The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus

Man's life is a loan, not a gift.

The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus is a collection of aphorisms attributed to Publius Syrus.

Quotes

As translated to English by D. Lyman (1856)

• Even when we get what we wish, it is not ours.
  • # 15

• A wise man rules his passions, a fool obeys them.
  • # 49

• Human reason grows rich by self-conquest.
  • # 53

• Tension weakens the bow; the want of it, the mind.
  • # 59

• When Gold argues the cause, eloquence is impotent.
  • # 65

• To receive a favor is to pawn your freedom.
  • # 87

• The more skillfully the language of goodness is assumed, the greater the depravity.
  • # 114

• In the presence of a good man, anger is speedily cooled.
  • # 118

• It is well to moor your bark with two anchors.
  • # 119

• Consult your conscience, rather than popular opinion.
  • # 147

• Consider what you ought to say, and not what you think.
  • # 148

• Wisdom had rather be buffeted than not be listened to.
  • # 152

• Folly had rather be unheard than be buffeted.
  • # 153

• Reproach in misfortune is an unseasonable cruelty.
  • # 161

• He who can get more than belongs to him is apt to accommodate his desires to his opportunity.
  • # 167

• Every man is a master in his own calling
  • # 169

• Patience is a remedy for every sorrow.
  • # 170

• The greatest of comforts is to be free from blame.
  • # 173

• One day treats us like a hireling nurse, another, like a mother.
  • # 193

• Pleasant is the remembrance of the ills that are past.
  • # 209

• Avoid cupidity, and you conquer a kingdom.
  • # 212

• A kindness should be received in the spirit that prompted it.
  • # 215

• Speed itself is slow when cupidity waits.
  • # 218

• The party to which the rabble belong is ever the worst.
  • # 223

• Even calamity becomes virtue's opportunity.
  • # 224

• The good to which we have become accustomed, is often an evil.
  • # 227

• He who takes counsel of good faith, is just even to an enemy.
  • # 230

• It is sometimes expedient to forget who we are.
  • # 233

• We may with advantage at times forget what we know.
  • # 234

• Pecuniary gain first suggested to men to make Fortune a goddess.
  • # 239

• Many consult their reputation; but few their conscience.
  • # 254

• The master is a slave when he fears those whom he rules.
  • # 255

• Prosperity is the nurse of ill temper.
  • # 257

• Bear without murmuring what cannot be changed.
  • # 260

• Fortune has no lawful control over men's morals.
  • # 268

• An over-taxed patience gives way to fierce anger.
  • # 289

• A noble steed is not annoyed by the barking of dogs.
  • # 293

• It is a useless defense which cannot find a fair trial.
  • # 299

• The most formidable enemy lies hid in one's own heart.
  • # 300

• There are some remedies worse than the disease.
  • # 301

• Repentance for our past deeds is a severe mental punishment.
  • # 303

• Powerful indeed is the empire of habit.
  • # 305

• The severest affliction is the one which has never been tried.
  • # 307

• Do not take part in the council, unless you are called.
  • # 310

• Man's life is a loan, not a gift.
  • # 324

• Would you have a great empire? Rule over yourself.
  • # 345

• The sinner who repented after the offense, was a little imprudent.
  • # 346

• Avarice is kind to no one, and most cruel toward itself.
  • # 355

• To be not too sanguine of our conclusions, is one half of wisdom.
  • # 363

• To forget the wrongs you receive, is to remedy them.
  • # 383

• To do good you should know what good is.
  • # 389

• There is more venom than truth in the words of envy.
  • # 390

• The rancor of envy is concealed, but is none the less hostile.
  • # 391

• To withstand the assaults of envy, you must be either a hero or a saint.
  • # 392

• Shun an angry man for a moment — your enemy forever.
  • # 396

• Anger thinks crime justifiable.
  • # 397

• Every word of an angry man conveys a reproach.
  • # 398

• When the angry man grows cool, he is angry with himself.
  • # 399

• Anger is apt to forget the existence of law.
  • # 419

• The Law keeps her eye on the angry man, when he does not see the Law.
  • # 424

