Publilius Syrus

Publilius Syrus, a Latin writer of mimes, flourished in the 1st century BC. He was a native of Assyria ( Northern Iraq) 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.

Sentences

Sententiae, a collection of maxims in verse form, given alphabetically (in Latin).

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

• Inopi beneficium bis dat, qui dat celeriter.
  • Translation: He doubly benefits the needy who gives quickly.
  • Maxim 6

• To do two things at once is to do neither.
  • Maxim 7

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

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

• Honesta fama melior pecunia est.
  • Translation: A good reputation is more valuable than money.
  • Maxim 108

• He who helps the guilty, shares the crime.
  • Maxim 139

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

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

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

• Honesta turpitudo est pro causa bona.
  • Translation: For a good cause, wrongdoing is virtuous.
  • Maxim 244

• 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

• Fortuna cum blanditur, captatum venit.
  • Translation: When Fortune flatters, she does it to betray.
  • Maxim 277

• Fortuna uitrea est: tum cum splendet frangitur.
  • Fortune is like glass-the brighter the glitter, the more easily broken.
  • Maxim 280

• Fortunam citius reperias quam retineas.
  • It is more easy to get a favor from Fortune than to keep it.
  • Maxim 282

• There are some remedies worse than the disease.
  • Maxim 301

• Amid a multitude of projects, no plan is devised.
  • Maxim 319

• In sterculino plurimum gallus potest.
  • A cock has great influence on his own dunghill.
  • Maxim 357

• In tranquillo esse quisque gubernator potest.
  • Translation: Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.
  • Maxim 358

• Treat your friend as if he might become an enemy.
  • Maxim 402

• Iudex damnatur ubi nocens absolvitur.
  • Translation: The judge is condemned when the guilty is absolved.
  • Maxim 407
  • Adopted by the original Edinburgh Review magazine as its motto.

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

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

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

• It is a bad plan that admits of no modification.
  • Maxim 469

• 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 case.
  • 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

• Do not turn back when you are just at the goal.
  • Maxim 580

• No man is happy who does not think himself so.
  • Maxim 584

• 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

• It is a very hard undertaking to seek to please everybody.
  • Maxim 675

• Invitat culpam qui peccatum praeterit
  • Translation: Pardon one offence and you encourage the commission of many.
  • Maxim 750

• It takes a long time to bring excellence to maturity.
  • Maxim 780

• No one knows what he can do till he tries.
  • Maxim 786

• 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

• Stultum facit fortuna, quem vult perdere.
  • Whom Fortune wishes to destroy she first makes mad.
  • Maxim 911. One of the most famous renditions of the ancient Greek proverb (which is anonymous and dates to the 5th century BCE or earlier).
  • The provenance of the proverb and its English versions is at Wikipedia's Euripides page, under the heading "Misattributed."

• Taciturnitas stulto homini pro sapientia est.
  • Translation: Let a fool hold his tongue and he will pass for a sage.
  • Maxim 914

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

• Proximum ab innocentia tenet locum verecunda peccati confessio.
  • Translation: Confession of our faults is the next thing to innocence.
  • Maxim 1060

• 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

Attributed

• Familiarity breeds contempt.

• Necessity knows no law except to conquer.
  • Attributed by By Advice of Counsel, Arthur Train

• We should provide in peace what we need in war

• Debt is the slavery of the free.