"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 is an Epigram? a dwarfish whole, Its body brevity, and wit its soul."

"Report says that you, Fidentinus, recite my compositions in public as if they were your own. If you allow them to be …"

"The book which you are reading aloud is mine, Fidentinus; but, while you read it so badly, it begins to be yours."

"You are pretty,—we know it; and young,—it is true; and rich,—who can deny it? But when you praise yourself extravagan…"

""You are too free spoken," is your constant remark to me, Chœrilus. He who speaks against you, Chœrilus, is indeed a …"

"You complain, Velox, that the epigrams which I write are long. You yourself write nothing; your attempts are shorter."

"What's this that myrrh doth still smell in thy kiss, And that with thee no other odour is? 'Tis doubt, my Postumus, h…"

"Since your legs, Phœbus, resemble the horns of the moon, you might bathe your feet in a cornucopia."

"Lycoris has buried all the female friends she had, Fabianus: would she were the friend of my wife!"