Classical Quotation
A quotation drawn from the literature, philosophy, or history of ancient Greece or Rome.
A classical quotation is a sentence or passage taken from Greek or Roman antiquity, often used to lend authority, depth, or cultural range to a modern text. The classical canon includes Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Virgil, Horace, Seneca, Cicero, and the Greek and Roman historians.
Classical quotations have had an enormous afterlife. Roman authors were quoted throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance; Greek authors were rediscovered and quoted from the Renaissance onward. Knowing a classical quotation — 'Arma virumque cano,' 'Know thyself,' 'Carpe diem' — was long a mark of education.
The modern writer should use classical quotations with care. A Latin tag can signal learning or it can signal pretension, depending on the audience and the context. The best classical quotations are those that still say something the reader recognises as true.
Common mistake: quoting classical authors only in Latin or Greek without translation, assuming all readers will understand. In a general audience, provide the original and a translation.
“Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero.”
Keep reading the glossary
The 'classical places' — the passages in the canon that a given topic keeps returning to.
A 2,000-year-old practice of distilling ethical instruction into short, repeatable lines.
124 Stoic letters that supply much of the West's stock of practical moral quotation.
A short Stoic handbook of practical maxims, compiled by a student from Epictetus' lectures.