"Feror ego veluti sine nauta navis, ut per vias aeris vaga fertur avis, non me tenent vincula, non me tenet clavis, Quęro mihi similes, et adiungor pravis."

"Quicquid Venus imperat Labor est suavis, quę nunquam in cordibus habitat ignavis."

"Mortuus in anima curam gero cutis."

"Estuans intrinsecus ira vehementi in amaritudine loquar meę menti: factus de materia levis elementi similes sum folio de quo ludunt venti."

"In the history of versification did anyone ever juggle so wildly well with iambics, sapphics, dactylics, anapestics, and all the rest? He fabricated verses most ingeniously, most enthusiastically. His virtuosity is amazing. Almost every line he wrote was a tour de force. And in spite of all this highly self-conscious technical facility he managed occasionally to write poetry."

"Ausonius must be read to be believed! As poet, no subject is too trivial for him; as courtier, no flattery too excessive."

"It is the things which Ausonius reveals unconsciously that win him liking, not those which he sets out to celebrate with a kind of innocent pomp: not the chair of rhetoric at twenty-five, nor the imperial tutorship in his fifties, nor the consulship at sixty-nine, but that he loved and taught rhetoric all his life, and kept his simplicity."

"The poetical fame of Ausonius condemns the taste of his age."

"Multis terribilis timeto multos."

"Iniurium est de poeta male sobrio lectorem abstemium iudicare."

"Errantes silva in magna et sub luce maligna inter harundineasque comas gravidumque papaver et tacitos sine labe lacus, sine murmure rivos, quorum per ripas nebuloso lumine marcent fleti, olim regum et puerorum nomina, flores."

"Tot species, tantosque ortus variosque novatus una dies aperit, conficit ipsa dies."

"Collige, virgo, rosas, dum flos novus et nova pubes, et memor esto aevum sic properare tuum."

"Quis color ille vadis, seras cum propulit umbras Hesperus et viridi perfudit monte Mosellam! tota natant crispis iuga motibus et tremit absens pampinus et vitreis vindemia turget in undis."

"Monumenta fatiscunt: mors etiam saxis nominibusque venit."

"Jejunis nil scribo: meum post pocula si quis legerit, hic sapiet. Sed magis hic sapiet, si dormiet: et putet ista somnia missa sibi."

"Omne aevum curae; cunctis sua displicet aetas."

"O moral Gower!"

"In the content of his work it is interesting to notice that he is profoundly English. His romanticism, and his choice of the theme of Time and Age – both these look back to the Anglo-Saxons and forward to the nineteenth century. Yet his form is French. The heart is insular and romantic, the head cool and continental: it is a good combination."

"The beauté faye upon her face Non erthly thing it may desface."

"Nevere yit Was non, which half so loste his wit Of drinke, as thei of such thing do Which cleped is the jolif wo."

"O fol of alle foles, Thou farst as he betwen tuo stoles That wolde sitte and goth to grounde."

"What is a lond wher men ben none? What ben the men whiche are alone Withoute a kinges governance? What is a king in his ligance, Wher that ther is no lawe in londe? What is to take lawe on honde, Bot if the jugges weren trewe?"

"So goth the world, now wo, now wel"

"He hath the sor which no man heleth, The which is cleped lack of herte."

"For whan men wene best to have achieved, Ful ofte it is al newe to beginne: The werre hath no thing siker, thogh he winne."

"Bot for men sein, and soth it is, That who that al of wisdom writ It dulleth ofte a mannes wit To him that schal it aldai rede, For thilke cause, if that ye rede, I wolde go the middel weie And wryte a bok betwen the tweie, Somwhat of lust, somewhat of lore."

"But in proverbe I have herde say, That who that wel his werk beginneth, The rather a good end he winneth."

"For loves lawe is out of reule."

"It hath and schal ben everemor That love is maister wher he wile."

"Quemad viejos leños, leed viejos libros, bebed viejos vinos, tened viejos amigos."

"Los que dejan al rey errar a sabiendas, merecen pena como traidores."

"Si hubiera estado presente en la Creación, habría dado algunas indicaciones útiles."

"Sol se stessa, et nulla altra, simiglia."

"Pien d'un vago penser che me desvia da tutti gli altri."

"Sarò qual fui, vivrò com'io son visso."

"Pace non trovo, et non ò da far guerra; e temo, et spero; et ardo, et son un ghiaccio."

"Ché bel fin fa chi ben amando more."

"Chi po dir com'egli arde è 'n picciol foco."

"S'amor non è, che dunque è quel ch'io sento? Ma s'egli è amor, perdio, che cosa et quale? Se bona, onde l'effecto aspro mortale? Se ria, onde sí dolce ogni tormento?"

"Vero è 'l proverbio, ch'altri cangia il pelo anzi che 'l vezzo."

"Le bionde treccie sopra il collo sciolte."

"Né del vulgo mi cal, né di Fortuna."

"Per bene star si scende molte miglia."

"Tal par gran meraviglia, et poi si sprezza."

"Io parlo per ver dire, non per odio d'altrui, né per disprezzo."

"Un bel morir tutta la vita honora."

"Una chiusa bellezza è piú soave."

"Vinse Hanibàl, et non seppe usar poi ben la vittoriosa sua ventura."