Top 155 Quotes & Sayings by Martial - Page 2

Some are good, some are middling, the most are bad.

Make it a point not to be over-fascinating.

They let out on hire their passions and eloquence. [Referring to lawyers.]

You should not fear, nor yet should you wish for your last day.

To be able to enjoy one's past life is to live twice.

Life is not living, but living in health.

I commend you, Postumus, for kissing me with only half your lip; you may, however, if you please, withhold even the half of this half. Are you inclined to grant me a boon still greater, and even inexpressible? Keep this whole half entirely to yourself, Postumus.

He truly sorrows who sorrows unseen.

Glory comes too late when we are nought but ashes.

The bee is enclosed, and shines preserved, in a tear of the sisters of Phaeton, so that it seems enshrined in its own nectar. It has obtained a worthy reward for its great toils; we may suppose that the bee itself would have desired such a death.

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.

Wish to be what you are, and wish for no other position.

Man loves malice, but not against one-eyed men nor the unfortunate, but against the fortunate and proud.

Epigrams need no crier, but are content with their own tongue.

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

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

You're obstinate, pliant, merry, morose, all at once. For me there's no living with you, or without you.

I am a shell-fish just come from being saturated with the waters of the Lucrine lake, near Baiae; but now I luxuriously thrust for noble pickle.

You puff the poets of other days, The living you deplore. Spare me the accolade: your praise Is not worth dying for.

It is folly to waste labour about trifles.

Service cannot be expected from a friend in service; let him be a freeman who wishes to be my master.

I know all that better than my own name.

Be cheerful, if you are wise.

If pale beans bubble for you in a red earthenware pot, you can often decline the dinners of sumptuous hosts.

A novice always behaves with propriety.

While you remain at home your hair is at the hairdresser's; you take out your teeth at night and sleep tucked away in a hundred cosmetics boxes - even your face does not sleep with you.

Work divided is in that manner shortened.

Hidden evils are most dreaded.

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.

No man is quick enough to enjoy life.

You are sad in the midst of every blessing. Take care that Fortune does not observe--or she will call you ungrateful.

The world is blessed most by men who do things, and not by those who merely talk about them. -James Oliver 'Tomorrow I will live,' the fool does say; tomorrow itself is late; the wise live yesterday.

You praise, in three hundred verses, Sabellus, the baths of Ponticus, who gives such excellent dinners. You wish to dine, Sabellus, not to bathe.

I have granted you much that you asked: and yet you never cease to ask of me. He who refuses nothing, Atticilla, will soon have nothing to refuse.

Do you ask why I am unwilling to marry a rich wife? It is because I am unwilling to be taken to husband by my wife. The mistress of the house should be subordinate to her husband, for in no other way, Priscus, will the wife and husband be on an equality.

Your page stands against you and says to you that you are a thief.

Rarity gives a charm; so early fruits and winter roses are the most prized; and coyness sets off an extravagant mistress, while the door always open tempts no suitor.

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

I do not like the man who squanders life for fame; give me the man who living makes a name. [Lat., Nolo virum facili redimit qui sanquine famam; Hunc volo laudari qui sine morte potest.]

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

The swifter hand doth the swift words outrun: Before the tongue hath spoke the hand hath done.

A jar of wine so priceless did not deserve to die. and Never think of leaving perfume or wines to your heir. Administer these youself and let him have the money.

Fortune gives many too much, but none enough.

There is nothing more revolting than an old busybody.

You complain, friend Swift, of the length of my epigrams, but you yourself write nothing. Yours are shorter.

For life is only life when blessed with health.

There is nothing more contemptible than a bald man who pretends to have hair.

I seem to you cruel and too much addicted to gluttony, when I beat my cook for sending up a bad dinner. If that appears to you too trifling a cause, say for what cause you would have a cook flogged.

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.

I do not love thee, Sabidius, nor can I say why; I can only say this, "I do not love thee."

The flaw which is hidden is deemed greater than it is.

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

Short is the life of those who possess great accomplishments, and seldom do they reach a good old age. Whatever thou lovest, pray that thou mayest not set too high a value on it.

In adversity it is easy to despise life; he is truly brave who can endure a wretched life. [Lat., Rebus in angustis facile est contemnere vitam; Fortiter ille facit qui miser esse potest.]

One genius has made many clever artists.

The shameless Chloe placed on the tombs of her seven husbands the inscription, "The work of Chloe." How could she have expressed herself more plainly?

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

Non est, crede mihi, sapientis dicere 'Vivam': Sera nimis vita est crastina: vive hodie. Believe me, wise men don't say 'I shall live to do that', tomorrow's life is too late; live today. Variant translation: Tomorrow will I live, the fool does say; Today itself's too late; the wise lived yesterday.

Laugh, if thou art wise.

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