Quotes from The Aeneid

19 notable lines from Virgil · 19 BCE

I sing of arms and the man, he who, exiled by fate, first came from the coast of Troy to Italy.

Opening line

Quotations follow the Robert Fagles translation (Penguin Classics, 2006) — our recommended edition.

  1. I fear the Greeks, even when they bring gifts.

    Laocoön, warning against the wooden horse, Book II · trans. Mandelbaum

  2. Fortune favors the bold.

    Turnus, rallying his men, Book X

  3. A joy it will be one day, perhaps, to remember even this.

    Aeneas, Book 1

  4. The world is a world of tears, and the burdens of mortality touch the heart.

    Aeneas, at the temple murals, Book I · trans. Fagles

  5. Arms, and the man I sing, who, forc'd by fate, And haughty Juno's unrelenting hate, Expell'd and exil'd, left the Trojan shore.

    Opening lines, Book I · trans. Dryden

  6. If I cannot bend the Higher Powers, I will move the Infernal Regions.

    Juno, Book VII

  7. The gates of Hell are open night and day; smooth the descent, and easy is the way. But to return, and view the cheerful skies — in this, the task and mighty labor lies.

    The Sibyl, Book 6

  8. Roman, remember by your strength to rule Earth's peoples — for your arts are to be these: To pacify, to impose the rule of law, To spare the conquered, battle down the proud.

    Anchises foretelling Rome's mission, Book VI · trans. Fitzgerald

  9. The gates of hell are open night and day; Smooth the descent, and easy is the way: But to return, and view the cheerful skies, In this the task and mighty labor lies.

    The Sibyl to Aeneas, Book VI · trans. Dryden

  10. And with a groan for that indignity his spirit fled into the gloom below.

    The death of Turnus — the final line of the poem, Book XII · trans. Fitzgerald

  11. Yield not to evils, but attack all the more boldly.

    The Sibyl to Aeneas, Book VI · trans. Fairclough

  12. One safety the vanquished have, to hope for none.

    Aeneas, on the night Troy fell, Book II · trans. Fairclough

  13. They can because they think they can.

    Of the rowers in the boat race, Book V · trans. Conington

  14. I have lived. I have completed the course that Fortune allotted me.

    Dido, Book 4

  15. I have lived a life. I've journeyed through the course that Fortune charted for me. And now I pass to the world below, my ghost in all its glory.

    Dido's dying words on the pyre, Book IV · trans. Fagles

  16. A fickle and changeful thing is woman ever.

    Mercury, of Dido, Book IV · trans. Fairclough

  17. Can heavenly minds such high resentment show, Or exercise their spite in human woe?

    The narrator, of Juno's wrath, Book I · trans. Dryden

  18. The leader of the enterprise a woman.

    Venus, of Queen Dido, Book I · trans. Fairclough