O curas hominum! O quantum est in rebus inane!" - Meaning and context.">
Oh, the cares of mankind! Oh, how much emptiness there is in the world!
• Fragment of Book I, quoted by Persius, Satires, I, 1; Warmington (1935), p. 2
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O curas hominum! O quantum est in rebus inane!

— Gaius Lucilius

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "O curas hominum! O quantum est in rebus inane!" in the context of "Oh, the cares of mankind! Oh, how much emptiness there is in the world!
• Fragment of Book I, quoted by Persius, Satires, I, 1; Warmington (1935), p. 2" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Gaius Lucilius" (Quotes: E. H. Warmington, Remains of Old Latin, vol. 3, LCL 329 (1935) Norbert Gutterman, A Book of Latin Quotations (1966), pp. 40–42) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 19, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Gaius Lucilius

About Gaius Lucilius

Gaius Lucilius (180, 168 or 148 – 103 BC) was the earliest Roman satirist, of whose writings only fragments remain. A Roman citizen of the equestrian class, he was born at Suessa Aurunca in Campania, and was a member of the Scipionic Circle.