The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus

thumb|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 Publius Syrus Category:Aphorisms Category:Authors from Syria