I am scaling a great height, but hope of glory gives me strength: a crown plucked from an easy summit brings no pleasure.
[Magnum iter ascendo; sed dat mihi gloria vires;
non iuvat e facili lecta corona iugo.]Propertius (50–16 BC) Roman elegiac poet [Sextus Propertius]
Elegies, Book 4, Elegy 10, l. 3ff (4.10.3–4) [tr. Goold (Loeb) (1990)]
(Source)
Noting the effort going toward writing this particular elegy, "the origin of the name of Jupiter Feretrius and the taking of the three suits of armor from the three chieftains." See also 2.10.
In some early translations, this is numbered as 5.10.
(Source (Latin)). Other translations:A toilsome theme, but glory nerves the will
To pluck my laurels from no easy hill.
[tr. Moore (1870), 5.10]Hard is the hill, but glory nerves my soul:
I'd cull my chaplet from no easy knoll.
[tr. Cranstoun (1875), 5.10]I am climbing a difficult road; but the glory gives me strength. [...]
[E.g. (1882)]I am beginning a steep ascent, but glory gives me strength; a crown gathered from an easy ascent pleases me not.
[tr. Gantillon (1884), 5.10]This is no light stage which I must surmount, but honour gives me strength. I care not for a garland gathered from an easy hill.
[tr. Phillimore (1906)]Great are the heights I must scale, but glory lends me strength; crowns plucked from easy summits please me not.
[tr. Butler (Loeb) (1912)]A difficult theme: grant me power to try it.
[tr. Carrier (1963)]An arduous climb but its glory gives me strength;
There can be no pleasure in garlands plucked
From easy summits.
[tr. Musker (1972)]Great is the road I climb but glory gives me strength,
Disdaining garlands plucked from easy summits.
[tr. Lee (1992)]Great is the height that I must scale, but the prospect of glory gives me strength. [...]
[E.g. (1997)]I climb a steep path, but the glory of it gives me strength: I never delight in wreathes plucked on easy slopes.
[tr. Kline (2001)]Great height I scale, but glory gives me strength: a crown
from easy slopes brings no renown.
[tr. Holcombe (2009)]
Quotations about:
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Even the greatest actions of a celebrated person labour under this disadvantage, that, however surprising and extraordinary they may be, they are no more than what are expected from him; but, on the contrary, if they fall any thing below the opinion that is conceived of him, though they might raise the reputation of another, they are diminution to his.
Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1711-12-24), The Spectator, No. 256
(Source)
All who strive to live for something beyond mere selfish aims find their capacities for doing good very inadequate to their aspirations. They do so much less than they want to do, and so much less than they, at the outset, expected to do, that their lives, viewed retrospectively, inevitably look like failure.
Lydia Maria Child (1802–1880) American abolitionist, activist, journalist, suffragist
Letter to John Fraser (1868)
(Source)
