'Tis easy to write epigrams nicely but to write a book is hard

Give up your thirst for books, so that you do not die a grouch.

The way people behave. They refuse to admire their contemporaries, the people whose lives they share. No, but to be admired by Posterity -- people they've never met and never will -- that's what they set their hearts on. You might as well be upset at not being a hero to your great-grandfather.

Since your legs, Phoebus, resemble the horns of the moon, you might bathe your feet in a cornucopia.

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.

Never think of leaving perfumes or wine to your heir. Administer these yourself, and let him have your money.