Publilius Syrus

Publilius Syrus, a Latin writer of mimes, flourished in the 1st century BC. He was a native of Assyria ( Northern Iraq) and Assyrian by race, he was brought as a slave to Italy, but by his wit and talent he won the favour of his master, who freed and educated him.

Quotes

Sentences

Sententiae, a collection of maxims in verse form, given alphabetically (in Latin).

As men, we are all equal in the presence of death.
- Maxim 1.

Inopi beneficium bis dat, qui dat celeriter.
- Translation: He doubly benefits the needy who gives quickly.
- Maxim 6.

To do two things at once is to do neither.
- Maxim 7.

Alienum aes homini ingenuo acerba est servitus.
- Translation: Bitter for a free man is the bondage of debt.
- Maxim 14.
- Variant translation: Debt is the slavery of the free. (translator unknown)

The anger of lovers renews the strength of love.
- Maxim 24.

The loss which is unknown is no loss at all.
- Maxim 38.

Audendo virtus crescit, tardando timor.
- Translation: Audacity augments courage; hesitation, fear.
- Maxim 63.
- Variant translation: Valour grows by daring, fear by holding back. (translator unknown)

Honesta fama melior pecunia est.
- Translation: A good reputation is more valuable than money.
- Maxim 108.

He who helps the guilty, shares the crime.
- Maxim 139.

Many receive advice, few profit by it.
- Maxim 149.

While we stop to think, we often miss our opportunity.
- Maxim 185.

Whatever you can lose, you should reckon of no account.
- Maxim 191.

Even a single hair casts its shadow.
- Maxim 228

Honesta turpitudo est pro causa bona.
- Translation: For a good cause, wrongdoing is virtuous.
- Maxim 244.

What is left when honor is lost?
- Maxim 265.

Fortune is not satisfied with inflicting one calamity.
- Maxim 274.

When Fortune is on our side, popular favor bears her company.
- Maxim 275.

Fortuna cum blanditur, captatum venit.
- Translation: When Fortune flatters, she does it to betray.
- Maxim 277.

Fortuna uitrea est: tum cum splendet frangitur.
- Translation: Fortune is like glass - the brighter the glitter, the more easily broken.
- Maxim 280.

Fortunam citius reperias quam retineas.
- Translation: It is more easy to get a favor from Fortune than to keep it.
- Maxim 282.

Formonsa facies muta commendatio est.
- A beautiful face is a silent commendation.
- Maxim 283.

There are some remedies worse than the disease.
- Maxim 301.

Do not take part in the council, unless you are called.
- Maxim 310.

Amid a multitude of projects, no plan is devised.
- Maxim 319.

In sterculino plurimum gallus potest.
- Translation: A cock has great influence on his own dunghill.
- Maxim 357.

In tranquillo esse quisque gubernator potest.
- Translation: Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.
- Maxim 358.

To forget the wrongs you receive, is to remedy them.
- Maxim 383.

Treat your friend as if he might become an enemy.
- Maxim 402.

Iudex damnatur ubi nocens absolvitur.
- Translation: The judge is condemned when the guilty is absolved.
- Maxim 407
- Adopted by the original Edinburgh Review magazine as its motto.

Practice is the best of all instructors.
- Maxim 439.

A noble spirit finds a cure for injustice in forgetting it.
- Maxim 441.

Necessitas dat legem non ipsa accipit.
- Necessity gives the law without itself acknowledging one.
- Maxim 444.

He who is bent on doing evil can never want occasion.
- Maxim 459.

Never find your delight in another's misfortune.
- Maxim 467.

It is a bad plan that admits of no modification.
- Maxim 469.

The fear of death is more to be dreaded than death itself.
- Maxim 511.

Saxum volutum non obducitur musco
- Translation: A rolling stone gathers no moss.
- Maxim 524.

Never promise more than you can perform.
- Maxim 528.

No one should be judge in his own case.
- Maxim 545.

Nothing can be done at once hastily and prudently.
- Maxim 557.

Quod vult habet, qui cupere quod sat est potest.
- Translation: We desire nothing so much as what we ought not to have.
- Variant translation: He has his wish, who wished but enough.
- Maxim 559 [Mimi et aliorum sententiae 677].

It is only the ignorant who despise education.
- Maxim 571.

Do not turn back when you are just at the goal.
- Maxim 580.

No man is happy who does not think himself so.
- Maxim 584.

He is a despicable sage whose wisdom does not profit himself.
- Maxim 629.

Every day should be passed as if it were to be our last.
- Maxim 633.

Money alone sets all the world in motion.
- Maxim 656.

Be your money's master, not its slave.
- Maxim 657.

It is a very hard undertaking to seek to please everybody.
- Maxim 675.

God looks at the clean hands, not the full ones.
- Maxim 715.

Invitat culpam qui peccatum praeterit
- Translation: Pardon one offence and you encourage the commission of many.
- Maxim 750.

It takes a long time to bring excellence to maturity.
- Maxim 780.

No one knows what he can do till he tries.
- Maxim 786.

They pass peaceful lives who ignore mine and thine.
- Maxim 790.

Everything is worth what its purchaser will pay for it.
- Maxim 847.

Better to be ignorant of a matter than half know it.
- Maxim 865.

Prosperity makes friends, adversity tries them.
- Maxim 872.

The greatest of empires, is the empire over one's self.
- Maxim 891.

Stultum facit fortuna, quem vult perdere.
- Translation: Whom Fortune wishes to destroy she first makes mad.
- Maxim 911. One of the most famous renditions of the ancient Greek proverb (which is anonymous and dates to the 5th century BCE or earlier).
- The provenance of the proverb and its English versions is at Wikipedia's Euripides page, under the heading "Misattributed".

Taciturnitas stulto homini pro sapientia est.
- Translation: Let a fool hold his tongue and he will pass for a sage.
- Maxim 914.

Avarice is as destitute of what it has, as what it has not.
- Maxim 927.

The poor man is ruined as soon as he begins to ape the rich.
- Maxim 941.

It is a consolation to the wretched to have companions in misery.
- Maxim 995.

Proximum ab innocentia tenet locum verecunda peccati confessio.
- Translation: Confession of our faults is the next thing to innocence.
- Maxim 1060.