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He who writes distichs, wishes, I suppose, to please by brevity. But, tell me, of what avail is their brevity, when there is a whose book full of them?

Martial

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Martial
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The bee is enclosed, and shines preserved in amber, so that it seems enshrined in its own nectar.
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Conceal a flaw, and the world will imagine the worst.
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Why do I not kiss you, Philaenis? you are bald. Why do I not kiss you, Philaenis? you are carrotty. Why do I not kiss you, Philaenis? you are one-eyed. He who kisses you, Philaenis, sins against nature.
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The present joys of life we doubly taste, By looking back with pleasure to the past.
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Work divided is in that manner shortened.
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Life is not living, but living in health.
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Such are thou and I: but what I am thou canst not be what thou art any one of the multitude may be.
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He who prefers to give Linus the half of what he wishes to borrow, rather than to lend him the whole, prefers to lose only the half.
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You're obstinate, pliant, merry, morose, all at once. For me there's no living with you, or without you.
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I commend you, Postumus, for kissing me with only half your lip you may, however, if you please, withhold even the half of this half. Are you inclined to grant me a boon still greater, and even inexpressible? Keep this whole half entirely to yourself, Postumus.
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It is easy in adversity to despise death he has real fortitude who dares to live and be wretched.
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Service cannot be expected from a friend in service let him be a freeman who wishes to be my master.
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I believe that man to be wretched whom none can please.
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Nothing is more ill-timed than an ill-timed laugh.
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You praise, in three hundred verses, Sabellus, the baths of Ponticus, who gives such excellent dinners. You wish to dine, Sabellus, not to bathe.
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Be merry if you are wise.
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I'm what I seem not any dyer gave, But nature dyed this colour that I have.
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I am a shell-fish just come from being saturated with the waters of the Lucrine lake, near Baiae but now I luxuriously thrust for noble pickle.
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For wealth's now given to none but to the rich.
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A good man enlarges the term of his own existence.
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