“Whatever advice you give, be brief.”

“Anger is a brief madness.”

“Struggling to be brief I become obscure.”

“The aim of the poet is to inform or delight, or to combine together, in what he says, both pleasure and applicability to life. In instructing, be brief in what you say in order that your readers may grasp it quickly and retain it faithfully. Superfluous words simply spill out when the mind is already full. Fiction invented in order to please should remain close to reality.”

“Leave off asking what tomorrow will bring, andwhatever days fortune will give, count themas profit.”

“If you wish me to weep, you yourselfMust first feel grief.”

“What you have not published, you can destroy. The word once sent forth can never be recalled.”