Publius Syrus

You cannot put the same shoe on every foot.

The way we talk and reason today, a lot of times started somewhere, by someone at one point in time. We often use sayings that were coined more than two millennia ago without knowing it, thinking it's a very contemporary and "fresh" way to look at things.

A rolling stone gathers no moss.

I guess people have always been people, and thus sayings will always have some sort of bearing in our everyday life, even a millennium from now.

Prosperity makes friends, adversity tries them.

Publius Syrus, a Syrian man who lived during the 1st century BC and was later taken to Italy as a slave, is one of those silent figures whose thoughts remain with us in our languages. His masters freed him though and educated him after being struck by his wit and talent.

I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.

What remains of his works in Latin today are a series of sentences and moral maxims. What brought me to read a bit more about him was a saying in French I heard from a friend, that to me was what one would call a verbal slap:

Amitié qui finit n'avait point commencé
tr: Friendship that ends had no point in beginning