Dictionary of Quotations (Classical)/A

by Thomas Benfield Harbottle

"A diis quidem immortalibus quae potest homini major esse poena, furore atque dementia?"
Cicero. De Haruspicum Responsis, XVIII., 39.
"What greater punishment can the immortal gods inflict on man than madness or insanity?"

"A prima descendit origine mundi
Causarum series."
Lucan. Pharsalia, VI., 608.
"Even from the first beginnings of the world
Descends a chain of causes."

"A proximis quisque minime anteiri vult."
Livy. Histories, VI. 34.
"Every one has a special objection to being excelled by his own relations."

"A se suisque orsus primum domum suam coërcuit; quod plerisque haud minus arduum est quam provinciam regere."
Tacitus. Argicola, XIX.
"Beginning with himself and his family, he first made himself master in his own house; a thing which is, in many cases, as difficult as the ruling of a province."

"Ab alio expsectes, alteri quod feceris."
Publilius Syrus. 1.
"Look to be treated by others as you have treated others."

"Ab ovo usque ad mala."
Horace. Satires, I., 3, 6.
"From the eggs to the apples." (From morning till night, in allusion to the Roman cena.)

"Abiit, excessit, evasit, erupit."
Cicero. In Catilinam, II., 1, 1.
"He is gone, he has fled, he has eluded our vigilance, he has broken through our guards."

"Absentem laedit, cum ebrio qui litigat."
Publilius Syrus. 3.
"He who quarrels with a drunken man injures one who is absent."

"Qui non defendit alio culpante, solutos
Qui captat risus hominum, famamque dicacis,
Fingere qui non visa potest, commissa tacere
Qui nequit; hic niger est, hunc tu, Romane, caveto."
Horace. Satires, I., 4, 81.
"He who maligns an absent friend's fair fame,
Who says no word for him when others blame,
Who courts a reckless laugh by random hits,
Just for the sake of ranking among wits,
Who feigns what he ne'er saw, a secret blabs,
Beware him, Roman! that man steals or stabs."—(Conington.)