Aulus Persius Flaccus Quotes

We consume our tomorrows fretting about our yesterdays.

Our life is our own to-day, to-morrow you will be dust, a shade, and a tale that is told. Live mindful of death; the hour flies.

He conquers who endures.

Is any man free except the one who can pass his life as he pleases?

But when to-morrow comes, yesterday's morrow will have been already spent: and lo! a fresh morrow will be for ever making away with our years, each just beyond our grasp.

Your knowing a thing is nothing, unless another knows you know it.

For Yesterday was once To-morrow.

Each man has his own desires; all do not possess the same inclinations.

He who conquers, endures.

The belly is the giver of genius.

The belly (i.e. necessity) is the teacher of art and the liberal bestower of wit.

Bad advice is often most fatal to the adviser.

Nothing can be born of nothing; nothing can be resolved into nothing.

You pray for good health and a body that will be strong in old age. Good-but your rich foods block the gods' answer and tie Jupiter's hands.

Please not thyself the flattering crowd to hear; 'Tis fulsome stuff, to please thy itching ear. Survey thy soul, not what thou does appear, But what thou art.

It is pleasing to be pointed at with the finger and to have it said, "There goes the man." [Lat., At pulchrum est digito monstrari et dicier his est.]

Live according to your income.

The stomach is the teacher of the arts and the dispenser of invention.

Oh, the cares of men! how much emptiness there is in human concerns!

Out of nothing can come, and nothing can become nothing.

And don't consult anyone's opinions but your own.

I know you even under the skin.

Thou art moist and soft clay; thou must instantly be shaped by the glowing wheel. [Lat., Udum et molle lutum es: nunc, nunc properandus et acri Fingendus sine fine rota.]

Indulge, and to thy genius freely give, For not to live at ease is not to live.

Oh, what a void there is in things.