Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
NUMBER:
862
AUTHOR:
Ovid (43 B.C.–A.D. 18)
QUOTATION:
A man is sorry to be honest for nothing.
ATTRIBUTION:
OVID.—Henry T. Riley, A Dictionary of Latin and Greek Quotations, Proverbs, Maxims and Mottos, p. 138 (1876).
This is a translation of Ovid’s “gratis paenitet esse probum” from his Ex Ponto, book 2, chapter 3. The translation in Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, 15th ed., p. 114 (1980) reads: “It is annoying to be honest to no purpose.”
