Seneca, Letters to Lucilius 70.4

non enim vivere bonum est, sed bene vivere. itaque sapiens vivet quantum debet, non quantum potest.

For what is good is not to be alive, but to live well. Therefore the wise man will live for as long as he ought, not for as long as he can.

Lucian, On Salaried Posts in Great Houses 14

Lucian on the art of arriving fashionably late:

σὺ δὲ ἐσθῆτα καθαρὰν προχειρισάμενος καὶ σεαυτὸν ὡς κοσμιώτατα σχηματίσας λουσάμενος ἥκεις, δεδιὼς μὴ πρὸ τῶν ἄλλων ἀφίκοιο· ἀπειρόκαλον γάρ, ὥσπερ καὶ τὸ ὕστατον ἥκειν φορτικόν. αὐτὸ οὖν τηρήσας τὸ μέσον τοῦ καιροῦ εἰσελήλυθας, καί σε πάνυ ἐντίμως ἐδέξατο, καὶ παραλαβών τις κατέκλινε μικρὸν ὑπὲρ τοῦ πλουσίου μετὰ δύο που σχεδὸν τῶν παλαιῶν φίλων.

Having chosen clean clothes and made yourself as neat as possible you arrive from your visit to the baths, but are afraid of going in before the others – for that would be unsophisticated, just as coming last would be vulgar. So after waiting for the very middle moment of the right time you’ve gone in and he receives you with every courtesy. Someone takes charge of you and sets you in your place, a little up from the rich man, perhaps just next to a couple of his old friends.

Quintilian, Training of the Orator 6.4.12

valet autem in altercatione plurimum acumen, quod sine dubio ex arte non venit – natura enim non docetur – arte tamen adiuvatur.

But the most powerful thing in debate is shrewdness; without a doubt this does not come from theoretical knowledge – for nature is not taught – but it is helped by theoretical knowledge.

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 1.7.16

μία γὰρ χελιδὼν ἔαρ οὐ ποιεῖ, οὐδὲ μία ἡμέρα· οὕτω δὲ οὐδὲ μακάριον καὶ εὐδαίμονα μία ἡμέρα οὐδ’ ὀλίγος χρόνος.

For one swallow does not make a spring, nor does one day. And in the same way neither one day nor a short time makes a man blessed and happy.

Horace, Epistles 1.1.106-108

Horace characteristically ends his serious discussion of philosophy with a little joke.

ad summam, sapiens uno minor est Iove, dives,
liber, honoratus, pulcher, rex denique regum,
praecipue sanus – nisi cum pituita molesta est.

To sum up, the wise man is second only to Jupiter: he’s rich, free, honoured, in a word a king among kings, eminently healthy – except when he’s suffering with catarrh.

Euripides, Theseus fr. 382 (Nauck)

An illiterate herdsman spells out Theseus’ name, which he has seen written on a ship.

ἐγὼ πέφυκα γραμμάτων μὲν οὐκ ἴδρις,
μορφὰς δὲ λέξω καὶ σαφῆ τεκμήρια.
κύκλος τις ὡς τόρνοισιν ἐκμετρούμενος,
οὗτος δ’ ἔχει σημεῖον ἐν μέσῳ σαφές·
τὸ δεύτερον δὲ πρῶτα μὲν γραμμαὶ δύο,
ταύτας διείργει δ’ ἐν μέσαις ἄλλη μία·
τρίτον δὲ βόστρυχός τις ὣς εἱλιγμένος·
τὸ δ’ αὖ τέταρτον ἡ μὲν εἰς ὀρθὸν μία,
λοξαὶ δ’ ἐπ’ αὐτῆς τρεῖς κατεστηριγμέναι
εἰσίν· τὸ πέμπτον δ’ οὐκ ἐν εὐμαρεῖ φράσαι·
γραμμαὶ γάρ εἰσιν ἑκ διεστώτων δύο,
αὗται δὲ συντρέχουσιν εἰς μίαν βάσιν·
τὸ λοίσθιον δὲ τῷ τρίτῳ προσεμφερές.

