Great Throughts Treasury

"Be content to seem what you really are."

"He who refuses nothing is capable of anything."

"Be merry if you are wise."

"Fortune gives many too much, but none enough."

"Gifts, however great, lose their value when the giver boasts of them."

"I consider him an unhappy man whom no one pleases."

"It is degrading to make difficulties of trifles... To sweat over trifles is stupid."

"Laugh if you are wise."

"Let a defeat, which is possibly but small, appear undisguised. A fault concealed is presumed to be great."

"Live thy life as it were spoil and pluck the joys that fly."

"Neither dread your last day nor desire it."

"Of no day can the retrospect cause pain to a good man, nor has one passed away which he is unwilling to remember: the period of his life seems prolonged by his good acts; and we may be said to live twice, when we can reflect with pleasure on the days that are gone."

"Spare the person, but lash the vice."

"The face that cannot smile is never fair."

"There is nothing more sordid than you who call your enticements gifts. So the perfidious hook flatters greedy fish, so the craft bait deceives foolish wild beasts."

"To-morrow I will live, the fool does say; to-day itself's too late; the wise man lived yesterday."

"To-morrow life is too late: live to-day."

"Too late is tomorrow's life; live for today...Property given away (to friends) is the only kind that will forever be yours."

"What does not love compel us to do?"

"When secure you lack appetite."

"Whoever is not too wise, is wise."

"A man who lives everywhere lives nowhere."

"Conceal a flaw, and the world will imagine the worst."

"It is feeling and force of imagination that make us eloquent."

"Virtue extends our days he live two lives who relives his past with pleasure"

"Be content with what you are, and wish not change, not dread your last day, not long for it."

"In an honest man there is always something of a child."

"A good man enlarges the term of his own existence."

"A face that cannot smile is never good."

"A fisherman's walk: three steps and overboard."

"A good man doubles the length of his existence; to have lived so as to look back with pleasure on our past existence is to live twice."

"A novice always behaves with propriety."

"A vagrant is everywhere at home."

"All your female friends are either old or ugly; nay, more ugly than old women usually are. These you lead about in your train, and drag with you to feasts, porticos and theaters. Thus, Fabulla, you seem handsome, thus you seem young."

"A crafty innkeeper at Ravenna lately cheated me. I asked him for wine and water; he sold me pure wine."

"A beau is one who arranges his curled locks gracefully, whoever smells of balm, and cinnamon; who hums the songs of the Nile, and Cadiz; who throws his sleek arms into various attitudes; who idles away the whole day among the chair of the ladies, and is ever whispering into some one's ear; who reads little billets- doux from this quarter and that, and writes them in return; who avoids ruffling his dress by contact with his neighbour's sleeve, who knows with whom everybody is in love; who flutters from feast to feast, who can recount exactly the pedigree of Hirpinus. What do you tell me? is this a beau, Cotilus? Then a beau, Cotilus, is a very trifling thing."

"A cook should double one sense have: for he should taster for himself and master be."

"Although the words run speedily, the hand is swifter than them; the tongue has not yet, the hand has already completed its work."

"An honest man is always a child."

"And have you been able, Flaccus, to see the slender Thais? Then, Flaccus, I suspect you can see what is invisible."

"Annius has some two hundred tables, and servants for every table. Dishes run hither and thither, and plates fly about. Such entertainments as these keep to yourselves, ye pompous; I am ill pleased with a supper that walks."

"As long as I have fat turtle-doves, a fig of your lettuce, my friend, and you may keep your shell-fish to yourself. I have no wish to waste my appetite."

"Attic honey thickens the nectar-like Falernian. Such drink deserves to be mixed by Ganymede."

"Be cheerful, if you are wise."

"Be content to be what you are, and prefer nothing to it, and do not fear or wish for your last day."

"Be not too thick with anybody; your joys will be fewer, and so will pains."

"Be satisfied, and pleased with what thou art, Act cheerfully and well thy allotted part; Enjoy the present hour, be thankful for the past, And neither fear, nor wish, the approaches of the last."

"Because he hates to praise by name he praises everybody. Vice and virtue must look much the same to one who calls the whole world nice."

"Believe me, wise men don?t say ?I shall live to do that?, tomorrow's life is too late; live today."

"Believing hear, what you deserve to hear: your birthday as my own to me is dear. Blest and distinguish'd days! which we should prize the first, the kindest bounty of the skies. But yours gives most; for mine did only lend me to the world; yours gave to me a friend."