Those they praise, but they read the others.
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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My poems are naughty, but my life is pure.
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Life is not merely to be alive, but to be well.
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The flaw which is hidden is deemed greater than it is.
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You praise, in three hundred verses, Sabellus, the baths of Ponticus, who gives such excellent dinners. You wish to dine, Sabellus, not to bathe.
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If you are poor now, Aemilianus, you will always be poor. Riches are now given to none but the rich.
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You admire, Vacerra, only the poets of old and praise only those who are dead. Pardon me, I beseech you, Vacerra, if I think death too high a price to pay for your praise.
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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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For life is only life when blessed with health.
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A fisherman’s walk: three steps and overboard.
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I would not miss your face, your neck, your hands, your limbs, your bosom and certain other of your charms. Indeed, not to become boring by naming them all, I could do without you, Chloe, altogether.
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They let out on hire their passions and eloquence. [Referring to lawyers.]
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A man who lives everywhere lives nowhere.
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He 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?
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It is not he who forms idols in gold or marble that makes them gods, but he who kneels before them.
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I do not hate the man, but his vices.
MARTIAL