“I've never written for a fasting man;
A taste of wine is good before my verse.
But sleep is better than a little wine,
For when sleeping one thinks my songs are dreams.”

—  Ausonius

Jejunis nil scribo: meum post pocula si quis
legerit, hic sapiet.
Sed magis hic sapiet, si dormiet: et putet ista
somnia missa sibi.
"De Bissula", line 13; translation from Harold Isbell (trans.) The Last Poets of Imperial Rome (1971) p. 48.

Original

Jejunis nil scribo: meum post pocula si quis<br/>legerit, hic sapiet.<br/>Sed magis hic sapiet, si dormiet: et putet ista<br/>somnia missa sibi.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I've never written for a fasting man; A taste of wine is good before my verse. But sleep is better than a little wine…" by Ausonius?
Ausonius photo
Ausonius 14
poet 310–395

Related quotes

Thomas Aquinas photo

“Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath and a glass of wine”

Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican scholastic philosopher of the Roman Catholic Church
Sören Kierkegaard photo

“My time I divide as follows: the one half I sleep; the other half I dream. I never dream when I sleep; that would be a shame, because to sleep is the height of genius.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

Source: Either/Or: A Fragment of Life

Ernest Hemingway photo

“This wine is too good for toast-drinking, my dear. You don't want to mix emotions up with a wine like that. You lose the taste.”

Count Mippipopolous, in Book 1, Ch. 7
Source: The Sun Also Rises (1926)

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien photo

“It was like discovering a complete wine-filled cellar filled with bottles of an amazing wine of a kind and flavor never tasted before. It quite intoxicated me….”

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892–1973) British philologist and author, creator of classic fantasy works

No. 163: On his discovery of Finnish language, in a letter to W. H. Auden (1955)
The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien (1981)

Gertrude Stein photo

“When I sleep I sleep and do not dream because it is as well that I am what I seem when I am in my bed and dream.”

Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American art collector and experimental writer of novels, poetry and plays

Before the Flowers of Friendship Faded Friendship Faded (1931)

Hilaire Belloc photo
Shmuel Yosef Agnon photo
Paulo Coelho photo
William Blake photo

“Sleep, sleep, beauty bright,
Dreaming o'er the joys of night.
Sleep, sleep: in thy sleep
Little sorrows sit and weep.”

A Cradle Song, st. 1
1790s, Poems from Blake's Notebook (c. 1791-1792)

Kanye West photo

“Last night I saw you in my dreams/Now I can't wait to go to sleep/And this life is all a dream/So my real life starts when I go to sleep.”

Kanye West (1977) American rapper, singer and songwriter

"Hey Mama", Live Grammy Performance, February 2008
Lyrics, 808s & Heartbreak (2008)

Related topics