The Poems of Exile Quotes

“Give me the waters of Lethe that numb the heart, if they exist, I will still not have the power to forget you.”
― Publius Ovidius Naso, The Poems of Exile: Tristia and the Black Sea Letters

“It's a kindness that the mind can go where it wishes.”
― Publius Ovidius Naso, The Poems of Exile: Tristia and the Black Sea Letters

“Our native soil draws all of us, by I know not what sweetness, and never allows us to forget.”
― Publius Ovidius Naso, The Poems of Exile: Tristia and the Black Sea Letters

“or that writing a poem you can read to no one
is like dancing in the dark.”
― Ovid, The Poems of Exile: Tristia and the Black Sea Letters

“For such a career I lacked both endurance and inclination:
the stress of ambition left me cold,
while the Muse, the creative spirit, was forever urging on me
that haven of leisure to which I'd always leaned.
The poets of those days I cultivated and cherished:
for me, bards were so many gods.”
― Ovid, The Poems of Exile: Tristia and the Black Sea Letters