| Author |
Quotes |
| Edward Topsell | Some learned writers . . . have compared a Scorpion to an Epigram . . . because as the sting of the Scorpion lyeth in the tayl, so the force and virtue of an epigram is in the conclusion. |
| Edward Young | Thou art so witty, profligate and thin, At once we think thee Satan, Death and Sin. |
| Edward Young | The qualities all in a bee that we meet, In an epigram never should fail; The body should always be little and sweet, And a sting should be felt in its tail. |
| Marcus Valerius Martialndex | You complain, Velox, that the epigrams which I write are long. You yourself write nothing; your attempts are shorter. |
| Marcus Valerius Martialndex | Report says that you, Fidentinus, recite my compositions in public as if they were your own. If you allow them to be called mine, I will send you my verses gratis; if you wish them to be called yours, pray buy them, that they may be mine no longer? |
| Marcus Valerius Martialndex | The book which you are reading aloud is mine, Fidentinus; but, while you read it so badly, it begins to be yours. |
| Marcus Valerius Martialndex | You are pretty,--we know it; and young,--it is true; and rich,-- who can deny it? But when you praise yourself extravagantly, Fabulla, you appear neither rich, nor pretty, nor young. |
| Marcus Valerius Martialndex | "You are too free spoken," is your constant remark to me, Choerilus. He who speaks against you, Choerilus, is indeed a free speaker. |
| Marcus Valerius Martialndex | What's this that myrrh doth still smell in thy kiss, And that with thee no other odour is? 'Tis doubt, my Postumus, he that doth smell So sweetly always, smells not very well. |
| Marcus Valerius Martialndex | Since your legs, Phoebus, resemble the horns of the moon, you might bathe your feet in a cornucopia. |
| Marcus Valerius Martialndex | In whatever place you meet me, Postumus, you cry out immediately, and your very first words are, "How do you do?" You say this, even if you meet me ten times in one single hour: you, Postumus, have nothing, I suppose, to do. |
| Marcus Valerius Martialndex | If you wish, Faustinus, a bath of boiling water to be reduced in temperature,--a bath, such as scarcely Julianus could enter,--ask the rhetorician Sabinaeus to bathe himself in it. He would freeze the warm baths of Nero. |
| Marcus Valerius Martialndex | I could do without your face, and your neck, and your hands, and your limbs, and your bosom, and other of your charms. Indeed, not to fatigue myself with enumerating each of them, I could do without you, Chloe, altogether. |
| Marcus Valerius Martialndex | Lycoris has buried all the female friends she had, Fabianus: would she were the friend of my wife! |
| Marcus Valerius Martialndex | You were constantly, Matho, a guest at my villa at Tivoli. Now you buy it--I have deceived you; I have merely sold you what was already your own. |
| Marcus Valerius Martialndex | Do you wonder for what reason, Theodorus, notwithstanding your frequent requests and importunities, I have never presented you with my works? I have an excellent reason; it is lest you should present me with yours. |
| Marcus Valerius Martialndex | You put fine dishes on your table, Olus, but you always put them on covered. This is ridiculous; in the same way I could put fine dished on my table. |
| Marcus Valerius Martialndex | And have you been able, Flaccus, to see the slender Thais? Then, Flaccus, I suspect you can see what is invisible. |
| Marcus Valerius Martialndex | You ask for lively epigrams, and propose lifeless subjects. What can I do, Caecilianus? You expect Hyblaen or Hymethian honey to be produced, and yet offer the Attic bee nothing but Corsican thyme? |
| Marcus Valerius Martialndex | When to secure your bald pate from the weather, You lately wore a cape of black neats' leather; He was a very wag, who to you said, "Why do you wear your slippers on your head?" |
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