Great Throughts Treasury

"Leisure nourishes the body, the mind too feeds upon it."

"Let a fault be concealed by its nearness to a virtue."

"Like fragile ice anger passes away in time."

"Nothing is constant in the whole world. Everything is in a state of flux, and comes into being as a transient appearance. Time itself flows on with constant motion, just like a river: for no more than a river can be fleeting hour stand still. As wave is driven on by wave, and, itself pursued, pursues the one before, so the moments of time at once flee and follow, and are ever new."

"Love fed fat soon turns to boredom."

"Resist beginnings: it is too late to employ medicine when the evil has grown strong by inveterate habit."

"Man should ever look to his last day, and no one should be called happy before his funeral."

"Love is a thing full of anxious fears."

"Sickness seizes the body from bad ventilation."

"Stop short of your appetite; eat less than you are able."

"The result proves the wisdom of the act."

"The man who falls in love will find plenty of occupation."

"The vulgar herd estimate friendship by its advantages."

"There is no such thing as pure, unalloyed pleasure; some bitter ever mingles with the sweet."

"There is a divinity within our breast."

"Time glides by with constant movement, not unlike a stream. For neither can a stream stay its course, nor can the fleeting hour."

"Those things that nature denied to human sight, she revealed to the eyes of the soul."

"Time flies."

"To wish is of little account; to succeed you must earnestly desire; and this desire must shorten thy sleep."

"Time is the best medicine."

"To wish for death is a coward's part."

"Virtue and vice, evil and good, are siblings, or next-door neighbors, easy to make mistakes, hard to tell them apart."

"Winged time glides on insensibly, and deceives us; an there is nothing more fleeting than years."

"Yield to him who opposes you; by yielding you conquer."

"Whilst you are prosperous you can number many friends; but when the storm comes you are left alone."

"All things change, but nothing dies."

"Chance is always powerful. Let your hook be always cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish."

"Suppressed grief suffocates."

"Do not believe hastily."

"If you want to be loved, be lovable."

"Fortune and Love befriend the bold."

"Only the mind cannot be sent into exile."

"To be loved, be loveable."

"The judgment of man is fallible."

"In summer's heat and mid-time of the day, To rest my limbs upon a bed I lay, One window shut, the other open stood, Which gave such light as twinkles in a wood Like twilight glimpse at setting of the sun, Or night being past and yet not day begun. Such light to shamefaced maidens must be shown, Where they may sport, and seem to be unknown. Then came Corinna in a long, loose gown, Her white neck hid with tresses hanging down, Resembling fair Semiramis going to bed, Or Lais of a thousand wooers sped. I snatched her gown, being thin the harm was small, Yet strived she to be covered therewithal, And, striving thus as one that would be chaste, Betrayed herself, and yielded at the last. Stark naked as she stood before mine eye, Not one wen in her body could I spy. What arms and shoulders did I touch and see? How apt her breasts were to be pressed by me? How smooth a belly under her waist saw I? How large a leg, and what a lusty thigh? To leave the rest, all liked me passing well; I clinged her naked body, down she fell. Judge you the rest. Being tired, she bade me kiss. Jove send me more such afternoons as this. "

"Disappointment - But oh, I suppose she was ugly; she wasn't elegant; I hadn't yearned for her often in my prayers. Yet holding her I was limp, and nothing happened at all: I just lay there, a disgraceful load for her bed. I wanted it, she did too; and yet no pleasure came from the part of my sluggish loins that should bring joy. The girl entwined her ivory arms around my neck (her arms were whiter than the Sithonian snows) , and gave me greedy kisses, thrusting her fluttering tongue, and laid her eager thigh against my thigh, and whispering fond words, called me the lord of her heart and everything else that lovers murmur in joy. And yet, as if chill hemlock were smeared upon my body, my numb limbs would not act out my desire. I lay there like a log, a fraud, a worthless weight; my body might as well have been a shadow. What will my age be like, if old age ever comes, when even my youth cannot fulfill its role? Ah, I'm ashamed of my years. I'm young and a man: so what? I was neither young nor a man in my girlfriend's eyes. She rose like the sacred priestess who tends the undying flame, or a sister who's chastely lain at a dear brother's side. But not long ago blonde Chlide twice, fair Pitho three times, and Libas three times I enjoyed without a pause. Corinna, as I recall, required my services nine times in one short night - and I obliged! Has some Thessalian potion made my body limp, injuring me with noxious spells and herbs? Did some witch hex my name scratched on crimson wax and stab right through the liver with slender pins? By spells the grain is blighted and withers to worthless weeds; by blighting spells the founts run out of water. Enchantment strips the oaks of acorns, vines of grapes, and makes fruit fall to earth from unstirred boughs. Such magic arts could also sap my virile powers. Perhaps they brought this weakness on my thighs, and shame at what happened, too; shame made it all the worse: that was the second reason for my collapse. Yet what a girl I looked at and touched - but nothing more! I clung to her as closely as her gown. Her touch could make the Pylian sage feel young again, and make Tithonus friskier than his years. This girl fell to my lot, but no man fell to hers. What will I ask for now in future prayers? I believe the mighty gods must rue the gift they gave, since I have treated it so shabbily. Surely, I wanted entry: well, she let me in. Kisses: I got them. To lie at her side: There I was. What good was such great luck - to gain a powerless throne? What did I have, except a miser's gold? I was like the teller of secrets, thirsty at the stream, looking at fruits forever beyond his grasp. Whoever rose at dawn from the bed of a tender girl in a state fit to approach the sacred gods? I suppose she wasn't willing, she didn't waste her best caresses on me, try everything to excite me! That girl could have aroused tough oak and hardest steel and lifeless boulders with her blandishments. She surely was a girl to rouse all living men, but then I was not alive, no longer a man. What pleasure could a deaf man take in Phemius' song or painted pictures bring poor Thamyras? But what joys I envisioned in my private mind, what ways did I position and portray! And yet my body lay as if untimely dead, a shameful sight, limper than yesterday's rose. Now, look! When it's not needed, it's vigorous and strong; now it asks for action and for battle. Lie down, there - shame on you! - most wretched part of me. These promises of yours took me before. You trick your master, you made me be caught unarmed, so that I suffered a great and sorry loss. Yet this same part my girl did not disdain to take in hand, fondling it with a gentle motion. But when she saw no skill she had could make it rise and that it lay without a sign of life, 'You're mocking me, ' she said. 'You're crazy! Who asked you to lie down in my bed if you don't want to? You've come here cursed with woolen threads by some Aeaean witch, or worn out by some other love.' And straightway she jumped up, clad in a flowing gown (beautiful, as she rushed barefoot off) , and, lest her maids should know that she had not been touched, began to wash, concealing the disgrace."

