The human race afraid of nothing, rushes on through every crime.

What can be found equal to modesty, uncorrupt faith, the sister of justice, and undisguised truth?

Even play has ended in fierce strife and anger.

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.

Patience makes lighter / What sorrow may not heal. ("sed levius fit patientia quidquid corrigere est nefas")

Take subject matter equal to your powers, and ponder long, what your shoulders cannot bear, and what they can.

There is a fault common to all singers. When they're among friends and are asked to sing they don't want to, and when they're not asked to sing they never stop.