ROME QUOTES II
quotations about Rome
Rome is strikingly compact -- even as its hold on us looms large. Within its ancient walls, just 12 miles around, lie many of the city's iconic gems: the Colosseum, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain. We walked nearly everywhere, moving between epochs in a matter of minutes. We shot past the 28 B.C. tomb of Augustus on our way to the Baroque Piazza Navona, all the while navigating the bustle of modern-day Rome.
KERRI WESTENBERG
"High on Rome: Walking tours await in Italy's ancient city", Detroit Free Press, September 30, 2017
Rome is a city that doesn't always follow the rules or live by definition, especially when it comes to the concept of newness. Living here, I've languished in the old-school vibe and old habits, while occasionally thirsting for that take-the-wrapping-off new feeling. I've come to the conclusion that newness is relative.
ERICA FIRPO
"Everything Old Is New In Rome", Forbes, January 23, 2016
When in Rome, live as the Romans do; when elsewhere, live as they live elsewhere.
SAINT AMBROSE
attributed, Les Bon Mots
And I myself, in Rome, heard it said openly in the streets, "If there is a hell, then Rome is built on it."
MARTIN LUTHER
Against the Roman Papacy, An Institution of the Devil
You cheer my heart, who build as if Rome would be eternal.
AUGUSTUS
attributed, Apothegms
Yes, I have finally arrived to this Capital of the World! I now see all the dreams of my youth coming to life... Only in Rome is it possible to understand Rome.
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
Italian Journey
I've seen Rome, and I shall go to bed a wiser man than I last rose--yesterday morning.
HENRY JAMES
letter to William James, October 30, 1869
A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself within. The essential causes of Rome's decline lay in her people, her morals, her class struggle, her failing trade, her bureaucratic despotism, her stifling taxes, her consuming wars.
WILL DURANT
Caesar and Christ
In Rome it seems as if there were so many things which are more wanted in the world than pictures.
GEORGE ELIOT
Middlemarch
Rome was mud and smoky skies; the rank smell of the Tiber and the exotically spiced cooking fires of a hundred different nationalities. Rome was white marble and gilding and heady perfumes; the blare of trumpets and the shrieking of market-women and the eternal, sub-aural hum of more people, speaking more languages than Gaius had ever imagined existed, crammed together on seven hills whose contours had long ago disappeared beneath this encrustation if humanity. Rome was the pulsing heart of the world.
MARION ZIMMER BRADLEY
The Forest House
You and me we're meant to be
Walking free in harmony
One fine day we'll fly away
Don't you know that Rome wasn't built in a day, hey hey hey
MORCHEEBA
"Rome Wasn't Built in a Day"
In the Eternal City, time is elastic, and new discoveries live among the most ancient things.
ERICA FIRPO
"Everything Old Is New In Rome", Forbes, January 23, 2016
The only talent worthy of Rome is that of conquering the world.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU
Discourse on the Arts and Sciences
The traveler who has contemplated the ruins of ancient Rome may conceive some imperfect idea of the sentiments which they must have inspired when they reared their heads in the splendor of unsullied beauty.
EDWARD GIBBON
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
I found Rome built of bricks; I leave her clothed in marble.
AUGUSTUS
attributed, Twelve Caesars
Water plays a central role in the grandeur of Rome. Think of the aqueducts and the Trevi Fountain. Think, too, of smaller drinking fountains, nearly 3,000 of them, that cater to thirsty Romans and tourists alike. But drastic temperatures call for drastic measures. And Italy is gripped by drought and roughly a billion euros worth of agricultural damage. In order to save water, Rome is turning its drinking fountains off for the first time in its history.
RACHEL MARTIN & MARY LOUISE KELLY
"As Drought Parches Italy, Rome Turns Off Historic Drinking Fountains", NPR, July 10, 2017
She had always been fond of history, and here [in Rome] was history in the stones of the street and the atoms of the sunshine.
HENRY JAMES
The Portrait of a Lady
Rome has spoken; the case is concluded.
SAINT AUGUSTINE
attributed, The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
London is the epitome of our times, and the Rome of to-day.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
Conduct of Life
I'll make a wish in every fountain
Say a prayer that you'll return
Minutes I'll be counting
May the fire of love still burn
I'll keep your picture by my pillow
And pretend I'm not alone
Make believe that you are with me
La la la la la, in the heart of Rome
ELVIS PRESLEY
"Heart of Rome"