quotations about Rome
Now conquering Rome doth conquered Rome inter,
And she the vanquished is, and vanquisher.
To show us where she stood there rests alone
Tiber; and that too hastens to be gone.
Learn, hence what fortune can. Towns glide away;
And rivers, which are still in motion, stay.
JOACHIM DU BELLAY
Antiquitez de Rome
In Rome, where time is measured in thousands of years, rather than hundreds as in the U.S., there's a broader understanding of the flow and ebb of civilizations -- what they exacted and also what they contributed. There is less illusion, less denial ... or at least, they harbor different illusions.
NICOLA SMITH
"Art Notes: Painter Takes a Long View of the U.S.", Valley News, October 5, 2017
To Rome for everything.
MIGUEL DE CERVANTES
Don Quixote
I think about that centurion from time to time and wonder, had he retired to a farm in Campagna, happy with his harvest of grapes and grandchildren, or had he fallen amongst his comrades on some distant, ruined field, defending the honor and the ever-expanding borders of the Republic? What we foreigners have failed to comprehend over the centuries is that the proud centurion would have found either fate equally satisfying. This is why Rome grows, and the rest of the world shrinks.
ANDREW LEVKOFF
A Mixture of Madness
Rome is a layered city. To be able to see that history you need to look through those layers.
ERIK STEINER
"Thousands of Rome's historical images digitized with help of Stanford researchers", Stanford News, June 29, 2017
Rome, the legend, founded upon fallen Troy and triumphant over fallen Carthage, had stood for a heroism which was the nearest that any pagan ever came to chivalry. Rome had defended the household gods and the human decencies against the ogres of Africa and the hermaphrodite monstrosities of Greece. But in the lightning flash of this incident, we see great Rome, the imperial republic, going downward under her Lucretian doom. Scepticism has eaten away even the confident sanity of the conquerors of the world.
G. K. CHESTERTON
The Everlasting Man
I am walking through Rome
With my heart on a string
Dear God, please help me
MORISSEY
"Dear God, Please Help Me"
Goodbye, goodbye to Rome
City of a million moonlit places
City of a million warm embraces
Where I found the one
Above the faces far from home
PERRY COMO
"Arrivederci, Roma (Goodbye to Rome)"
Every one soon or late comes round by Rome.
ROBERT BROWNING
Ring and the Book
The story of Romulus and Remus being suckled by a wolf is not a meaningless fable. The founders of every State which has risen to eminence have drawn their nourishment and vigor from a similar wild source. It was because the children of the Empire were not suckled by the wolf that they were conquered and displaced by the children of the Northern forests who were.
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
"Walking"
See the wild Waste of all-devouring years!
How Rome her own sad Sepulchre appears,
With nodding arches, broken temples spread!
The very Tombs now vanish'd like their dead!
ALEXANDER POPE
"Epistle V: To Mr. Addison", Moral Essays
There it was, the Rome, the Paris, the London of the twentieth century, the city of ambition, the dense magnetic rock, the irresistible destination of all those who insist on being where things are happening-and he was among the victors!
TOM WOLFE
The Bonfire of the Vanities
Rome is a mess. The bus never comes, they don't pick up the garbage and the cops do nothing. Now Totti's leaving. It's the last thing we need.
LUIGI CARINCI
"Francesco Totti Leaves the Field, and Romans Weep for a Living Monument", New York Times, May 29, 2017
Rome remained great as long as she had enemies who forced her to unity, vision, and heroism. When she had overcome them all she flourished for a moment and then began to die.
WILL DURANT
Caesar and Christ
There's a power struggle going on across Europe these days. A few cities are competing against each other to see who shall emerge as the great 21st century European metropolis. Will it be London? Paris? Berlin? Zurich? Maybe Brussels, center of the young union? They all strive to outdo one another culturally, architecturally, politically, fiscally. But Rome, it should be said, has not bothered to join the race for status. Rome doesn't compete. Rome just watches all the fussing and striving, completely unfazed. I am inspired by the regal self-assurance of this city, so grounded and rounded, so amused and monumental, knowing she is held securely in the palm of history. I would like to be like Rome when I am an old lady.
ELIZABETH GILBERT
Eat, Pray, Love
From the dome of St. Peter's one can see every notable object in Rome... He can see a panorama that is varied, extensive, beautiful to the eye, and more illustrious in history than any other in Europe.
MARK TWAIN
The Innocents Abroad
A thousand roads lead men forever to Rome.
ALAINE DE LILLE
Liber Parabolarum
Three coins in a fountain
Each one seeking happiness
Thrown by three hopeful lovers
Which one will the fountain bless?
Three hearts in a fountain
Each heart longing for its home
There they lie in the fountain
Somewhere in the heart of Rome
DORIS DAY
"Three Coins in the Fountain"
In Rome the statues, in Paris the paintings, and in Prague the buildings suggest that pleasure can be an education.
CALEB CRAIN
Necessary Errors
But the new generation had tasted the wine of philosophy; and from this time onward the rich youth of Rome went eagerly to Athens and Rhodes to exchange their oldest faith for the newest doubts.
WILL DURANT
Caesar and Christ