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In youth alone, unhappy mortals live;
But, ah! the mighty bliss is fugitive:
Discolored sickness, anxious labor, come,
And age, and death's inexorable doom.

— Virgil Georgics (-29)

Optima quaeque dies miseris mortalibus aevi
Prima fugit; subeunt morbi tristisque senectus
Et labor, et durae rapit inclementia mortis.

Original text (Latin)

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Topics

Youth

More quotes by Virgil

Toil conquered the world, unrelenting toil, and want that pinches when life is hard.

Georgics (-29)

No stranger to trouble myself I am learning to care for the unhappy.

Aeneid (-19)

Endure, and keep yourselves for days of happiness.

Aeneid (-19)

Every misfortune is to be subdued by patience.

Aeneid (-19)

Love is lord of all, and is in all the same.

Georgics (-29)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Virgil (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.