Aulus Persius Flaccus Quotes

We consume our tomorrows fretting about our yesterdays.

You follow words of the toga (language of the cultivated class). [Lat., Verba togae sequeris.]

He conquers who endures.

Is any man free except the one who can pass his life as he pleases?

He who conquers, endures.

Bad advice is often most fatal to the adviser.

Your knowing a thing is nothing, unless another knows you know it.

The belly is the giver of genius.

Each man has his own desires; all do not possess the same inclinations.

The belly (i.e. necessity) is the teacher of art and the liberal bestower of wit.

Nothing can be born of nothing; nothing can be resolved into nothing.

Oh, the cares of men! how much emptiness there is in human concerns!

It is pleasing to be pointed at with the finger and to have it said, "There goes the man." [Lat., At pulchrum est digito monstrari et dicier his est.]

Let them (the wicked) see the beauty of virtue, and pine at having forsaken her. [Lat., Virtutem videant, intabescantque relicta.]

Indulge, and to thy genius freely give, For not to live at ease is not to live.

Quantum est in rebus inane! How much folly there is in human affairs.

Lives there the man with soul so dead as to disown the wish to merit the people's applause, and having uttered words worthy to be kept in cedar oil to latest times, to leave behind him rhymes that dread neither herrings nor frankincense.

Confined to common life thy numbers flow, And neither soar too high nor sink too low; There strength and ease in graceful union meet, Though polished, subtle, and though poignant, sweet; Yet powerful to abash the from of crime And crimson error's cheek with sportive rhyme. [Lat., Verba togae sequeris, junctura callidus acri, Ore teres modico, pallentes radere mores Doctus, et ingenuo culpam defigere ludo.]

Things fit only to give weight to smoke.

Our life is our own to-day, to-morrow you will be dust, a shade, and a tale that is told. Live mindful of death; the hour flies.

But when to-morrow comes, yesterday's morrow will have been already spent: and lo! a fresh morrow will be for ever making away with our years, each just beyond our grasp.

Please not thyself the flattering crowd to hear; 'Tis fulsome stuff, to please thy itching ear. Survey thy soul, not what thou does appear, But what thou art.

Live according to your income.

You pray for good health and a body that will be strong in old age. Good-but your rich foods block the gods' answer and tie Jupiter's hands.

For Yesterday was once To-morrow.

The stomach is the teacher of the arts and the dispenser of invention.

Thou art moist and soft clay; thou must instantly be shaped by the glowing wheel. [Lat., Udum et molle lutum es: nunc, nunc properandus et acri Fingendus sine fine rota.]

Oh, what a void there is in things.

That no one, no one at all, should try to search into himself! But the wallet of the person in front is carefully kept in view. [Lat., Ut nemo in sese tentat descendere, nemo! Sed praecedenti spectatur mantica tergo.]

I know you even under the skin.

The man who wishes to bend me with his tale of woe must shed true tears - not tears that have been got ready overnight.

Each man has his fancy.

Retire within thyself, and thou will discover how small a stock is there. [Lat., Tecum habita, et noris quam sit tibi curta supellex.]

Learn whom God has ordered you to be, and in what part of human affairs you have been placed.

Is then thy knowledge of no value, unless another know that thou possessest that knowledge?

Hunger is the teacher of the arts and the bestower of invention. -Magister artis ingenique largitor Venter

O natal star, thou producest twins of widely different character. [Lat., Geminos, horoscope, varo Producis genio.]

Out of nothing can come, and nothing can become nothing.

And don't consult anyone's opinions but your own.

Check disease in its approach.