• He who chases two hares will catch neither.
  • # 426

• He who lives in solitude may make his own laws.
  • # 432

• A noble spirit finds a cure for injustice in forgetting it.
  • # 441

• Mighty rivers may easily be leaped at their source.
  • # 442

• Hard to bear is the poverty which follows misuse of riches.
  • # 445

• It is bad management when we suffer fortune to be our guide.
  • # 451

• They live ill who expect to live always.
  • # 457

• He who is bent on doing evil, can never want occasion.
  • # 459

• It is a bad plan that admits of no modification.
  • # 469

• He should be called bad, who is good only for selfish ends.
  • # 474

• He will become wicked himself, who feasts with the wicked.
  • # 476

• Fear, and not kindness, restrains the vicious.
  • # 489

• The master who fears his slave, is the greater slave.
  • # 493

• To depend on another's nod for a livelihood, is a sad destiny.
  • # 501

• Methinks you are unhappy, if you never have been so.
  • # 503

• Delay is always vexatious, but it is wisdom's opportunity.
  • # 505

• Understand your friend's character, but do not hate it.
  • # 506

• The fear of death is more to be dreaded than death itself.
  • # 511

• Every thing which has birth, must pay tribute to death.
  • # 513

• We should bear our destiny, not weep over it.
  • # 538

• Avarice never lacks a reason for refusing a favor.
  • # 542

• No one should be judge in his own cause.
  • # 545

• Be the first to laugh at your own blunder, and no one will laugh at you.
  • # 548

• Depravity is its own greatest punishment.
  • # 550

• Fortune takes nothing away but her own gifts.
  • # 554

• There is no more shameful sight, than an old man commencing life.
  • # 566

• The truth is lost when there is too much contention about it.
  • # 568

• It is only the ignorant who despise education.
  • # 571

• It is vain to be the pupil of a sage if you have no brains yourself.
  • # 572

• He can best avoid a snare who knows how to set one.
  • # 573

• Do not despise the lowest steps in the ascent to greatness.
  • # 579

• He is not likely to perish in the ruins who trembles at a crack in the wall.
  • # 582

• To control a man against his will, is not to correct him, but injure him.
  • # 583

• That is not yours which fortune made yours.
  • # 590

• You will find it difficult to be sole guardian over that which multitudes covet.
  • # 592

• He bids fair to grow wise, who has discovered that he is not so.
  • # 598

• Don't consider how many you can please, but whom.
  • # 599

• It is not safe to indulge in a play of wits with kings.
  • # 601

• To yield to our friends is not to be overcome, but to conquer.
  • # 603

• There is no pleasure which continued enjoyment cannot render disgusting.
  • # 604

• He is never happy whose thoughts always run with his fears.
  • # 614

• The kind attentions of the wife, speedily gender disgust for the concubine.
  • # 622

• He is a despicable sage whose wisdom does not profit himself.
  • # 629

• A cheerful obedience is universal, when the worthy bear rule.
  • # 632

• Every day should be passed as if it were to be our last.
  • # 633

• Be at war with men's vices, at peace with themselves.
  • # 636

• Craft, and not sorrow, is seen in a hypocrite's tears.
  • # 637

• We find something of the favor sought in a graceful refusal.
  • # 642

• Patience and fortitude create their own happiness.
  • # 646

• You do well to consider your friend's error your own.
  • # 654

• Be your money's master, not its slave.
  • # 657

• To take refuge with an inferior, is to betray one's self.
  • # 667

• Hearken rather to your conscience than to opinion.
  • # 679

• Freedom alone is the source of noble action.
  • # 691

• When you have good materials, employ good workmen.
  • # 699

• He who is eager to condemn, takes delight in condemning.
  • # 707

• A hasty verdict betrays a desire to find a crime committed.
  • # 708

• Wit itself is folly in a sage.
  • # 710

• He will yield to fear, who has no regard for honor.
  • # 713

• God looks at the clean hands, not the full ones.
  • # 715

• In being modest there is a slight touch of servility.
  • # 717

• He who violates another's honor loses his own.
  • # 718

• How happy the life unembarrassed by the cares of business!
  • # 725

• How unhappy is he who cannot forgive himself!
  • # 729

• How often must he ask for pardon who has refused it when asked!
  • # 740

• How timid is he who stands in terror of poverty!
  • # 741

• Consider the useful agreeable, even though if were not.
  • # 743

• He who hesitates to take the right course, deliberates to no purpose.
  • # 756

• It is no vice to keep a vice out of sight.
  • # 761

• He who can play the fool at pleasure can be wise if he will.
  • # 762

• He who has the power to harm is dreaded when he does not intend harm.
  • # 764

• He gets through too late who goes too fast.
  • # 767

• He who praises himself will speedily find a censor.
  • # 769

• He who fears his friend teaches his friend to fear him.
  • # 772

• Virtue's deeds are glory's deeds.
  • # 778

• It takes a long time to bring excellence to maturity.
  • # 780

• They pass peaceful lives who ignore mine and thine.
  • # 790

• The wise man guards against future evils as if they were present.
  • # 796

• What we admire, we never cease commending to ourselves.
  • # 802

• It matters not with what purpose you do it, if the act itself be bad.
  • # 806

