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28 Quotes for 'Epigrams' in the Database.
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Letter "E" »
Epigrams Quotes
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What is an epigram? a dwarfish whole,
Its body brevity, and wit its soul.
Author:
Source: None
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Acon his right, Leonilla her left eye
Doth want; yet each in form, the gods out-vie.
Sweet boy, with thine, thy sister's sight improved:
So shall she Venus be, thou God of Love.
[Lat., Lumine Acon dextre,--capta est Leonilla sinistre,
Et potis est forma vincere uterque dees:
Blande puer, lumen quod habes concede sorori,
Sic tu caecus Amor, sic erit illa Venus.]
Author: Unattributed Author
Source: an epigram said by Warton to be the "most celebrated of modern epigrams", in his "Essay on Pope," I,
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The diamond's virtues well might grace
The epigram, and both excel
In brilliancy in smallest space,
And power to cut as well.
Author: Unattributed Author
Source: an epigram said by Warton to be the "most celebrated of modern epigrams", in his "Essay on Pope," I,
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This picture, plac'd the busts between
Gives Satire all its strength;
Wisdom and Wit are little seen
While Folly glares at length.
Author: Unattributed Author
Source: an epigram said by Warton to be the "most celebrated of modern epigrams", in his "Essay on Pope," I,
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Unlike my subject, I will make my song.
It shall be witty, and it shan't be long.
Author: Philip Dormer Stanhope, fourth Earl of Chesterfield
Source: Preface to Letters (vol. 1)
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You complain, Velox, that the epigrams which I write are long.
You yourself write nothing; your attempts are shorter.
Author: Marcus Valerius Martial
Source: Epigrams (bk. I, ep. 110)
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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.
Author: Marcus Valerius Martial
Source: Epigrams (bk. I, ep. 29)
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The book which you are reading aloud is mine, Fidentinus; but,
while you read it so badly, it begins to be yours.
Author: Marcus Valerius Martial
Source: Epigrams (bk. I, ep. 38)
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You are pretty,--we know it; and young,--it is true; and rich,--
who can deny it? But when you praise yourself extravagantly,
Fabulla, you appear neither rich, nor pretty, nor young.
Author: Marcus Valerius Martial
Source: Epigrams (bk. I, ep. 64)
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"You are too free spoken," is your constant remark to me,
Choerilus. He who speaks against you, Choerilus, is indeed a
free speaker.
Author: Marcus Valerius Martial
Source: Epigrams (bk. I, ep. 67)
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What's this that myrrh doth still smell in thy kiss,
And that with thee no other odour is?
'Tis doubt, my Postumus, he that doth smell
So sweetly always, smells not very well.
Author: Marcus Valerius Martial
Source: Epigrams (bk. II, ep. 12)
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Since your legs, Phoebus, resemble the horns of the moon, you
might bathe your feet in a cornucopia.
Author: Marcus Valerius Martial
Source: Epigrams (bk. II, ep. 35)
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In whatever place you meet me, Postumus, you cry out immediately,
and your very first words are, "How do you do?" You say this,
even if you meet me ten times in one single hour: you, Postumus,
have nothing, I suppose, to do.
Author: Marcus Valerius Martial
Source: Epigrams (bk. II, ep. 67)
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If you wish, Faustinus, a bath of boiling water to be reduced in
temperature,--a bath, such as scarcely Julianus could enter,--ask
the rhetorician Sabinaeus to bathe himself in it. He would
freeze the warm baths of Nero.
Author: Marcus Valerius Martial
Source: Epigrams (bk. III, ep. 25)
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I could do without your face, and your neck, and your hands, and
your limbs, and your bosom, and other of your charms. Indeed,
not to fatigue myself with enumerating each of them, I could do
without you, Chloe, altogether.
Author: Marcus Valerius Martial
Source: Epigrams (bk. III, ep. 53)
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Lycoris has buried all the female friends she had, Fabianus:
would she were the friend of my wife!
Author: Marcus Valerius Martial
Source: Epigrams (bk. IV, ep. 24)
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You were constantly, Matho, a guest at my villa at Tivoli. Now
you buy it--I have deceived you; I have merely sold you what was
already your own.
Author: Marcus Valerius Martial
Source: Epigrams (bk. IV, ep. 79)
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Do you wonder for what reason, Theodorus, notwithstanding your
frequent requests and importunities, I have never presented you
with my works? I have an excellent reason; it is lest you should
present me with yours.
Author: Marcus Valerius Martial
Source: Epigrams (bk. V., ep. 73)
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You put fine dishes on your table, Olus, but you always put them
on covered. This is ridiculous; in the same way I could put fine
dished on my table.
Author: Marcus Valerius Martial
Source: Epigrams (bk. X, ep. 54)
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And have you been able, Flaccus, to see the slender Thais? Then,
Flaccus, I suspect you can see what is invisible.
Author: Marcus Valerius Martial
Source: Epigrams (bk. XI, ep. 101)
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You ask for lively epigrams, and propose lifeless subjects. What
can I do, Caecilianus? You expect Hyblaen or Hymethian honey to
be produced, and yet offer the Attic bee nothing but Corsican
thyme?
Author: Marcus Valerius Martial
Source: Epigrams (bk. XI, ep. 42)
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When to secure your bald pate from the weather,
You lately wore a cape of black neats' leather;
He was a very wag, who to you said,
"Why do you wear your slippers on your head?"
Author: Marcus Valerius Martial
Source: Epigrams (bk. XII, ep. 45), (trans. by Hay)
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See how the mountain goat hangs from the summit of the cliff; you
would expect it to fall; it is merely showing its contempt for
the dogs.
Author: Marcus Valerius Martial
Source: Epigrams (bk. XIII, ep. 99)
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Never think of leaving perfumes or wine to your heir. Administer
these yourself, and let him have your money.
Author: Marcus Valerius Martial
Source: Epigrams (bk. XIII, sp. 126)
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Sir Drake whom well the world's end knew
Which thou did'st compass round,
And whom both Poles of heaven once saw
Which North and South do bound,
The stars above would make thee known,
If men here silent were;
The sun himself cannot forget
His fellow traveller.
Author: John Owen ("British Martial")
Source: epigram on Sir Francis Drake, pt. II, 39 of first volume dedicated to Lady Mary Neville
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Some learned writers . . . have compared a Scorpion to an Epigram
. . . because as the sting of the Scorpion lyeth in the tayl, so
the force and virtue of an epigram is in the conclusion.
Author: Edward Topsell
Source: Serpent (p. 756)
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Thou art so witty, profligate and thin,
At once we think thee Satan, Death and Sin.
Author: Edward Young
Source: Epigram on Voltaire, who had criticized the characters of the same name in "Paradise Lost"
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The qualities all in a bee that we meet,
In an epigram never should fail;
The body should always be little and sweet,
And a sting should be felt in its tail.
Author: Edward Young
Source: Epigram on Voltaire, who had criticized the characters of the same name in "Paradise Lost"
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