Quintilian

Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (c.35 – c.100), was a Roman rhetorician. His De Institutione Oratoria was widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing.

De Institutione Oratoria (c. 95 AD)

• We give to necessity the praise of virtue.
  • Book I, 8, line 14. Compare: "To maken vertue of necessite", Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, "The Knightes Tale", line 3044.

• A liar should have a good memory.
  • Book IV, 2, line 91. Compare: "Liars ought to have good memories", Algernon Sidney, Discourses on Government, chapter ii, section xv.

• Vain hopes are often like the dreams of those who wake.
  • Book VI, 2, line 30. Compare: " For hope is but the dream of those that wake", Matthew Prior, Solomon on the Vanity of the World, book iii, line 102.

• Pectus est enim, quod disertos facit.
  • Translation: For it is feeling and force of imagination that makes us eloquent.
  • Book X, 7, line 15.

• Those who wish to appear wise among fools, among the wise seem foolish.
  • Book X, 7, line 21. See also An X among Ys, a Y among Xs.

• We should not write so that it is possible for [the reader] to understand us, but so that it is impossible for him to misunderstand us.
  • Book VIII, 2, 24.

Attributed

• It is much easier to try one's hand at many things than to concentrate one's powers on one thing.

• Nature herself has never attempted to effect great changes rapidly.

• Damnant quod non intellegunt.
  • Translation: They condemn what they do not understand.