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Quotes from Os Lusíadas — Luís de Camões

1520–1580 Portugal

← All quotes by Luís de Camões

33 quotes

The moon, full orbed, forsakes her watery cave,
And lifts her lovely head above the wave...

Os Lusíadas (1572)

O foul disgrace, of knighthood lasting stain,
By men of arms a helpless lady slain!

Os Lusíadas (1572)

Cease all, whose actions ancient bards expressed:
A brighter valour rises in the West.

Os Lusíadas (1572)

My pen in this, my sword in that hand hold.

Os Lusíadas (1572)

My song shall spread where ever there are men,
If wit and art will so much guide my pen.

Os Lusíadas (1572)

He who inflicts a vile and unjust harm by using the power and the force with which he is invested, does not conquer; the true victory is to have on one's side Right naked and entire.

Os Lusíadas (1572)

What care, what wisdom, is of suffisance
The stroke of secret mischief to prevent,
Unless the Sovereign Guardian from on high
Supply the strength of frail Humanity?

Os Lusíadas (1572)

I, then inspired, the wondering world should see
Great Ammon's warlike son revived in thee;
Revived unenvious of the Muse's flame
That over the world resounds Pelides' name.

Os Lusíadas (1572)

For serving thee an arm to arms addressed;
for singing thee a soul the Muses raise.

Os Lusíadas (1572)

Ah! where shall weary man take sanctuary,
where live his little span of life secure?
and 'scape of Heaven serene th' indignant storms
that launch their thunders at us earthen worms?

Os Lusíadas (1572)

A sad event and worthy of Memory,
Who draws forth men from their (closed) sepulchres,
Befell that piteous maid, and pitiful
Who, after she was dead was (crowned) queen.

Os Lusíadas (1572)

This is my happy land, my home, my pride.

Os Lusíadas (1572)

O piteous lot of man's uncertain state!
What woes on Life's unhappy journey wait!

Os Lusíadas (1572)

Oh, thou dread sword, oft stain'd with heroes' gore,
Thou awful terror of the prostrate Moor,
What rage could aim thee at a female breast,
Unarm'd, by softness and by love possess'd!

Os Lusíadas (1572)

As when a rose, ere-while of bloom so gay,
Thrown from the careless virgin's breast away,
Lies faded on the plain, the living red,
The snowy white, and all its fragrance fled;
So from her cheeks the roses died away,
And pale in death the beauteous Inez lay.

Os Lusíadas (1572)

To be a lion among sheep, 'tis poor.

Os Lusíadas (1572)

Right honest studies my career can show
with long experience blent as best beseems,
and genius here presented for thy view;—
gifts, that conjoined appertain to few.

Os Lusíadas (1572)

For these vain honours, this false gold, give price
(Unless he have it in himself) to none,
Better deserve them, and to go without;
Than have them undeserved, without doubt.

Os Lusíadas (1572)

O Mighty King! The perils of the sword,
Or fire, or frost, I nothing estimate;
But much I grieve that life must circumscribe
The limits of my zeal.

Os Lusíadas (1572)

Now let the judging reader mark what rex
The idol gold (which all the world adoreth)
Plays both in poor and rich: by money's thurst
All laws and ties (divine, and human) burst.

Os Lusíadas (1572)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Luís de Camões (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.