Literature

"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 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."

"There are titles that are functional but still do the trick: The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Kon-Tiki, The Godfather, Hawaii, Inside Asia. And then there are titles that contain a touch of music, of poetry, of magic: The Naked and the Dead; The Agony and the Ecstasy; Gone with the Wind; Song of Solomon; The Garden of Eden; The Sound and the Fury; Look Homeward, Angel; The Last Hurrah; From Here to Eternity; Listen! the Wind. There are titles that resonate in your mind, that call to you. Title intrigue was certainly a part of the great appeal of the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mystery series. What youngster could resist titles like The Hidden Staircase, The Mystery at Lilac Inn, The Secret in the Old Attic, The Tower Treasure, Footprints Under the Window? There are memorable, off-beat titles with a twist that sparks our curiosity: Breakfast at Tiffany's, As I Lay Dying, Is Sex Necessary?, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Cheaper by the Dozen, and It Was on Fire When I Lay Down on It. There are titles that through a single word, or an enchanted combination, capture a beauty, a feeling, everything about a time or place: Tales of the South Pacific, Lolita, The Guns of August. There are titles that prick our prurient interest — Jacqueline Susann was getting quite good at these before she passed away: The Love Machine, Once Is Not Enough. There are titles that a friend has to explain to you— "See, Mag, 'dolls' are pills, you know, uppers, downers, amphetamines." "Ohhh! Valley of the Dolls; I get it!" "Port- nay's Complaint I get it"— and so begins word of mouth. Some titles even become a part of our common parlance: Life Begins at Forty, The Power of Positive Thinking, Catch-22. "A good title is the title of a successful book," Raymond Chandler once commented. M After the fact, after the book is successful, its title seems the natural and obvious title for that particular book. But before the fact? That's another story."

"Aucun fiel n'a jamais empoisonne ma plume."

"Oh! rather give me commentators plain, Who with no deep researches vex the brain; Who from the dark and doubtful love to run, And hold their glimmering tapers to the sun."

"So that the jest is clearly to be seen, Not in the words— but in the gap between; Manner is all in all, whate'er is writ, The substitute for genius, sense, and wit."

"None but an author knows an author's cares, Or Fancy's fondness for the child she bears."

"Habits of close attention, thinking heads, Become more rare as dissipation spreads, Till authors hear at length one general cry Tickle and entertain us, or we die!"

"That writer does the most, who gives his reader the most knowledge, and takes from him the least time."

"Apt Alliteration's artful aid."

"La pluma es lengua del alma."

"Dear authors! suit your topics to your strength, And ponder well your subject, and its length; Nor lift your load, before you're quite aware What weight your shoulders will, or will not, bear."

"The book that he has made renders its author this service in return, that so long as the book survives, its author remains immortal and cannot die."

"Writers, especially when they act in a body and with one direction, have great influence on the public mind."

"And so I penned It down, until at last it came to be, For length and breadth, the bigness which you see."

"A man starts upon a sudden, takes Pen, Ink, and Paper, and without ever having had a thought of it before, resolves within himself he will write a Book; he has no Talent at Writing, but he wants fifty Guineas."

"A man of moderate Understanding, thinks he writes divinely: A man of good Understanding, thinks he writes reasonably."

"Indeed, unless a man can link his written thoughts with the everlasting wants of men, so that they shall draw from them as from wells, there is no more immortality to the thoughts and feelings of the soul than to the muscles and the bones."

"The circumstance which gives authors an advantage above all these great masters, is this, that they can multiply their originals; or rather, can make copies of their works, to what number they please, which shall be as valuable as the originals themselves."

"He who engages in a laborious work (such, for instance, as Johnson's Dictionary) which may employ his whole life, will do it with more spirit if, besides his own Glory, he thinks it may be a provision for his family."

"A writer's fame will not be the less, that he has bread, without being under the necessity of prostituting his pen to flattery or party, to get it."

"It is certainly not agreeable to natural justice that a stranger should reap the beneficial pecuniary produce of another man's work."

"And then, exulting in their taper, cry, "Behold the Sun;" and, Indian-like, adore."

"Some future strain, in which the muse shall tell How science dwindles, and how volumes swell. How commentators each dark passage shun, And hold their farthing candle to the sun."

"For who can write so fast as men run mad?"

"An author! 'tis a venerable name! How few deserve it, and what numbers claim! Unbless'd with sense above their peers refined, Who shall stand up dictators to mankind? Nay, who dare shine, if not in virtue's cause? That sole proprietor of just applause."

"Some write, confin'd by physic; some, by debt; Some, for 'tis Sunday; some, because 'tis wet; Another writes because his father writ, And proves himself a bastard by his wit."

"The invention of an author is a species of property unknown to the common law of England. Its usages are immemorial; and the views of it tend to the benefit and advantage of the public with respect to the necessaries of life, and not to the improvement and graces of mind."

"Ideas are free. But while the author confines them to his study, they are like birds in a cage, which none but he can have a right to let fly : for till he thinks proper to emancipate them, they are under his own dominion."

"This dull product of a scoffer's pen."

"But you're our partic'lar author, you're our patron an' our friend, You're the poet of the cuss-word an' the swear."

"I agree with Stalin and Hitler and Mussolini that the writer should serve his society. I differ with dictators as to how writers should serve."