“You may thresh a hundred thousand bushels of grain, / But more than mine your belly will not contain.”

“You may drive out Nature with a pitchfork, yet she still will hurry back.”

“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.”

“Subdue your passion or it will subdue you.”

“Surely a Man may speak Truth with a smiling countenance.”

“Think to yourself that every day is your last; the hour to which you do not look forward will come as a welcome surprise.”

“It is not the rich man you should properly call happy, but him who knows how to use with wisdom the blessings of the gods, to endure hard poverty, and who fears dishonor worse than death, and is not afraid to die for cherished friends or fatherland.”