"As for Cicero, when he had heard some of the verses, his piercing judgement immediately perceived that these were productions of uncommon vigor, and ordered the whole eclogue to be recited from the beginning. Having familiarized himself with its every nuance, he declared it "the second great hope of Rome" [Magnae spes altera Romae], as if he himself were the first hope of the Latin language and Maro the second. These words Virgil later inserted in the Aeneid [12.168]."

"Molle atque facetum Vergilio annuerunt gaudentes rure Camenae."

"Alas! what boots it with uncessant care To tend the homely slighted Shepherds trade, And strictly meditate the thankles Muse, Were it not better don as others use, To sport with Amaryllis in the shade, Or with the tangles of Neaera’s hair?"

"But Virgil's songs are pure, except that horrid one Beginning with "Formosum Pastor Corydon.""

"[Virgil's] Eclogues are anything but a successful imitation of the idyls of Theocritus; they could not, in fact, be otherwise than unsuccessful: their object is to create something which could not prosper in a Roman soil. The shepherds of Theocritus are characters of ancient Sicilian poetry; I do not believe that they were taken from Greek poems. Daphnis, for example, is a Sicilian not a Greek hero. The idyls of Theocritus grew out of popular songs, and hence his poems have a genuineness, truth, and nationality. Now Virgil, in transplanting that kind of poetry to the plains of Lombardy, peoples that country with Greek shepherds, with their Greek names and Greek peculiarities,—in short, with beings that never could exist there."

"These poems of Virgil have always delighted me much; there is frequently either an elegance or a happiness which no translation can hope to equal."

"Te sine nil altum mens inchoat."

"Tentanda via est, qua me quoque possim Tollere humo victorque virum volitare per ora."

"Sed nos immensum spatiis confecimus aequor, et iam tempus equum fumantia soluere colla."

"Interea dulces pendent circum oscula nati, Casta pudicitiam servat domus."

"Illum non populi fasces, non purpura regum flexit, et infidos agitans discordia fratres; Aut coniurato descendens Dacus ab Histro, Non res Romanae, perituraque regna."

"Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas."

"O ubi campi!"

"Rura mihi et rigui placeant in vallibus amnes, Flumina amem sylvasque inglorius."

"Me vero primum dulces ante omnia Musae, Quarum sacra fero ingenti percussus amore, Accipiant caelique vias et sidera monstrent, Defectus solis varios lunaeque labores; Unde tremor terris, qua vi maria alta tumescant Obicibus ruptis rursusque in se ipsa residant. Quid tantum Oceano properent se tingere soles Hiberni, vel quae tardis mora noctibus obstet."

"At secura quies et nescia fallere vita, Dives opum variarum."

"O fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint Agricolas, quibus ipsa, procul discordibus armis, Fundit humo facilem victum justissima tellus!"

"Inter pocula laeti."

"Adeo in teneris consuescere multum est."

"Pinguis item quae sit tellus, hoc denique pacto discimus: haud umquam manibus iactata fatiscit, Sed picis in morem ad digitos lentescit habendo."

"Salve, magna parens."

"Hic ver adsiduum, atque alienis mensibus aestas."

"Apertos Bacchus amat collis."

"Exuerint sylvestrem animum, cultuque frequenti In quascunque voces artes haud tarda sequentur."

"Solem quis dicere falsum audeat?"

"Audacibus annue coeptis."

"In primis venerare Deos."

"Sic omnia fatis In peius ruere ac retro sublapsa referri."

"Labor omnia vicit improbus et duris urgens in rebus egestas."

"Ut varias usus meditando extunderet artis paulatim."

"Umida solstitia atque hiemes orate serenas, agricolae."

"Unde homines nati, durum genus."

"Verum ubi correptum manibus vinclisque tenebis, tum variae eludent species atque ora ferarum Fiet enim subito sus horridus atraque tigris squamosusque draco et fulva cervice leaena, aut acrem flammae sonitum dabit atque ita vinclis excidet, aut in aquas tenues dilapsus abibit."

"Animasque in vulnere ponunt."

"Nec morti esse locum."

"Deum namque ire per omnes Terrasque tractusque maris, coelumque profundum."

"Genus immortale manet, multosque per annos Stat fortuna domus, et avi numerantur avorum."