Quotes from The Satyricon

Petronius Arbiter ·  272 pages

Rating: (5.7K votes)


“Can't you see that I'm only advising you to beg yourself not to be so dumb?”
― Petronius Arbiter, quote from The Satyricon


“Nothing is falser than people's preconceptions and ready-made opinions; nothing is sillier than their sham morality...”
― Petronius Arbiter, quote from The Satyricon


“Everyone will find what he's looking for. Nothing pleases everyone: this man gathers thorns, that one roses.”
― Petronius Arbiter, quote from The Satyricon


“utres inflati ambulamus. minoris quam muscae sumus, muscae tamen aliquam uirtutem habent, nos non pluris sumus quam bullae.”
― Petronius Arbiter, quote from The Satyricon


“I said everything that a painful swelling in one's libido tells one to say.”
― Petronius Arbiter, quote from The Satyricon



“All those who are left legacies in my will…will obtain my bequests only on one condition, that they cut my body in pieces and eat it before the eyes of the citizens…You must merely shield your eyes, and imagine that what you have swallowed is not human entrails but ten million sesterces.”
― Petronius Arbiter, quote from The Satyricon


“Just as in dicing, Fortune smiles or lowers; When good luck beckons, then your friend his gleeful service gives But basely flies when ruin o'er you towers.”
― Petronius Arbiter, quote from The Satyricon


“No man on earth may look on forbidden things as you have done and escape punishment. Especially here, a land so infested with divinity that one might meet a god more easily than a man.”
― Petronius Arbiter, quote from The Satyricon


“Nada hay más falso que los estúpidos respetos humanos y nada más estúpido que una hipócrita severidad.”
― Petronius Arbiter, quote from The Satyricon


“Es gibt nichts Verfehlteres als die unsinnige Voreingenommenheit der Menschen und nichts Dümmeres als gleisnerische Sittenstrenge.”
― Petronius Arbiter, quote from The Satyricon



“After all, I was once like you are, but being the right sort I got where I am.”
― Petronius Arbiter, quote from The Satyricon


“So the starry sky turns round like a millstone, always bringing some trouble, and men being born or dying.”
― Petronius Arbiter, quote from The Satyricon


“It's the old headpiece that makes a man, the rest is all rubbish.”
― Petronius Arbiter, quote from The Satyricon


About the author

Petronius Arbiter
Born place: Massalia (Marseille), France
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“All right," Eric agreed. "If you were me, and your wife were sick, desperately so, with no hope of recovery, would you leave her? Or would you stay with her, even if you had traveled ten years into the future and knew for an absolute certainty that the damage to her brain could never be reversed? And staying with her would mean-"

"I can see what it would mean, sir," the cab broke in. "It would mean no other life for you beyond caring for her."

"That's right," Eric said.
"I'd stay with her," the cab decided.
"Why?"
"Because," the cab said, "life is composed of reality configurations so constituted. To abandon her would be to say, I can't endure reality as such. I have to have uniquely special easier conditions."

"I think I agree," Eric said after a time. "I think I will stay with her."
God bless you, sir," the cab said. "I can see that you're a good man.”
― Philip K. Dick, quote from Now Wait for Last Year


“Without them, anarchy would reign and humanity would drop backward into the primitive night out of which it had so painfully emerged.”
― Jack London, quote from The Iron Heel


“We all have things we regret…decisions we make that we have to live with. You can’t dwell on them and beat yourself up for it. It doesn’t change”
― Penelope Ward, quote from Jake Undone


“I was a slave to it, which was ironic since she was supposed to be my slave. She played her part well, make no mistake, but that little pussy of hers owned me. And I didn’t mind one motherfucking bit.”
― C.L. Parker, quote from A Million Dirty Secrets


“They were interlaced one with another, making a great column, and I saw their limbs and huge bodies melting in and out of each other, forming this serpentine line that bent and swayed and twisted spirally with the contortions of the wind-tossed trees. They were nude, fluid shapes, passing up the bushes, within the leaves almost—rising up in a living column into the heavens. Their faces I never could see. Unceasingly they poured upwards, swaying in great bending curves, with a hue of dull bronze upon their skins. I”
― Algernon Blackwood, quote from The Willows


Interesting books

Demons at Deadnight
(7.5K)
Demons at Deadnight
by A.E. Kirk
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
(36.3K)
The Hundred Thousand...
by N.K. Jemisin
Sister
(43.3K)
Sister
by Rosamund Lupton
The Rook
(36K)
The Rook
by Daniel O'Malley
Regeneration
(21.2K)
Regeneration
by Pat Barker
The Darkest Part of the Forest
(30.5K)
The Darkest Part of...
by Holly Black

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.