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I conceive it is a vulgar error in translating poets, to affect being fidus interpres... [for] poetry is of so subtile a spirit, that in the pouring out of one language into another, it will all evaporate; and if a new spirit be not added in the transfusion, there will remain nothing but a caput mortuum, there being certain graces and happinesses peculiar to every language, which give life and energy to the words... therefore if Virgil must needs speak English, it were fit he should speak not only as a man of this nation, but as man of this age.

— John Denham The Destruction of Troy (1656)

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More quotes by John Denham

Such is our pride, our folly, or our fate,
That few but such as cannot write, translate.

To Sir Richard Fanshaw (1648)

Ambition is like love, impatient
Both of delays and rivals.

The Sophy (1641)

Wisdom's first progress is to take a view
What's decent or indecent, false or true.

Of Prudence (1668)

Books should to one of these four ends conduce,
For wisdom, piety, delight, or use.

Of Prudence (1668)

Whatsoever
Is worthy of their love, is worth their anger.

The Sophy (1641)

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