I’m not knowledgeable about letters, but I’ll tell you their shapes and give clear tokens. A circle, like one measured out with compasses, and it has in its middle a clear mark. The second is first two lines, and another one holds them apart at their middles. The third is like a curly lock of hair, and then the fourth has one line standing straight up, and three more fixed across it. The fifth is not easy to describe; for there are two lines which begin apart, and they run together into a single base. The last one resembles the third.

= ΘΗΣΕΥΣ. The third and final letters which the herdsman describes are of course the curly ‘lunate’ form of sigma: C.

Anonymous, Bordeaux Itinerary Wesseling 591.4-6

Written in the 4th century, this text is one of several surviving ‘itineraries’ which helped guide Roman travellers, with useful information on distances and changes of horses. It appears to record the route of a pilgrim from Bordeaux to the Holy Land, and includes fuller details about some of the sites the author clearly found the most interesting. Here is part of the account of the Temple ruins at Jerusalem:

sunt ibi et statuae duae Hadriani; est et non longe de statuas lapis pertusus, ad quem veniunt Iudaei singulis annis et unguent eum et lamentant se cum gemitu et vestimenta sua scindunt et sic recedunt.

There are two statues of Hadrian there; and not far from the statues is a perforated stone, to which the Jews come every year and anoint it and bewail themselves with groaning and tear their clothes, and so go away again. 

The significance of this passage is discussed by Glenn Bowman in this chapter and by Jaś Elsner in this article.

Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers 9.5-6

Diogenes is discussing Heraclitus:

τὸ δὲ φερόμενον αὐτοῦ βιβλίον ἐστὶ μὲν ἀπὸ τοῦ συνέχοντος ‘περὶ φύσεως’, διῄρηται δ’ εἰς τρεῖς λόγους, εἴς τε τὸν περὶ τοῦ παντὸς καὶ πολιτικὸν καὶ θεολογικόν. ἀνέθηκε δ’ αὐτὸ εἰς τὸ τῆς Ἀρτέμιδος ἱερόν, ὡς μέν τινες, ἐπιτηδεύσας ἀσαφέστερον γράψαι, ὅπως οἱ δυνάμενοι <μόνοι> προσίοιεν αὐτῷ καὶ μὴ ἐκ τοῦ δημώδους εὐκαταφρόνητον ᾖ.

The book which is attributed to him is On Nature, a continuous work but divided into three sections: one on the whole cosmos, one on politics and one on theology. He dedicated it in the temple of Artemis; according to some people he deliberately wrote it in a rather obscure way, so that only those who had the ability would approach it, and so that familiarity should not breed contempt.

Ovid, Metamorphoses 13.140

Lovat’s speech continued, ‘in a vein of becoming moralising’, with this quotation from Ovid. At the debate over who should have the armour of the dead Achilles, Ulysses makes the following observation, urging that the case should be judged purely on its merits:

nam genus et proavos, et quae non fecimus ipsi,
vix ea nostra voco.

For our birth, our ancestors, and things which we have not ourselves done – these things I can hardly call our own.

Herodotus, Histories 1.88

The Persians have just sacked Croesus’ city of Sardis.

Κῦρος δέ μιν θαρσέοντα ἐκέλευε λέγειν ὅ τι βούλοιτο. ὃ δὲ αὐτὸν εἰρώτα λέγων “οὗτος ὁ πολλὸς ὅμιλος τί ταῦτα πολλῇ σπουδῇ ἐργάζεται;” ὃ δὲ εἶπε “πόλιν τε τὴν σὴν διαρπάζει καὶ χρήματα τὰ σὰ διαφορέει.” Κροῖσος δὲ ἀμέβετο “οὔτε πόλιν τὴν ἐμὴν οὔτε χρήματα τὰ ἐμὰ διαρπάζει· οὐδὲν γὰρ ἐμοὶ ἔτι τούτων μέτα, ἀλλὰ φέρουσί τε καὶ ἄγουσι τὰ σὰ.”

Cyrus told him to be of good courage and to say whatever he wished. Croesus spoke and asked him, ‘This great multitude – what is this work at which they are labouring with such zeal?’ He said, ‘They are plundering your city and carrying off your possessions.’ But Croesus answered, ‘It is not my city or my possessions which they are plundering, for none of those things are any more my concern, but they are robbing and carrying off your property.’