit pedibus.
Parcite, caelestes: aequum est inpune licere 5
Numina formosis laedere vestra semel.
Lucra petens habili tauros adiungit aratro
Et durum terrae rusticus urget opus,
Lucra petituras freta per parentia ventis
Ducunt instabiles sidera certa rates: 10
Muneribus meus est captus puer, at deus illa
In cunerem et liquidas munera vertat aquas.
Iam mihi persolvet poenas, pulvisque decorem
Detrahet et ventis horrida facta coma;
Uretur facies, urentur sole capilli, 15
Deteret invalidos et via longa pedes.
Admonui quotiens 'auro ne pollue formam:
Saepe solent auro multa subesse mala.
Divitiis captus siquis violavit amorem,
Asperaque est illi difficilisque Venus. 20
Ure meum potius flamma caput et pete ferro
Corpus et intorto verbere terga seca.
Nec tibi celandi spes sit peccare paranti:
Est deus, occultos qui vetat esse dolos.
Ipse deus tacito permisit lene ministro, 25
Ederet ut multo libera verba mero;
Ipse deus somno domitos emittere vocem
Iussit et invitos facta tegenda loqui.'

If you were to wound my wretched love, why did you give
me your word before the gods, only to break it secretly?
Ah sadly, even if perjury is hidden at first,
punishment will come later, on silent feet.
Spare him, gods: it’s right that beauty should offend
your divinity, once, and go unpunished.
The farmer yokes his bulls to the useful plough
and works the land hard in search of profit:
fixed stars guide the swaying ships, through seas
obedient to the winds, in search of profit.
My lad’s captivated by gifts. But may the god
turn those gifts to ashes or running water.
Soon he’ll make amends: dust will take his beauty
and his hair will be entangled by the winds:
his face will be burned, his tresses burned by the sun,
and the long road will blister his tender feet.
How many times have I warned him: “ Don’t let gold
sully your beauty: many evils often lurk beneath the gold.
Venus is bitter and difficult with anyone
who violates love, captivated by wealth.
Scorch my head with fire instead, attack my body
with steel, and scar my back with the twisted lash.
Don’t hope to conceal it when you’re planning sin:
the god knows, who forbids wrongs to be hidden.
The god himself has often allowed a silent servant
to babble freely due to strong drink.
The god himself has ordered a voice subdued by sleep
to speak and tell unwillingly of things better buried.”

"The Girl in the Fireplace" by Jacob Clifton

Rose stares at him as he works, brittle and quiet.

"Are you all right?"

And the Doctor looks up, and says something as incomprehensible, as painful, as ugly, as worthless--and as true, and as beautiful--as he's ever said:

"I'm always all right."


--Jacob Clifton, TWOP

"Invictus" by William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me
Black as the Pit from pole to pole
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced, nor cried aloud,
Under the bludgeoning of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

--William Ernest Henley