Publius Syrus Quotes

The book, Moral Saying of Publilius Syrus offers a series of life changing quotes. Publilius Syrus, a roman slave who freed and educated himself by his talent as a writer, wrote these life changing quotes as he experienced them himself. He is another great example that these types of things are possible. His book based on maxims that he acted himself, had a great success in the provincial towns of Italy. Some of his most famous ones consist of, “Where there is unity there is always victory,” “Do not despise the lowest steps in the ascent to greatness,” “Consult your conscience, rather than public opinion” and “Would you have a great empire? Rule over yourself.” All of these sayings have so much meaning to them, and the answers that others are …show more content…
Another of his quotes is “Do not despise the lowest steps in the ascent to greatness.” Like I mentioned before, he wrote these saying after he acted them. This means that Publius had done most of these things. He started of a slave, and became a famous Latin writer of sententiae. This moral stain tells us all that it does not matter from where you might have started, everyone has the opportunity to be successful. The only thing that we need to do in life, is to find our reason. When you’ve done this, stick to it for guaranteed survival. It is like a shield, protecting you from the things that can be bringing you down. This comes directly from Viktor Frankl’s book The Human Search for Meaning, where he tells us his story on how he survived three years in the concentration camps. Even though this is such a horrible experience, Viktor learned many things, including his reason to live and keep moving forward. Just like he did, others can too. The quote form Syrus ties to this in many ways. Yes, it says that no matter if you started from nothing, you can become very successful, but it doesn’t necessarily have to mean this in particular. In fact, it can also mean that regardless of what you went through or what you are currently going through, you can succeed and move on. Take my mother for instance, she raised her children alone in Mexico, while my father did the impossible in the US to make money for us. My mom suffered the death of her first child, almost losing her next and raising the last one alone with no man by her side. Even though she had no support from her parents or any family member, she managed to stay strong and keep moving forward. She managed to arrive at US soil ten years ago, and live here ever since. Her life was not great, but she’s learn to make the best of it and be happily