Persius Quotes

#1. I know you even under the skin.

Aulus Persius Flaccus

#2. The belly is the giver of genius.

Aulus Persius Flaccus

#3. 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.

Aulus Persius Flaccus

#4. 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.]

Aulus Persius Flaccus

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

Aulus Persius Flaccus

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

Aulus Persius Flaccus

#7. 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.

Aulus Persius Flaccus

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

Aulus Persius Flaccus

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

Persius

#10. We consume our tomorrows fretting about our yesterdays.

Persius

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

Aulus Persius Flaccus

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

Aulus Persius Flaccus

#13. 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.]

Aulus Persius Flaccus

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

Persius

#15. Things fit only to give weight to smoke.

Aulus Persius Flaccus

#16. Tecum habita, et noris quam sit tibi curta suppellex.

Retire within thyself, and thou will discover how small a stock is there.

Aulus Persius Flaccus

#17. 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.

Aulus Persius Flaccus

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

Aulus Persius Flaccus

#19. He who conquers, endures.

Aulus Persius Flaccus

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

Persius

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

Aulus Persius Flaccus

#22. 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.

Aulus Persius Flaccus

#23. Each man has his fancy.

Aulus Persius Flaccus

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

Aulus Persius Flaccus

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

Aulus Persius Flaccus

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

Aulus Persius Flaccus

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

Aulus Persius Flaccus

#28. For Yesterday was once To-morrow.

Aulus Persius Flaccus

#29. 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.]

Aulus Persius Flaccus

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

Aulus Persius Flaccus

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

Persius

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

Aulus Persius Flaccus

#33. Bad advice is often most fatal to the adviser.

Aulus Persius Flaccus

#34. Live according to your income.

Aulus Persius Flaccus

#35. He conquers who endures.

Persius

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

Aulus Persius Flaccus

#37. Check disease in its approach.

Aulus Persius Flaccus

#38. Oh, what a void there is in things.

Persius

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

Aulus Persius Flaccus