Martial

There is nothing more revolting than an old busybody.

— Martial

My poems are naughty, but my life is pure.

— Martial

It is feeling and force of imagination that make us eloquent.

— Martial

While you cannot resolve what you are, at last you may be nothing.

— Martial

What quick wit is found in sudden straits!

— Martial

You are so pure in mind and heart, In aspect, too, so mild, I wonder that you ever could Implant your wife…

— Martial

It is easy in adversity to despise death; he has real fortitude who dares to live and be wretched.

— Martial

If you are poor now, Aemilianus, you will always be poor. Riches are now given to none but the rich.

— Martial

If pale beans bubble for you in a red earthenware pot, you can often decline the dinners of sumptuous hosts.

— Martial

The swifter hand doth the swift words outrun: Before the tongue hath spoke the hand hath done.

— Martial

This I ask, is it not madness to kill thyself in order to escape death? [Lat., Hic rogo non furor est ne…

— Martial

However great the dish that holds the turbot, the turbot is still greater than the dish.

— Martial

That which prevents disagreeable flies from feeding on your repast, was once the proud tail of a splendid bird.

— Martial

It is not, believe me, the act of a wise man to say, "I will live." To-morrow's life is too late; live…

— Martial

You praise, in three hundred verses, Sabellus, the baths of Ponticus, who gives such excellent dinners. You wish to dine, Sabellus, not…

— Martial

You're obstinate, pliant, merry, morose, all at once. For me there's no living with you, or without you.

— Martial

If your slave commits a fault, do not smash his teeth with your fists; give him some of the (hard) biscuit which…

— Martial

See, how the liver is swollen larger than a fat goose! In amazement you will exclaim: Where could this possibly grow?

— Martial

Such are thou and I: but what I am thou canst not be; what thou art any one of the multitude may…

— Martial

If my opinion is of any worth, the fieldfare is the greatest delicacy among birds, the hare among quadrupeds.

— Martial

Your seventh wife, Phileros, is now being buried in your field. No man's field brings him greater profit than yours, Phileros.

— Martial

“Because he hates to praise by name He praises everybody. Vice And virtue must look much the same To one who calls…

— Martial

In adversity it is easy to despise life; he is truly brave who can endure a writeched life

— Martial

If fame comes after death, I'm in no hurry for it. [Lat., Si post fata venit gloria non propero.]

— Martial

A cook should double one sense have: for he Should taster for himself and master be.

— Martial

Service cannot be expected from a friend in service; let him be a freeman who wishes to be my master.

— Martial

Gifts are like fish-hooks; for who is not aware that the greedy char is deceived by the fly which he swallows?

— Martial

Man loves malice, but not against one-eyed men nor the unfortunate, but against the fortunate and proud.

— Martial

No hero to me is the man who, by easy shedding of his blood, purchases fame: my hero is he who, without…

— Martial

No amount of misfortune will satisfy the man who is not satisfied with reading a hundred epigrams.

— Martial

The swan murmurs sweet strains with a flattering tongue, itself the singer of its own dirge.

— Martial

I am a shell-fish just come from being saturated with the waters of the Lucrine lake, near Baiae; but now I luxuriously…

— Martial

I do not love thee, Sabidius, nor can I say why; I can only say this, "I do not love thee."

— Martial

When your crowd of attendants so loudly applaud you, Pomponius, it is not you, but your banquet, that is eloquent.

— Martial

I have granted you much that you asked: and yet you never cease to ask of me. He who refuses nothing, Atticilla,…

— Martial