Whilst we deliberate how to begin a thing, it grows too late to begin it.

Quintilian

It is fitting that a liar should be a man of good memory.

Quintilian

When we cannot hope to win, it is an advantage to yield.

Quintilian

God, that all-powerful Creator of nature and architect of the world, has impressed man with no character so proper to distinguish him from other animals, as by the faculty of speech.

Quintilian

Fear of the future is worse than one's present fortune.

Quintilian

In almost everything, experience is more valuable than precept.

Quintilian

Nothing can be pleasing which is not also becoming.

Quintilian

A laugh costs too much when bought at the expense of virtue.

Quintilian

Consequently the student who is devoid of talent will derive no more profit from this work than barren soil from a treatise on agriculture.

Quintilian

The gifts of nature are infinite in their variety, and mind differs from mind almost as much as body from body.

Quintilian

It seldom happens that a premature shoot of genius ever arrives at maturity.

Quintilian