You might just as well take the sun out of the sky as friendship from life; for the immortal gods have given us nothing better or more delightful.
[Solem enim e mundo tollere videntur ei, qui amicitiam e vita tollunt, qua nihil a dis immortalibus melius habemus, nihil iucundius.]
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Laelius De Amicitia [Laelius on Friendship], ch. 13 / sec. 47 (44 BC) [tr. Shuckburgh (1909)]
(Source)
Original Latin. Alternate translations:
For they seem to take away the sun from the world who withdraw friendship from life; for we receive nothing better from the immortal gods, nothing more delightful.
[tr. Edmonds (1871)]
It is like taking the sun out of the world, to bereave human life of friendship, than which the immortal gods have given man nothing better, nothing more gladdening.
[tr. Peabody (1887)]
Why, they seem to take the sun out of the universe when they deprive life of friendship, than which we have from the immortal gods no better, no more delightful boon.
[tr. Falconer (1923)]
For they seem to remove the sun from the Earth, these people who remove friendship from life, when we have received no better thing, no sweeter thing, from the immortal gods.
[Source]
Quotations about:
sun
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
Now down in the Ocean sank the fiery light of day,
drawing the dark night across the grain-giving earth.[Ἐν δ’ ἔπεσ’ Ὠκεανῷ λαμπρὸν φάος ἠελίοιο
ἕλκον νύκτα μέλαιναν ἐπὶ ζείδωρον ἄρουραν.]Homer (fl. 7th-8th C. BC) Greek author
The Iliad [Ἰλιάς], Book 8, l. 485ff (8.485-486) (c. 750 BC) [tr. Fagles (1990)]
(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:
And now Sol’s glorious light
Fell to the sea, and to the land drew up the drowsy night.
[tr. Chapman (1611), ll. 426-27]
Now deep in ocean sunk the lamp of light,
And drew behind the cloudy veil of night.
[tr. Pope (1715-20)]
And now the radiant Sun in Ocean sank,
Drawing night after him o’er all the earth.
[tr. Cowper (1791)]
And the bright light of the sun fell into the ocean, drawing dark night over the fruitful earth.
[tr. Buckley (1860)]
The sun, now sunk beneath the ocean wave,
Drew o’er the teeming earth the veil of night.
[tr. Derby (1864)]
And the sul’s bright light dropped into Ocean, drawing black night across Earth the grain-giver.
[tr. Leaf/Lang/Myers (1891)]
The sun's glorious orb now sank into Oceanus and drew down night over the land.
[tr. Butler (1898)]
Then into Oceanus fell the bright light of the sun
drawing black night over the face of the earth, the giver of grain.
[tr. Murray (1924)]
And now the shining light of the sun was dipped in the Ocean trailing black night across the grain-giving land.
[tr. Lattimore (1951)]
Now in the western Ocean the shining sun dipped,
drawing dark night on over the kind grainbearing earth.
[tr. Fitzgerald (1974)]
Helios' radiant sunlight then fell into the Ocean,
drawing the black night over the grain-giving land.
[tr. Merrill (2007)]
