“For the malicious, is not, I trust, the only judicious reader.”
Neque enim soli iudicant qui maligne legunt.
Letter 38.
Letters, Book IX
“For my part, I regard every death as cruel and premature, that removes one who is preparing some immortal work.”
Mihi autem videtur acerba semper et immatura mors eorum, qui immortale aliquid parant.
Letter 5, 4.
Letters, Book V
“Informations without the accuser's name subscribed must not be admitted in evidence against anyone, as it is introducing a very dangerous precedent, and by no means agreeable to the spirit of the age.”
Sine auctore vero propositi libelli nullo crimine locum habere debent. Nam et pessimi exempli nec nostri saeculi est.
Letter 97, 2; Trajan to Puny.
Letters, Book X
“Such is the disposition of mankind, if they cannot blast an action, they will censure the parade of it; and whether you do what does not deserve to be taken notice of, or take notice yourself of what does, either way you incur reproach.”
Homines enim cum rem destruere non possunt, iactationem eius incessunt. Ita si silenda feceris, factum ipsum, si laudanda non sileas, ipse culparis.
Letter 8, 15.
Letters, Book I
“Generosity, when once she is set forward, knows not how to stop her progress; as her beauty is of that order which grows the more engaging upon nearer acquaintance.”
Nescit enim semel incitata liberalitas stare, cuius pulchritudinem usus ipse commendat.
Letter 11, 3.
Letters, Book V
“Let us strive then, while Life is ours, to secure that Death may find we have left little or nothing he can destroy.”
Proinde, dum suppetit vita, enitamur ut mors quam paucissima quae abolere possit inveniat.
Letter 5, 8.
Letters, Book V
“It is long since I have known the sweets of leisure and repose; since I have known in fine, that indolent but agreeable condition of doing nothing, and being nothing.”
Olim nescio quid sit otium quid quies, quid denique illud iners quidem, iucundum tamen nihil agere nihil esse.
Letter 9, 1.
Letters, Book VIII
“It is allowed to poets to lie.”
Poetis mentiri licet.
Letter 21.
Letters, Book VI
“More cruel than death itself, to die at that particular conjuncture!”
O morte ipsa mortis tempus indignius!
Letter 16, 6.
Letters, Book V