Publilius Syrus Quotes

Valor grows by daring, fear by holding back.

Practice is the best of all instructors.

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

It is a bad plan that admits of no modification.

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.

The opportunity is often lost by deliberating.

Confidence is the only bond of friendship.

We die as often as we lose a friend.

He who has lost honor can lose nothing more.

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

The judge is found guilty when a criminal is acquitted.

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

In quarreling, the truth is always lost.

Debt is the slavery of the free.

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

To do two things at once is to do neither.

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

The remedy for wrongs is to forget them.

The wise man avoids evil by anticipating it

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

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

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

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

It is fraud to accept what you cannot repay.

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

It is more tolerable to be refused than deceived.

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

Necessity knows no law except to conquer.

Never find delight in another's misfortune.

No one know what he can do till he tries.

No one reaches a high position without daring.

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

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

The prompter the refusal, the less the disappointment.

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

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

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

You should hammer your iron when it is glowing hot.

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

No man is happy who does not think himself so

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

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

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

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

It is only the ignorant who despise education.

A good reputation is more valuable than money.

Successful guilt is the bane of society

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

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

A rolling stone can gather no moss.

It is better to have a little than nothing.

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

A fair exterior is a silent recommendation.

Fate is not satisfied with inflicting one calamity.

Delay is hateful, but it gives wisdom

The most delightful pleasures cloy without variety.

No pleasure endures unseasoned by variety.

Every vice has its excuse ready.

Admonish your friends privately, but praise them openly.

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

Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.

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

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

An angry father is most cruel towards himself.

Prosperity makes friends, adversity tries them.

It is not every question that deserves an answer.

What is left when honor is lost?

A wise man never refuses anything to necessity.

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

Depend not on fortune, but on conduct.

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

Friendship either finds or makes equals.

He who flees from trial confesses his guilt.

He who helps the guilty, shares the crime.

I have often regretted having spoken, never having kept silent

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

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