The poets aim is either to profit or to please, or to blend in one the delightful and the useful. Whatever the lesson you would convey, be brief, that your hearers may catch quickly what is said and faithfully retain it. Every superfluous word is spilled from the too-full memory.

Not gods, nor men, nor even booksellers have put up with poets' being second-rate.

All singers have this fault: if asked to sing among friends they are never so inclined; if unasked, they never leave off.

I prayed only for a small piece of land, a garden, an ever-flowing spring, and bit of woods.

Those who seek for much are left in want of much. Happy is he to whom God has given, with sparing hand, as much as is enough.

In the midst of hopes and cares, of apprehensions and of disquietude, regard every day that dawns upon you as if it was to be your last; then super-added hours, to the enjoyment of which you had not looked forward, will prove an acceptable boon.

If you wish me to weep, you yourself must first feel grief.