I beseech you to treasure up in your hearts these my parting words: Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.

I have raised for myself a monument more durable than brass.

In avoiding one vice fools rush into the opposite extreme.

Mountains will go into labour, and a silly little mouse will be born.

Let the fictitious sources of pleasure be as near as possible to the true.

The aim of the poet is to inform or delight, or to combine together, in what he says, both pleasure and applicability to life. In instructing, be brief in what you say in order that your readers may grasp it quickly and retain it faithfully. Superfluous words simply spill out when the mind is already full. Fiction invented in order to please should remain close to reality.

The cautious wolf fears the pit, the hawk regards with suspicion the snare laid for her, and the fish the hook in its concealment.