Quotes from The Georgics
16 notable lines from Virgil · 29 BCE
Labor conquers all things.
Quotations follow the Peter Fallon translation (Oxford University Press, 2006) — our recommended edition.
Happy is he who has been able to learn the causes of things.
Virgil Toil conquered the world, unrelenting toil, and want that pinches when life is hard.
Book I (Labor omnia vicit improbus) · trans. Fairclough Blessed is he who has been able to win knowledge of the causes of things.
Book II (Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas) · trans. Fairclough But time meanwhile is flying, flying beyond recall.
Book III (Sed fugit interea, fugit irreparabile tempus) · trans. Fairclough For love is lord of all, and is in all the same.
Book III (Amor omnibus idem) · trans. Dryden Here is eternal spring, and summer in months not her own.
Book II, in praise of Italy (Hic ver adsiduum, atque alienis mensibus aestas) · trans. Fairclough In youth alone, unhappy mortals live; But, ah! the mighty bliss is fugitive.
Book III (Optima quaeque dies miseris mortalibus aevi prima fugit) · trans. Dryden Their little bodies lodge a mighty soul.
Book IV, on the bees (Ingentes animos angusto in pectore versant) · trans. Addison If we may compare small things with great.
Book IV (Si parva licet componere magnis) · trans. Fairclough And now farewell! Involved in shades of night, For ever I am ravished from thy sight.
Eurydice's last words, Book IV (Iamque vale) · trans. Dryden So deep is their love of flowers and their glory in begetting honey.
Book IV, on the bees (Tantus amor florum et generandi gloria mellis) · trans. Fairclough Slight is the subject, but the praise not small.
Book IV (In tenui labor, at tenuis non gloria) · trans. Dryden The immortal line in sure succession reigns, The fortune of the family remains.
Book IV, on the bees (Genus immortale manet) · trans. Dryden Thus by law of fate all things speed towards the worst, and slipping ever backward are borne away.
Book I (Sic omnia fatis in peius ruere) · trans. Fairclough Practice and thought might gradually forge many an art.
Book I (Ut varias usus meditando extunderet artis) · trans. unattributed