FastSaying

The swan murmurs sweet strains with a flattering tongue, itself the singer of its own dirge.

Marcus Valerius Martial

Marcus Valerius Martial

Swans

Related Quotes

I have granted you much that you asked: and yet you never cease to ask of me. He who refuses nothing, Atticilla, will soon have nothing to refuse.
— Marcus Valerius Martial
Borrowing
He who prefers to give Linus the half of what he wishes to borrow, rather than to lend him the whole, prefers to lose only the half.
— Marcus Valerius Martial
Borrowing
I pleaded your cause, Sextus, having agreed to do so for two thousand sesterces. How is it that you have sent me only a thousand? "You said nothing," you tell me; "and this cause was lost through you." You ought to give me so much the more, Sextus, as I had to blush for you.
— Marcus Valerius Martial
Judges
My suit has nothing to do with the assault, or battery, or poisoning, but is about three goats, which, I complain, have been stolen by my neighbor. This the judge desires to have proved to him; but you, with swelling words and extravagant gestures, dilate on the Battle of Cannae, the Mithridatic war, and the perjuries of the insensate Carthaginians, the Syllae, the Marii, and the Mucii. It is time, Postumus, to say something about my three goats.
— Marcus Valerius Martial
Judges
Diaulus, lately a doctor, is now an undertaker' what he does as an undertaker, he used to do also as a doctor.
— Marcus Valerius Martial
Undertakers