A biography for Quintilianhasn’t been written yet.
“As regards parents, I should like to see them as highly educated as possible, and I do not restrict this remark to fathers alone.”
“The prosperous can not easily form a right idea of misery.”
“Men, even when alone, lighten their labors by song, however rude it may be.”
“The pretended admission of a fault on our part creates an excellent impression.”
“The gifts of nature are infinite in their variety, and mind differs from mind almost as much as body from body.”
“It is worth while too to warn the teacher that undue severity in correcting faults is liable at times to discourage a boy's mind from effort.”
“Vain hopes are like certain dreams of those who wake.”
“Whilst we deliberate how to begin a thing, it grows too late to begin it.”
“Our minds are like our stomaches; they are whetted by the change of their food, and variety supplies both with fresh appetite.”
“It is the nurse that the child first hears, and her words that he will first attempt to imitate.”
“When we cannot hope to win, it is an advantage to yield.”
“A liar should have a good memory.”
“For the mind is all the easier to teach before it is set.”
“It is fitting that a liar should be a man of good memory.”
“Though ambition in itself is a vice, yet it is often the parent of virtues.”
“When defeat is inevitable, it is wisest to yield.”
“The mind is exercised by the variety and multiplicity of the subject matter, while the character is moulded by the contemplation of virtue and vice.”
“While we are examining into everything we sometimes find truth where we least expected it.”
“Everything that has a beginning comes to an end.”
“Those who wish to appear wise among fools, among the wise seem foolish.”