“It is easy to spread the sails to propitious winds, and to cultivate in different ways a rich soil, and to give lustre to gold and ivory, when the very raw material itself shines.”

—  Marcus Manilius , Astronomica

Book III, line 26.
Astronomica

Original

Facile est ventis dare vela secundis, Fecundumque solum varias agitare per artes, Auroque atque ebori decus addere, cum rudis ipsa Materies niteat.

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Marcus Manilius 18
Roman writer

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