The Moral Sayings of Publilius Syrus: A Roman Slave

Publilius Syrus was a Syrian slave, a mime, and a writer of Latin maxims. Brought as a slave to Italy in the 1st century BC, he won his freedom by his wit and talent.


His 1087 sayings presented here include:


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


2. The evil you do to others you may expect in return.


3. Allay the anger of your friend by kindness.


4. To dispute with a drunkard is to debate with an empty house.


5. Receive an injury rather than do one.


6. A trifling rumor may cause a great calamity.


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


8. A hasty judgment is a first step to a recantation.


9. Suspicion cleaves to the dark side of things.


10. To love one’s wife with too much passion, is to be an adulterer.


11. Hard is it to correct the habit already formed.


12. A small loan makes a debtor; a great one, an enemy.


13. Age conceals the lascivious character; age also reveals it.


14. Bitter for a free man is the bondage of debt.


15. Even when we get what we wish, it is not ours.


16. We are interested in others, when they are interested in us.


17. Every one excels in something in which another fails.


18. Do not find your happiness in another’s sorrow.


19. An angry lover tells himself many lies.


20. A lover, like a torch, burns the more fiercely the more agitated.