Publilius Syrus Quotes

Valor grows by daring, fear by holding back.

Practice is the best of all instructors.

It is a bad plan that admits of no modification.

A wise man will be master of his mind, a fool will be its slave.

Take care that no one hates you justly.

While we stop to think, we often miss our opportunity.

Powerful indeed is the empire of habit.

He who lives in solitude may make his own laws.

Good health and good sense are two of life's greatest blessings.

Treat your friend as if he might become an enemy.

Confidence is the only bond of friendship.

The opportunity is often lost by deliberating.

He who has lost honor can lose nothing more.

It is folly to punish your neighbor by fire when you live next door.

We die as often as we lose a friend.

In quarreling, the truth is always lost.

He is the furthest from danger, who is on his guard even when in safety.

The judge is found guilty when a criminal is acquitted.

Cruelty isn't softened by tears; it feeds on them.

Each day should be passed as though it were our last.

Debt is the slavery of the free.

To do two things at once is to do neither.

Everything is worth what it’s purchaser will pay for it.

Gain cannot be made without some other person's loss.

The wise man avoids evil by anticipating it

The remedy for wrongs is to forget them.

It is a good thing to learn caution from the misfortunes of others.

A rolling stone can gather no moss.

The miser is as much in want of what he has as of what he has not.

Better to be ignorant of a matter than half know it.

Successful guilt is the bane of society

A good reputation is more valuable than money.

To confess a fault freely is the next thing to being innocent of it.

Count not him among your friends who will retail your privacies to the world.

You should hammer your iron when it is glowing hot.

When you confer a benefit on those worthy of it, you confer a favor on all.

We desire nothing so much as what we ought not to have.

Friendship either finds or makes equals.

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

Depend not on fortune, but on conduct.

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

It is only the ignorant who despise education.

Confidence, like the soul, never returns whence it has once departed

A small debt produces a debtor; a large one, an enemy.

Learn to see in another's calamity the ills which you should avoid.

No man is happy who does not think himself so

The prompter the refusal, the less the disappointment.

Speech is a mirror of the soul: as a man speaks, so is he.

One is not exposed to danger who, even when in safety is always on their guard.

Nothing can be done quickly and prudently at the same time.

No one reaches a high position without daring.

No one know what he can do till he tries.

Never find delight in another's misfortune.

Necessity knows no law except to conquer.

It is of no profit to have learned well, if you neglect to do well.

It is more tolerable to be refused than deceived.

It is more easy to get a favor from fortune than to keep it.

It is fraud to accept what you cannot repay.

It is a very hard undertaking to seek to please everybody.

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

In a heated argument we are apt to lose sight of the truth.

I have often regretted having spoken, never having kept silent

He who helps the guilty, shares the crime.

He who flees from trial confesses his guilt.

A wise man never refuses anything to necessity.

What is left when honor is lost?

It is not every question that deserves an answer.

Prosperity makes friends, adversity tries them.

An angry father is most cruel towards himself.

The happy man is not he who seems thus to others, but who seems thus to himself.

If you wish to reach the highest, begin at the lowest.

Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.

It is a fraud to borrow what we are unable to pay.

Admonish your friends privately, but praise them openly.

Every vice has its excuse ready.

No pleasure endures unseasoned by variety.

The most delightful pleasures cloy without variety.

Delay is hateful, but it gives wisdom

Fate is not satisfied with inflicting one calamity.

A fair exterior is a silent recommendation.

You should go to a pear tree for pears, not to an elm.

It is better to have a little than nothing.