Publilius Syrus

Publilius Syrus, a Latin writer of maxims, flourished in the 1st century BC. He was a native of Assyria 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

Sententiae

Note: Many different editions of the Sententiae have been published, each with significant variation as to the inclusion and exclusion of quotes.

• Alienum aes homini ingenuo acerba est servitus.
  • Bitter for a free man is the bondage of debt.
    • From R. A. H. Bickford-Smith edition

• Ames parentem, si aequus est: si aliter, feras.
  • If your parent is just, revere him: if not, bear with him.
    • From R. A. H. Bickford-Smith edition, 1895

• Audendo virtus crescit, tardando timor.
  • Valour grows by daring, fear by hesitating.
    • From R. A. H. Bickford-Smith edition

• Contra impurdentem stulta est nimia ingenuitas
  • Being excessively clever is foolish when teaching the ignorant.
    • From R. A. H. Bickford-Smith edition

• Formosa facies muta commendatio est.
  • A beautiful face is a silent commendation.
    • From R. A. H. Bickford-Smith edition

• Fortuna cum blanditur, captatum venit.
  • When Fortune flatters, she does it to betray.
    • From R. A. H. Bickford-Smith edition

• Fortunam citius reperias quam retineas.
  • It is more easy to get a favor from Fortune than to keep it.
    • From R. A. H. Bickford-Smith edition

• Fortuna vitrea est: tum cum splendet frangitur.
  • Fortune is like glass - the brighter the glitter, the more easily broken.
    • From R. A. H. Bickford-Smith edition

• Honesta turpitudo est pro causa bona.
  • For a good cause, wrongdoing is honourable.
    • From R. A. H. Bickford-Smith edition

• Inopiae desunt multa, avaritiae omnia.
  • <English translation needed>
    • From R. A. H. Bickford-Smith edition

• Inopi beneficium bis dat, qui dat celeriter.
  • He doubly benefits the needy who gives quickly.
    • From R. A. H. Bickford-Smith edition

• Invitat culpam qui peccatum praeterit
  • He invites crime who ignores sin.
    • From R. A. H. Bickford-Smith edition

• Iudex damnatur ubi nocens absolvitur.
  • The judge is condemned when the guilty is absolved.
    • From R. A. H. Bickford-Smith edition
    • Adopted by the original Edinburgh Review magazine as its motto

• Malum est consilium, quod mutari non potest.
  • Bad is the plan, which cannot be changed.
    • From R. A. H. Bickford-Smith edition

• Necessitas dat legem, non ipsa accipit.
  • Necessity gives the law without itself acknowledging one.
    • From R. A. H. Bickford-Smith edition

• Proximum ab innocentia tenet locum verecunda peccati confessio.
  • Confession of sins is the closest thing to innocence.
    • From the Woelfflin edition

• Stultum facit fortuna, quem vult perdere.
  • Whom Fortune wishes to destroy she first makes mad.
    • From R. A. H. Bickford-Smith edition

• Taciturnitas stulto homini pro sapientia est.
  • Let a fool hold his tongue and he will pass for a sage.
    • From R. A. H. Bickford-Smith edition

Disputed

The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, a Roman Slave: from the Latin

English quotations from The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, a Roman Slave: from the Latin, English translation by Darius Lyman, Jun., A. M., with a Sketch of the Life of Syrus, published by L.E. Barnard & co. (1856)

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

• There is no penalty attached to a lover's oath.
  • Maxim 23

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

• Adversity shows whether we have friends, or only the shadows of friends.
  • Maxim 35

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

• To spare the guilty is to injure the innocent.
  • Maxim 113

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

• Have courage, or cunning, when you deal with an enemy.
  • Maxim 156

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

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

• For him who loves labour, there is always something to do.
  • Maxim 219

• Even a single hair casts its shadow.
  • Maxim 228

• 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

• 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

• A cock has great influence on his own dunghill.
  • Maxim 357

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

• Put such confidence in your friend, that he shall find no cause to become an enemy.
  • Maxim 402

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

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

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

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

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

• 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 cause.
  • Maxim 545

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

• We desire nothing so much as what we ought not to have.
  • Maxim 559

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

• Don't 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

• We should provide in peace what we need in war.
  • Maxim 709

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

• 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

• 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

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

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

• I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.
  • Maxim 1070

• Speech is a mirror of the soul; as a man speaks, so is he.
  • Maxim 1073

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

Misattributed

• In tranquillo esse quisque gubernator potest.
  • In a calm sea anyone can be the helmsman.
    • Found in the Sententiae Falso (False Sententiae) section of the Woelfflin edition

• Velox consilium sequitur paenitentia.
  • A hasty decision is followed by repentance.
    • Found in the Sententiae Falso (False Sententiae) section of the Woelfflin edition

• Lepores duo qui insequitur, is neutrum capit.
  • Who chases two rabbits captures neither.
    • Found in the Sententiae Falso (False Sententiae) section of the Woelfflin edit

• Honesta fama melior pecunia est.
  • A good reputation is more valuable than money.
    • Found in the Sententiae Falso (False Sententiae) section of the Woelfflin edit

• Homo tacere qui nescit, nescit loqui.
  • One who does not know how to be silent, does not know how to speak.
    • Found in the Sententiae Falso (False Sententiae) section of the Woelfflin edit

• Familiarity breeds contempt.

External links

Sententiae:

Note: Many different editions of the Sententiae have been published, each with significant variation as to the inclusion and exclusion of quotes.

Latin

• 'Meyer edition, 1880 from The Packard Humanities Institute, Classic Latin Texts
• R. A. H. Bickford-Smith edition, 1895, with English preface
• Woelfflin edition

English

• The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, a Roman Slave: from the Latin, English translation by Darius Lyman, Jun., A. M., with a Sketch of the Life of Syrus, published by L.E. Barnard & co. (1856)
  Note: Lyman's work is of dubious authenticity.