Catullus Quotes

I hate and love - wherefore I cannot tell, but by my tortures know the fact too well.

Catullus (Catulli Carmina)

Let us live and love, nor give a damn what sour old men say.
The sun that sets may rise again, but when our light has sunk into the earth it is gone forever.

Catullus

It is difficult suddenly to put aside a long-standing love; it is difficult, but somehow you must do it.

Catullus

And forever, brother, hail and farewell!

Catullus (Catulli Carmina)

If anything from our grief, can reach beyond
the mute grave, Calvus, and be pleasing and welcome,
grief with which, in longing, we revive our lost loves,
and weep for vanished friendships once known,
surely Quintilia's not so much sad for her early death,
as joyful for your love.

Catullus

If you're wise you will swallow the miles.

Catullus

Now he is treading that dark road to the place from which they say no one has ever returned.

Catullus

Rise up, lads, the evening is coming. The evening star is just raising his long-awaited light in heaven.

Catullus

Give me a thousand kisses, and then a hundred,
Then another thousand, then a second hundred,
And then yet another thousand, then a hundred.

Catullus (Catulli Carmina)

Ye Cupids, droop each little head,
Nor let your wings with joy be spread:
My Lesbia's favourite bird is dead,
Whom dearer than her eyes she loved.

Catullus (Catulli Carmina)

Let us live and love, my Lesbia...
and value at a penny all the talk of crabbed old men.
Suns may set and rise again:
for us, when our brief light has set,
there's the sleep of perpetual night.

Catullus(Catulli Carmina)

It is difficult to lay aside a confirmed passion.

Variant: It is difficult at once, on a sudden, to relinquish, lay aside, a confirmed passion.
Catullus (Catulli Carmina)

Through many peoples and many seas have I travelled
to thee, brother, and these wretched rites of death
I bring a last gift but can speak only to ashes
Since Fortune has taken you from me
Poor brother! stolen you away from me
leaving me only ancient custom to honour you
as it has been from generation to generation
Take from my hands these sad gifts covered in tears
Now and forever, brother, Hail and farewell.

Catullus

If anything has happened to one who ever yearned and wished
but never hoped, that is a rare pleasure of the soul.

Catullus (Catulli Carmina)

There is nothing sillier than a silly laugh.

Variant: There is nothing more foolish than a foolish laugh.
Catullus

What a woman says to her fond lover may well be written on the wind and rapid stream.

Variant: What a woman says to her passionate lover should be written in wind and running water.
Catullus

I love and I hate!

Catullus

Oh alas for the brother taken from me,
oh alas the shining light of a brother lost,
with you our whole house is buried together,
with you all our joys perish in one,

Catullus

You, my life, promise that this love of ours between us shall be agreeable and last forever.

Catullus

The sun once set will rise again, when our sun sets follows night and an endless sleep.

Catullus