Quotes from book

Satires

“What is to prevent one from telling truth as he laughs, even as teachers sometimes give cookies to children to coax them into learning their A B C?”
Quamquam ridentem dicere verum quid vetat? ut pueris olim dant crustula blandi doctores, elementa velint ut discere prima.

“If my character is flawed by a few minor faults, but is otherwise decent and moral, if you can point out only a few scattered blemishes on an otherwise immaculate surface, if no one can accuse me of greed, or of prurience, or of profligacy, if I live a virtuous life, free of defilement (pardon, for a moment, my self-praise), and if I am to my friends a good friend, my father deserves all the credit… As it is now, he deserves from me unstinting gratitude and praise. I could never be ashamed of such a father, nor do I feel any need, as many people do, to apologize for being a freedman's son.”
Atqui si vitiis mediocribus ac mea paucis mendosa est natura, alioqui recta, velut si egregio inspersos reprehendas corpore naevos, si neque avaritiam neque sordes nec mala lustra obiciet vere quisquam mihi, purus et insons, ut me collaudem, si et vivo carus amicis... at hoc nunc laus illi debetur et a me gratia maior. nil me paeniteat sanum patris huius, eoque non, ut magna dolo factum negat esse suo pars, quod non ingenuos habeat clarosque parentis, sic me defendam.

“Life grants nothing to us mortals without hard work.”
Nil sine magno vita labore dedit mortalibus.

“O Fortune, cruellest of heavenly powers,
Why make such game of this poor life of ours?”
Heu, Fortuna, quis est crudelior in nos Te deus? Ut semper gaudes illudere rebus Humanis!

“Then take, good sir, your pleasure while you may;
With life so short 'twere wrong to lose a day.”
Dum licet, in rebus jucundis vive beatus; Vive memor quam sis aevi brevis.

“So live, my boys, as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts.”
Quocirca vivite fortes, fortiaque adversis opponite pectora rebus

“In peace, as a wise man, he should make suitable preparation for war.”
in pace, ut sapiens, aptarit idonea bello

“This to the right, that to the left hand strays,
And all are wrong, but wrong in different ways.”
Ille sinistrorsum, hie dextrorsum abit : unus utrique Error, sed variis illudit partibus.

“What odds does it make to the man who lives within Nature's bounds, whether he ploughs a hundred acres or a thousand?”

“We rarely find anyone who can say he has lived a happy life, and who, content with his life, can retire from the world like a satisfied guest.”
Inde fit ut raro, qui se vixisse beatum dicat et exacto contentus tempore vita cedat uti conviva satur, reperire queamus.

“The mind enamored with deceptive things, declines things better.”
Adclinis falsis animus meliora recusat.

“Tis not sufficient to combine
Well-chosen words in a well-ordered line.”
Non satis est puris versum perscribere verbis.

“Saepe stilum vertas, iterum quae digna legi sint scripturus. Often must you turn your pencil to erase, if you hope to write something worth a second reading.”

“Adclinis falsis animus meliora recusat.”

“Life grants nothing to us mortals without hard work.
Life has given nothing to mortals without great labor.”

“Let’s put a limit to the scramble for money. ...
Having got what you wanted, you ought to begin to bring that struggle to an end.”