Virgil, Aeneid II.354
Melphi speaks
Una salus victis, nullam sperare salutem.
The priest translates
«The one safety for the defeated is to hope for no safety at all.»
And interprets
The line sounds harsh, but read rightly it sets you free. Perhaps you are waiting for something to sort itself out: an answer that does not come, a person who ought to change, outside help that would put off the decision. Melphi tells you that this very waiting is what keeps you stuck. When you stop hoping to be rescued, you find your own strength again, because you have nothing left to lose by trying. This is not a call to despair or to reckless gestures: it is a call to take passive hope out of the centre and put action in its place. Just be careful not to turn courage into needless risk.
The historical translations
Annibal Caro (1581)
Avventianci, e moriamo. Un sol rimedio
A chi speme non have è disperarsi.
Avventianci, e moriamo. Un sol rimedio
A chi speme non have è disperarsi.
Theodore C. Williams (1910)
The single hope and stay of desperate men
is their despair.” Thus did I rouse their souls.
The single hope and stay of desperate men
is their despair.” Thus did I rouse their souls.
Source
Publius Vergilius Maro, Aeneis, ed. J. B. Greenough (1900)
Virgil, Aeneid II.354