Martial Quotes

Life is not merely to be alive, but to be well.

Every epigram should resemble a bee; it should have sting, honey, and brevity.

Givers of great dinners know few enemies.

It is not he who forms idols in gold or marble that makes them gods, but he who kneels before them.

Wine and women bring misery.

Tomorrow's life is too late. Live today.

There is nothing more contemptible than a bald man who pretends to have hair.

My poems are naughty, but my life is pure.

Believing hear, what you deserve to hear: Your birthday as my own to me is dear... But yours gives most; for mine did only lend Me to the world; yours gave to me a friend.

To-morrow I will live, the fool does say; To-day itself's too late, the wise lived yesterday.

The virtuous man is never a novice in worldly things.

Conceal a flaw, and the world will imagine the worst.

It is feeling and force of imagination that make us eloquent.

He writes nothing whose writings are not read.

If fame comes after death, I'm in no hurry for it. [Lat., Si post fata venit gloria non propero.]

Be merry if you are wise.

Genuine is the sorrow endured without anyone else knowing about it.

I would not miss your face, your neck, your hands, your limbs, your bosom and certain other of your charms. Indeed, not to become boring by naming them all, I could do without you, Chloe, altogether.

He who weighs his burdens, can bear them.

Spare the person but lash the vice.

Fortune gives too much to many, enough to none.

If fame is to come only after death, I am in no hurry for it.

A man who lives everywhere lives nowhere.

Virtue extends our days: he lives two lives who relives his past with pleasure.

If you are poor now, Aemilianus, you will always be poor. Riches are now given to none but the rich.