Tao Te Ching

The Power of Goodness, the Wisdom Beyond Words
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Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493.

Ovid oʊvɪd

(Publius Ovidius Naso)

43 BCE – 18 CE

Great poet and major influence on the Renaissance, Humanism, and world literature

Roman poet, inspiration for Renaissance humanism, consummate love elegist, and a tremendous influence on both Western literature and art; Ovid was staggeringly popular during his own time, during the Middle Ages, during the Renaissance, and still in our own time today. Fashioning himself as a love doctor, he wrote a 3-volume treatise called The Art of Love complete with instructional images and poetry about oral sex pleasure. It begins with teaching men how to best find a lover, seduce them, and later hide affairs. It continues with advice for women on how to avoid the traps and deceptions he has taught men. This also became immensely popular but his popularity didn’t serve him well politically. Emperor Augustus exiled him to a remote, harsh location where his friends avoided him and he remained until he died 9 years later.

Lineages
Epicureanism Humanism Poets Roman / Italian

Eras

Western

Roman Civilization (100 BCE – 395 CE)

Chinese

Western Han (206 BCE – 9 CE)
Xin 新朝 (9 – 23 CE)

Unlisted Sources

Art of Love, 2 CE

Heroides, 10 CE

Metamorphoses, 8 CE

The Art of Love (8 CE)

The Tristia

Quotes by Ovid (26 quotes)

“I am dragged along by a strange new force. Desire and reason are pulling in different directions. I see the right way and approve it, but follow the wrong.”

Themes: Desire Paradox Reason

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“Hurry to your goal together. That is full bliss when man and woman lie equally conquered.”

Themes: Sex

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“Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence.”

Themes: Perseverance

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“If you would be loved, be lovable.”

from Art of Love, 2 CE

Themes: Strategy

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“It is expedient that there be gods, and—since it is expedient—let us believe that they exist.”

from Art of Love, 2 CE

Themes: God

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“Only she is chaste whom none has invited.”

from Art of Love, 2 CE

Themes: Feminine Principle

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“To live well is to live concealed.”

from The Tristia

Chapters: 15. Inscrutability

Themes: Inscrutable Anonymity

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“I grabbed a pile of dust, and holding it up, foolishly asked for as many birthdays as the grains of dust, I forgot to ask that they be years of youth.”

from Metamorphoses, 8 CE

Themes: Old Age

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“You will go most safely by the middle way.”

from Metamorphoses, 8 CE

Themes: Middle Way

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“Worshipping unknown gods with unknown singing, her customary magic, would cover the white moon’s face and darken the sun with cloud.”

from Metamorphoses, 8 CE

Themes: Magic Moon

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“Love is the force that leaves you colorless.”

from Metamorphoses, 8 CE

Themes: Love

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“Everything changes, nothing perishes.”

from Metamorphoses, 8 CE

Themes: Impermanence

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“The end justifies the means.(literally 'The result justifies the deed.')”

from Heroides, 10 CE

Themes: Politics and Politicians

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“All other creatures look down toward the earth, but man was given a face so that might turn his eyes toward the stars and his gaze upon the sky.”
Themes: Rising Sun World

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“Greatly he failed, but he had greatly dared.”

Themes: Failure

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“By yielding you may obtain victory.”

Themes: Victory Letting Go

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“He who can believe himself well, will be well.”

Themes: Karma

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“Love will enter cloaked in friendship's name.”

Themes: Friendship

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“He who is not prepared today will be less so tomorrow.”

Themes: Ambition

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“I flee who chases me and chase who flees me.”

Themes: Consumerism

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“A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a quip and worried to death by a frown on the right man's brow.”

Themes: Creativity

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“Often the prickly thorn produces tender roses.”

Themes: Problems Obstacles

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“The verses of sublime Lucretius are destined to perish only when a single day will consign the world to destruction.”

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“A horse never runs so fast as when he has other horses to catch up and outpace.”

Themes: Competition Conflict

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“There is no such thing as pure pleasure; some anxiety always goes with it.”

Themes: Pleasure Entertainment

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“Women can always be caught; that's the first rule of the game.”

from The Art of Love (8 CE)

Themes: Prostitution

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Quotes about Ovid (2 quotes)

“Ovid, the great romanticist of a classic age, used a simple vocabulary that made him a pleasure to read. He developed scenes vividly realized with insight and imagery, characters brought to life by touches of psychological subtlety, and phrases compact with experience or thought—all with an unfailing grace of speech and flowing ease of line... here is the treasury from which 100,000 poems, paintings, and statues have taken their themes.”

— Will Durant 1885 – 1981 CE via Shan Dao
Philosophy apostle and popularizer of history's lessons
from Caesar and Christ

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“Ovid and Horace challenge comparison with the best elegiac and lyric poets of Greece.”

— H. G. Wells 1866 – 1946 CE
A father of science fiction and One World Government apostle
from Outline of History

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