Gifts are like fish-hooks; for who is not aware that the greedy char is deceived by the fly which he swallows?
MARTIALHe who writes distichs, wishes, I suppose, to please by brevity. But, tell me, of what avail is their brevity, when there is a whose book full of them?
More Martial Quotes
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A fisherman’s walk: three steps and overboard.
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Givers of great dinners know few enemies.
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No amount of misfortune will satisfy the man who is not satisfied with reading a hundred epigrams.
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Fortune gives too much to many, enough to none.
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Fortune gives many too much, but none enough.
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I do not hate the man, but his vices.
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Red-haired, black-lipped, club-footed, and blink-eyed; if you’re a good man, you’re a wonder!
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You ask what a nice girl will do? She won’t give an inch, but she won’t say no.
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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.
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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.
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You complain, friend Swift, of the length of my epigrams, but you yourself write nothing. Yours are shorter.
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Whoever makes great presents, expects great presents in return.
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Remember, cobbler, to keep to your leather.
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Be not too thick with anybody; your joys will be fewer, and so will pains.
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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.
MARTIAL