Discourse

"Sir Drake whom well the world's end knew Which thou did'st compass round, And whom both Poles of heaven once saw Which North and South do bound, The stars above would make thee known, If men here silent were; The sun himself cannot forget His fellow traveller."

"This picture, plac'd the busts between Gives Satire all its strength; Wisdom and Wit are little seen While Folly glares at length."

"Unlike my subject, I will make my song. It shall be witty, and it shan't be long."

"Lumine Acon dextre,—capta est Leonilla sinistre, Et potis est forma vincere uterque dees: Blande puer, lumen quod habes concede sorori, Sic tu cæcus Amor, sic erit illa Venus."

"The diamond's virtues well might grace The epigram, and both excel In brilliancy in smallest space, And power to cut as well."

"I treated Art as the supreme reality, and life as a mere mode of fiction. I awoke the imagination of my century so that it created myth and legend around me: I summed up all systems in a phrase, and all of existence in an epigram."

"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."

"Never think of leaving perfumes or wine to your heir. Administer these yourself, and let him have your money."

"See how the mountain goat hangs from the summit of the cliff; you would expect it to fall; it is merely showing its contempt for the dogs."

"When to secure your bald pate from the weather, You lately wore a cap of black neats' leather; He was a very wag, who to you said, "Why do you wear your slippers on your head?""

"And have you been able, Flaccus, to see the slender Thais? Then, Flaccus, I suspect you can see what is invisible."

"You ask for lively epigrams, and propose lifeless subjects. What can I do, Cæcilianus? You expect Hyblæn or Hymethian honey to be produced, and yet offer the Attic bee nothing but Corsican thyme?"

"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 dishes on my table."

"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."

"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."

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

"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."

"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 Sabinæus to bathe himself in it. He would freeze the warm baths of Nero."

"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."

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

"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."

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

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

"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."

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

"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."

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

"EPIGRAM, n. A short, sharp saying in prose or verse, frequently characterize by acidity or acerbity and sometimes by wisdom."

"The greatest miracle of love is the cure of coquetry."

"Women know not the whole of their coquetry."

"It is a species of coquetry to make a parade of never practising it."

"Coquetry is the essential characteristic, and the prevalent humor of women; but they do not all practise it, because the coquetry of some it restrained by fear or by reason."

"Such is your cold coquette, who can't say "No," And won't say "Yes," and keeps you on and off-ing On a lee-shore, till it begins to blow, Then sees your heart wreck'd, with an inward scoffing."

"Like a lovely tree She grew to womanhood, and between whiles Rejected several suitors, just to learn How to accept a better in his turn."

"Coquetry whets the appetite; flirtation depraves it. Coquetry is the thorn that guards the rose—easily trimmed off when once plucked. Flirtation is like the slime on water-plants, making them hard to handle, and when caught, only to be cherished in slimy waters."

"In the School of Coquettes Madam Rose is a scholar;— O, they fish with all nets In the School of Coquettes! When her brooch she forgets 'Tis to show her new collar; In the School of Coquettes Madam Rose is a scholar!"

"Or light or dark, or short or tall, She sets a springe to snare them all: All's one to her—above her fan She'd make sweet eyes at Caliban."

"Nor do we find him forward to be sounded But, with a crafty madness, keeps aloof, When we would bring him on to some confession Of his true state."

"Open Confession is good for the Soul."

"He's half absolved, who has confessed."

"Stan: But our friend Timmy can't really talk. All he can do is say his own name, so he can't really confess his sins. So is he goin' to go to hell?"

"Stan: We're goin' to church. We've sinned and so we have to confess again."

"Confess and be hanged."

"If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion, or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein."

"A confession is wholly and incontestably voluntary only if a guilty person gives himself up to the law and becomes his own accuser."

"One thing they specially commend, that the blush of shame in the penitent is a severe punishment, which makes him more cautious for the future, and anticipates divine punishment, by his punishing himself. As if a man was not sufficiently humbled with shame when brought under the cognizance of God at his supreme tribunal. Admirable proficiency—if we cease to sin because we are ashamed to make one man acquainted with it, and blush not at having God as the witness of our evil conscience!"

"The Lord anciently enjoined the people of Israel that they should repeat the words after the priest, and make public confession of their iniquities in the temple; because he foresaw that this was a necessary help to enable each one to form a just idea of himself. And it is proper that by confession of our misery, we should manifest the mercy of our God both among ourselves and before the whole world. It is proper that this mode of confession should both be ordinary in the Church, and also be specially employed on extraordinary occasions, when the people in common happen to have fallen into any fault. Of this latter description we have an example in the solemn confession which the whole people made under the authority and guidance of Ezra and Nehemiah (Neh. 1:6, 7). ... And it matters not though in one assembly it may sometimes happen that a few are innocent, seeing that the members of a languid and sickly body cannot boast of soundness. Nay, it is scarcely possible that these few have not contracted some taint, and so bear part of the blame."

"The confession of evil works is the first beginning of good works."

"Current among men, Like coin, the tinsel clink of compliment."

"A woman * * * always feels herself complimented by love, though it may be from a man incapable of winning her heart, or perhaps even her esteem."