Quotes from book
Epigrammata

Name: Epigrammata
Author: Martial

Martial Original title Epigrammata (Latin)

“The mode of death is sadder than death itself.”

Martial book Epigrammata

XI, 91.
Epigrams (c. 80 – 104 AD)

“You complain, friend Swift, of the length of my epigrams, but you yourself write nothing. Yours are shorter.”

Martial book Epigrammata

I, 110.
Epigrams (c. 80 – 104 AD)

“Believe me, wise men don't say ‘I shall live to do that’, tomorrow's life is too late; live today.”
Non est, crede mihi, sapientis dicere ‘Vivam’: Sera nimis vita est crastina: vive hodie.

Martial book Epigrammata

I, 15.
Variant translations:
'I'll live to-morrow', 'tis not wise to say:
'Twill be too late to-morrow—live to-day.
Tomorrow will I live, the fool does say;
Today itself's too late; the wise lived yesterday.
Epigrams (c. 80 – 104 AD)

“Neither fear your death's day nor long for it.”

Martial book Epigrammata

X, 47. Alternatively translated as "Neither fear, nor wish for, your last day", in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). Compare: "Nor love thy life, nor hate; but what thou livest / Live well: how long or short permit to heaven", John Milton, Paradise Lost, book xi, line 553.
Epigrams (c. 80 – 104 AD)

“You ask what a nice girl will do? She won't give an inch, but she won't say no.”

Martial book Epigrammata

IV, 71.
Epigrams (c. 80 – 104 AD)

“Life is not living, but living in health.”
Vita non est vivere, sed valera vita est.

Martial book Epigrammata

VI, 70.
Variant translations:
It is not life to live, but to be well.
Life's not just being alive, but being well.
Epigrams (c. 80 – 104 AD)

“He who refuses nothing…will soon have nothing to refuse.”

Martial book Epigrammata

XII, 79.
Epigrams (c. 80 – 104 AD)

“Difficult and easy-going, pleasant and churlish, you are at the same time: I can neither live with you nor without you.”
Difficilis facilis iucundus acerbus es idem: Nec possum tecum vivere nec sine te.

Martial book Epigrammata

Difficilis facilis iucundus acerbus es idem:
Nec possum tecum vivere nec sine te.
XII, 46
Variant translation: Difficult or easy, pleasant or bitter, you are the same you: I cannot live with you—or without you.
Compare: "Thus I can neither live with you nor without you", Ovid, Amores, Book III, xib, 39
Epigrams (c. 80 – 104 AD)

“If glory comes after death, I hurry not.”
Si post fata venit gloria, non propero.

Martial book Epigrammata

V, 10 (trans. Zachariah Rush).
Epigrams (c. 80 – 104 AD)

“You invite no man to dinner, Cotta, but your bath-companion; the baths alone provide you with a guest. I was wondering why you had never asked me; now I understand that when naked I displeased you.”
Invitas nullum nisi cum quo, Cotta, lavaris et dant convivam balnea sola tibi mirabar quare numquam me, Cotta, vocasses: iam scio me nudum displicuisse tibi.

Martial book Epigrammata

Invitas nullum nisi cum quo, Cotta, lavaris
et dant convivam balnea sola tibi
mirabar quare numquam me, Cotta, vocasses:
iam scio me nudum displicuisse tibi.
I, 23 (Loeb translation).
Epigrams (c. 80 – 104 AD)