"Lovers all are soldiers, and Cupid has his campaigns: I tell you, Atticus, lovers all are soldiers. Youth is fit for war, and also fit for Venus. Imagine an aged soldier, an elderly lover! A general looks for spirit in his brave soldiery; a pretty girl wants spirit in her companions. Both stay up all night long, and each sleeps on the ground; one guards his mistress's doorway, one his general's. The soldier's lot requires far journeys; send his girl, the zealous lover will follow her anywhere. He'll cross the glowering mountains, the rivers swollen with storm; he'll tread a pathway through the heaped-up snows; and never whine of raging Eurus when he sets sail or wait for stars propitious for his voyage. Who but lovers and soldiers endure the chill of night, and blizzards interspersed with driving rain? The soldier reconnoiters among the dangerous foe; the lover spies to learn his rival's plans. Soldiers besiege strong cities; lovers, a harsh girl's home; one storms town gates, the other storms house doors. It's clever strategy to raid a sleeping foe and slay an unarmed host by force of arms. (That's how the troops of Thracian Rhesus met their doom, and you, O captive steeds, forsook your master.) Well, lovers take advantage of husbands when they sleep, launching surprise attacks while the enemy snores. To slip through bands of guards and watchful sentinels is always the soldier's mission - and the lover's. Mars wavers; Venus flutters: the conquered rise again, and those you'd think could never fall, lie low. So those who like to say that love is indolent should stop: Love is the soul of enterprise. Sad Achilles burns for Briseis, his lost darling: Trojans, smash the Greeks' power while you may! From Andromache's embrace Hector went to war; his own wife set the helmet on his head; and High King Agamemnon, looking on Priam's child, was stunned (they say) by the Maenad's flowing hair. And Mars himself was trapped in The Artificer's bonds: no tale was more notorious in heaven. I too was once an idler, born for careless ease; my shady couch had made my spirit soft. But care for a lovely girl aroused me from my sloth and bid me to enlist in her campaign. So now you see me forceful, in combat all night long. If you want a life of action, fall in love."

"In summer's heat and mid-time of the day To rest my limbs upon a bed I lay, One window shut, the other open stood, Which gave such light, as twinkles in a wood, Like twilight glimpse at setting of the sun, Or night being past, and yet not day begun. Such light to shamefast maidens must be shown, Where they must sport, and seem to be unknown. Then came Corinna in a long loose gown, Her white neck hid with tresses hanging down: Resembling fair Semiramis going to bed Or Layis of a thousand wooers sped. I snatched her gown, being thin, the harm was small, Yet strived she to be covered there withal. And striving thus as one that would be chaste, Betrayed herself, and yeilded at the last. Stark naked as she stood before mine eye, Not one wen in her body could I spy. What arms and shoulders did I touch and see, How apt her breasts were to be pressed by me. How smooth a belly under her waist saw I? How large a leg, and what a lusty thigh? To leave the rest, all liked me passing well, I clinged her naked body, down she fell, Judge you the rest, being tired she bade me kiss, Jove sent me more such afternoons as this. "

"Ajax defending his honor when he fought against Troy along with Ulysses, who claimed his actions enabled the Greeks to be victorious. The chiefs side with Ulysses, and Ajax, having lost his honor as a warrior, draws his sword and proclaims: But this at least is mine, or does Ulysses claim this also for himself? This I must employ against myself; and the sword which has often reeked with Phrygian blood will now reek with its masters, lest any man but Ajax ever conquer Ajax."

"A boar is often held by a not-so-large dog."

"In this place I am a barbarian, because men do not understand me."

"A broken fortune is like a falling column; the lower it sinks, the greater weight it has to sustain."

"A burden which is done well becomes light."

"A creature of a more exalted kind was wanting yet, and then was Man designed; conscious of thought, of more capacious breast, for empire formed, and fit to rule the rest."

"A field becomes exhausted by constant tillage."

"A horse never runs so fast as when he has other horses to catch up and outpace."

"A light breath fans the flame, a violent gust extinguishes it."

"A man is sorry to be honest for nothing."

"A mind conscious of right laughs at the falsehoods of rumor."

"A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a quip and worried to death by a frown on the right man's brow."