Great Throughts Treasury

"I won?t let a wife lead me to the altar. [I will not have a wife that shall be my master.]"

"I, a parrot, am taught by you the names of others: I have learned of myself to say, "Hail! Caesar!""

"If fame is only to come after death, I am in no hurry for it."

"If glory comes after death, I hurry not."

"If I remember right, Aelia, you had four teeth; a cough displaced two, another two more. You can now cough without anxiety all the day long. A third cough can find nothing to do in your mouth."

"If my opinion is of any worth, the fieldfare is the greatest delicacy among birds, the hare among quadrupeds."

"If poor you are, poor you will always be, for wealth's now given to none but to the rich."

"If you are poor now, Aemilianus, you will always be poor. Riches are now given to none but the rich."

"If you wish, Faustinus, a bath of boiling water to be reduced in temperature,--a bath, such as scarcely Julianus could enter,--ask the rhetorician Sabinaeus to bathe himself in it. He would freeze the warm baths of Nero."

"If your slave commits a fault, do not smash his teeth with your fists; give him some of the (hard) biscuit which famous Rhodes has sent you."

"I'm what I seem; not any dyer gave, but nature dyed this colour that I have."

"In adversity it is easy to despise life; he is truly brave who can endure a wretched life."

"In all thy humours, whether grave or mellow, Thou'rt such a touchy, testy, pleasant fellow; hast so much wit, and mirth, and spleen about thee, that there's no living with thee, or without thee."

"In whatever place you meet me, Postumus, you cry out immediately, and your very first words are, "How do you do?" You say this, even if you meet me ten times in one single hour: you, Postumus, have nothing, I suppose, to do."

"It is as good as second life to be able to look back upon our past life with pleasure."

"It is easy in adversity to despise death; he has real fortitude who dares to live and be wretched."

"It is folly to waste labour about trifles."

"It is not he who forms idols in gold or marble that makes them gods, but he who kneels before them."

"It is not life to live, but to be well."

"It is not, believe me, the act of a wise man to say, "I will live." To-morrow's life is too late; live to-day."

"It is to live twice, when we can enjoy the recollections of our former life."

"Jack writes severe lampoons on me, 'tis said-- But he writes nothing, who is never read."

"Joys do not stay, but take wing and fly away."

"Lawyers are men who hire out their words and anger."

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

"Let Nepos place Caeretan wine on table, and you will deem it Setine. But he does not give it to all the world; he drinks it only with a trio of friends."

"Life consists not merely in existing, but in enjoying health."

"Life is not living, but living in health."

"Life is not to live, but to be well."

"Life's not just being alive, but being well."

"Lord of the world eyebrow."

"Lycoris has buried all the female friends she had, Fabianus: would she were the friend of my wife!"

"Make it a point not to be over-fascinating."

"Mithriades, by frequently drinking poison, rendered it impossible for any poison to hurt him. You, Cinna, by always dining on next to nothing, have taken due precaution against ever perishing from hunger."

"My books need no one to accuse or judge you: the page which is yours stands up against you and says, "You are a thief.""

"My poems are naughty, but my life is pure."

"My suit has nothing to do with the assault, or battery, or poisoning, but is about three goats, which, I complain, have been stolen by my neighbor. This the judge desires to have proved to him; but you, with swelling words and extravagant gestures, dilate on the Battle of Cannae, the Mithridatic war, and the perjuries of the insensate Carthaginians, the Syllae, the Marii, and the Mucii. It is time, Postumus, to say something about my three goats."

"Myrtale often smells of wine, but, wise, with eating bay-leaves thinks it to disguise: so not with water tempers the wine's heate, but covers it. Henceforth if her you meete with red face and swell'd veynes, modesty say, "Sure Myrtale hath drunk o' th' bayes today?""

"Neither fear your death's day nor long for it."

"Neither fear, nor wish for, your last day"

"Never think of leaving perfumes or wine to your heir. Administer these yourself, and let him have your money."

"No amount of misfortune will satisfy the man who is not satisfied."

"Nothing is more ill-timed than an ill-timed laugh."

"Of no day can the retrospect cause pain to a good man."

"One genius has made many clever artists."

"Our page (i.e. our book) has reference to man."

"Philo swears that he has never dined at home, and it is so; he does not dine at all, except when invited out."

"Rarity gives a charm: thus early fruits are most esteemed; thus winter roses obtain a higher price; thus coyness sets off an extravagant mistress: a door ever open attracts no young suitor."

"Red-haired, black-lipped, club-footed, and blink-eyed; if you're a good man, you're a wonder!"

"Remember, cobbler, to keep to your leather."