If pale beans bubble for you in a red earthenware pot, you can often decline the dinners of sumptuous hosts.
If fame is to come only after death, I am in no hurry for it.
There is nothing more revolting than an old busybody.
Those they praise, but they read the others.
The swan murmurs sweet strains with a flattering tongue, itself the singer of its own dirge.
The virtuous man is never a novice in worldly things.