Marcus Fabius Quintilian

Vain hopes are like certain dreams of those who wake.

It seldom happens that a premature shoot of genius ever arrives at maturity.

Men, even when alone, lighten their labors by song, however rude it may be.

In almost everything, experience is more valuable than precept.

While we are making up our minds as to when we shall begin. the opportunity is lost.

To swear, except when necessary, is becoming to an honorable man.

Forbidden pleasures alone are loved immoderately; when lawful, they do not excite desire.

Whilst we deliberate how to begin a thing, it grows too late to begin it.

Our minds are like our stomaches; they are whetted by the change of their food, and variety supplies both with fresh appetite.

Nothing is more dangerous to men than a sudden change of fortune.

The pretended admission of a fault on our part creates an excellent impression.

The perfection of art is to conceal art.

That which prematurely arrives at perfection soon perishes.

Those who wish to appear wise among fools, among the wise seem foolish.

It is fitting that a liar should be a man of good memory.

We must form our minds by reading deep rather than wide.

A laugh costs too much when bought at the expense of virtue.

The prosperous can not easily form a right idea of misery.

Everything that has a beginning comes to an end.

A laugh, if purchased at the expense of propriety, costs too much.

Though ambition in itself is a vice, yet it is often the parent of virtues.

While we are examining into everything we sometimes find truth where we least expected it.

God, that all-powerful Creator of nature and architect of the world, has impressed man with no character so proper to distinguish him from other animals, as by the faculty of speech.

We excuse our sloth under the pretext of difficulty.

Fear of the future is worse than one's present fortune.

For it would have been better that man should have been born dumb, nay, void of all reason, rather than that he should employ the gifts of Providence to the destruction of his neighbor.

Where evil habits are once settled, they are more easily broken than mended.

The gifts of nature are infinite in their variety, and mind differs from mind almost as much as body from body.

He who speaks evil only differs from his who does evil in that he lacks opportunity.