• He can have what he wishes who wishes just enough.
  • # 809

• When the soul rules over itself its empire is lasting.
  • # 810

• He is condemned every day who stands in daily fear of condemnation.
  • # 814

• When you are in love you are not wise, and when you are wise you are not in love.
  • # 816

• When you forgive an enemy you gain many friends.
  • # 818

• It is robbery to receive a favor which you cannot return.
  • # 822

• Youth should be governed by reason, not by force.
  • # 826

• Good health and good sense are two of life's greatest blessings.
  • # 827

• He who imposes his own talk on the circle, does not converse; he plays the master.
  • # 831

• It is not a hard lot to be obliged to return to the state whence we came.
  • # 843

• I should not be pleased to be king, if I must therefore be pleased to be cruel.
  • # 844

• You can obey a request much better than a command.
  • # 846

• The eyes and ears of the mob are often false witnesses.
  • # 852

• Vain is that wisdom which does not profit the possessor.
  • # 860

• You are eloquent enough if truth speaks through you.
  • # 861

• Better be ignorant of a matter than half know it.
  • # 865

• The angry think their power greater than it is.
  • # 869

• Speak well of your friend in public, admonish him in secret.
  • # 870

• Kindness of heart is always happy.
  • # 876

• Always shun whatever may make you angry.
  • # 879

• He punishes himself who repents of his deeds.
  • # 889

• The greatest of empires, is the empire over one's self.
  • # 891

• Guilt's assistant is guilt's participant.
  • # 893

• In critical junctures, temerity is wont to take the place of prudence.
  • # 895

• Glory is apt to follow when industry has prepared the road.
  • # 897

• There is hope of improvement so long as a man is alive to shame.
  • # 899

• It is folly to censure him whom all the world adores.
  • # 903

• It is folly to punish your neighbour by fire when you live next door.
  • # 910

• Benevolence tries persuasion first, and then severer measures.
  • # 916

• Avarice is as destitute of what it has, as what it has not.
  • # 927

• Suspicion begets suspicion.
  • # 928

• He is much to be dreaded who stands in dread of poverty.
  • # 933

• Timidity styles itself caution; stinginess frugality.
  • # 934

• The poor man is ruined as soon as he begins to ape the rich.
  • # 941

• When the elder do wrong, the younger learn the lesson.
  • # 950

• The wounds of the soul should be cured before those of the body.
  • # 953

• Either be silent, or say something better than silence.
  • # 960

• Why do we not hear the truth? Because we don't speak it.
  • # 963

• It is better to trust virtue than fortune.
  • # 974

• Would you be known by every body? Then you know nobody.
  • # 979

• He is not considered a dupe who understood that he was deceived.
  • # 1001

• The little vices of the great must needs be accounted very great.
  • # 1004

• It is an advantage not to possess that which you must hold against your will.
  • # 1005

• Anger would inflict punishment on another; meanwhile, it tortures itself.
  • # 1009

• The happy man is not he who seems thus to others, but who seems thus to himself.
  • # 1010

• Error and repentance are the attendants on hasty decisions.
  • # 1012

• How terrible is that anguish which can find no voice
  • # 1017

• It is a bitter dose to be taught obedience after you have learned to rule.
  • # 1019

• He who subdues his temper vanquishes his greatest enemy.
  • # 1027

• He abounds in virtues who loves those of others.
  • # 1037

• Reason avails nothing when passion has the mastery.
  • # 1044

• Death ever uncertain gets the start of such as are always beginning to live.
  • # 1053

• Money is a servant if you know how to use it; if not, it is a master.
  • # 1057

• When we speak evil of others, we generally condemn ourselves.
  • # 1058

• The later in life evil courses are begun, the more disgraceful they are.
  • # 1061

• The same man can rarely say a great deal, and say it to the purpose.
  • # 1065

• Not the criminals, but their crimes, it is well to extirpate.
  • # 1067

• In our hatred of guilt, it is folly to ruin innocence.
  • # 1068

• Let your life be pleasing to the multitude, and it can not be so to yourself.
  • # 1075

• If you gain new friends, don't forget the old ones.
  • # 1076

• Avarice is as destitute of what it has, as poverty of what it has not.
  • # 1079

External links

Encyclopedic article on The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus on Wikipedia

• Publius Syrus