Martial quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Martial

Martial Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from Martial on Wise Famous Quotes.

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

You importune me, Tucca, to present you with my books. I shall not do so; for you want to sell, not to read, them.

What quick wit is found in sudden straits!

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

Givers of great dinners know few enemies.

The African lions rush to attack bulls; they do not attack butterflies.
[Lat., In tauros Libyci ruunt leones;
Non sunt papilionibus molesti.]

One genius has made many clever artists.

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

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

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

Every epigram should resemble a bee; it should have sting, honey, and brevity.

The bee is enclosed, and shines preserved in amber, so that it seems enshrined in its own nectar.

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

Your seventh wife, Phileros, is now being buried in your field. No man's field brings him greater profit than yours, Phileros.

Wine and women bring misery.

She grieves sincerely who grieves unseen.

A novice always behaves with propriety.

Too late is tomorrow's life; live for today.

Whoever makes great presents, expects great presents in return.

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

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

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

That which prevents disagreeable flies from feeding on your repast, was once the proud tail of a splendid bird.

You crystal break, for fear of breaking it: Careless and careful hands like faults commit.

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

Those they praise, but they read the others.

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

Our days pass by, and are scored against us.

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

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

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

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

This I ask, is it not madness to kill thyself in order to escape death?
[Lat., Hic rogo non furor est ne moriare mori?]

Be merry if you are wise.

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

The present joys of life we doubly taste,
By looking back with pleasure to the past.

There is no glory in otustripping donkeys.

You'll get no laurel crown for outrunning a burrow.

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

To have nothing is not poverty.
[Lat., Non est paupertas, Nestor, habere nihil.]

I have not hated the man, but his faults.

He who thinks that the lives of Priam and of Nestor were long is much deceived and mistaken. Life consists not in living, but in enjoying health.

Life is not merely to be alive, but to be well.

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

I know all that better than my own name.

He writes nothing whose writings are not read.

Virtue extends our days: he lives two lives who relives his past with pleasure.

Some things are good, some middling, more bad.

Make it a point not to be over-fascinating.

If you want him to mourn, you had best leave him nothing.

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

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

Some good, some so-so, and lots plain bad: that's how a book of poems is made, my Friend.

Gifts are like fish-hooks; for who is not aware that the greedy char is deceived by the fly which he swallows?

From no place can you exclude the fates.
[Lat., Nullo fata loco possis excludere.]

Fortune gives many too much, but none enough.

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.

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

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

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

It is folly to waste labour about trifles.

Glory comes too late when we are nought but ashes.

Why do strong arms fatigue themselves with frivolous dumbbells? To dig a vineyard is worthier exercise for men.

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.

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?

Gifts are like hooks.

A good man enlarges the term of his own existence.

A vagrant is everywhere at home.

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

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

You may envy every one, but no one envies you.

Life is not living, but living in health.

I believe that man to be wretched whom none can please.

Can the fish love the fisherman?
[Lat., Piscatorem piscis amare potest?]

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

An honest man is always a child.
[Lat., Semper bonus homo tiro est.]

However great the dish that holds the turbot, the turbot is still greater than the dish.

There is no glory in outstripping donkeys.

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

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

To the ashes of the dead glory comes too late.

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.

Work divided is in that manner shortened.

You are so pure in mind and heart,
In aspect, too, so mild,
I wonder that you ever could
Implant your wife with child.

If you have any shame, forbear to pluck the beard of a dead lion.

I do not hate the man, but his vices.

Be cheerful, if you are wise.

The swan murmurs sweet strains with a flattering tongue, itself the singer of its own dirge.

There is nothing more revolting than an old busybody.

No amount of misfortune will satisfy the man who is not satisfied
with reading a hundred epigrams.

Whoever is not too wise is wise.
[Lat., Quisquis plus justo non sapit, ille sapit.]

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

While you cannot resolve what you are, at last you will be nothing.

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

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

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

For wealth's now given to none but to the rich.

The virtuous man is never a novice in worldly things.

If fame comes after death, I'm in no hurry for it.
[Lat., Si post fata venit gloria non propero.]

My poems are naughty, but my life is pure.