Great Throughts Treasury

"A ruler should be slow to punish and swift to reward."

"A soldier when aged is not appreciated; the love of an old man sickens."

"A short absence is the safest."

"A pious fraud."

"A safe pleasure is a tame pleasure."

"A thousand ills require a thousand cures."

"A wealthy traveler fears an ambush, while one with empty pockets journeys on in safety."

"A woman is always buying something."

"A spirit superior to every weapon."

"A wound will perhaps become tolerable with length of time; but wounds which are raw shudder at the touch of the hands."

"Abundance makes me poor."

"According to the state of a man's conscience, so do hope and fear on account of his deeds arise in his mind."

"Add little to little and there will be a big pile."

"Aeolus keeps his winds at home, and ocean."

"Against the bold, daring is unsafe."

"Ah me! How easy it is (how much all have experienced it) to indulge in brave words in another person's trouble."

"Agreeing to differ."

"Ah me! Love cannot be cured by herbs."

"Alas! how difficult it is to prevent the countenance from betraying guilt."

"Alas! how difficult it is not to betray one's guilt by one's looks."

"All love is vanquished by a succeeding love."

"All things change, nothing is extinguished. There is nothing in the whole world which is permanent. Everything flows onward; all things are brought into being with a changing nature; the ages themselves glide by in constant movement."

"All things can corrupt when minds are prone to evil."

"All right, boy, skewer me. I've dropped my defenses, I'm an easy victim. Why, by now your arrows practically know their own way to the target and feel less at home in their quiver than in me."

"All things human hang by a slender thread; and that which seemed to stand strong suddenly falls and sinks in ruins."

"Alternate rest and labor long endure."

"Although the tears have the weight of the word."

"All things may corrupt when minds are prone to evil."

"Alluring pleasure is said to have softened the savage dispositions (of early mankind)."

"Although they possess enough, and more than enough, still they yearn for more."

"Always have your hook baited, in the pool you least think, there will be a fish."

"Always keep your hook in the water: where you least expect one, the fish will be found."

"An anthill increases by accumulation. Medicine is consumed by distribution. That which is feared lessens by association. This is the thing to understand."

"An evil life is a kind of death."

"And now have I finished a work which neither the wrath of Jove, nor fire, nor steel, nor all-consuming time can destroy. Welcome the day which can destroy only my physical man in ending my uncertain life. In my better part I shall be raised to immortality above the lofty stars, and my name shall never die."

"And now the measure of my song is done: the work has reached its end; the book is mine, none shall un-write these words: nor angry Jove, nor war, nor fire, nor flood, nor venomous time that eats our lives away. Then let that morning come, as come it will, when this disguise I carry shall be no more, and all the treacherous years of life undone, and yet my name shall rise to heavenly music, the deathless music of the circling stars. As long as Rome is the Eternal City these lines shall echo from the lips of men, as long as poetry speaks truth on earth, that immortality is mine to wear."

"Ants will not go to an empty granary, and friends will not visit us when our wealth is gone."

"And here, as Pentheus spies the sacred rites with his profaning eyes, the one who is the very first to sight Echion's son ? just as she is the first to rush against him madly, and the first to hurl a thyrsus at him ? is his mother. "Come, come, my sisters, both of you!" she shouts. "A giant boar is roaming on our slopes: I must tear him apart." Against him rush all that mad crowd, attacking from all sides."

"Anything cracked will shatter at a touch."

"Ants do no bend their ways to empty barns, so no friend will visit the place of departed wealth."

"Apollo said: "Now, just express your wish ? and that, Cumaean virgin, will be the gift I give.' I gathered up a little heap of dust and, holding that, I asked that I be granted years to match the number of those grains; but I forgot to ask that I stay young through all that span ? I was a fool. Yet even then he would have given me that, too ? unending youth ? if I had yielded to him. I did not? The day will come when this long life will leave me shriveled; worn away by age, my limbs will shrink to trifles; no one then will dream that I'd been loved ? and pleased a god.""

"Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves."

"Art is most effective when concealed."

"Art lies by its own artifice."

"As for courage and will- we cannot measure how much of each lies within us, we can only trust there will be sufficient to carry through trials which may lie ahead."

"As God is propitiated by the blood of a hundred bulls, so also is he by the smallest offering of incense."

"As brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas."

"As the mind of each man is conscious of good or evil, so does he conceive within his breast hope or fear, according to his actions."

"As the yellow gold is tried in fire, so the faith of friendship must be seen in adversity."

"As long as you are fortunate you will have many friends, but if the times become cloudy you will be alone."