Laudator Temporis Acti

Horace, Odes 3.16.42-44 (tr. Niall Rudd):

Those who seek a lot lack a lot. All is well for the man to whom God with a frugal hand has given enough.

                                   multa petentibus
desunt multa: bene est, cui deus obtulit
      parca quod satis est manu.

R.G.M. Nisbet and Niall Rudd ad loc.:

42–3. multa petentibus / desunt multa: the chiastic repetition gives epigrammatic form to the Stoic commonplace; cf. 25 n., Cic. paradox. 44 ‘qui . . . innumerabiles cupiditates habet . . . hunc quando appellabo divitem, cum ipse egere se sentiat?’, Sen. epist. 90.38, 108.9 quoting Publil. 1.7 (= Min. Lat. Poets, Loeb edn. 275) ‘desunt inopiae multa, avaritiae omnia’.

43–4. bene est cui deus obtulit / parca quod satis est manu: bene est is an expression of contentment; cf. serm. 2. 6. 4 ‘bene est; nil amplius oro’, OLD 8 b. The omission of ei suits a somewhat archaic aphorism; cf. 2.16.13 ‘vivitur parvo bene cui etc.’, K–S 2. 281 ff.; the singular cui, in contrast to the plural petentibus, allows the sententia to point to H himself. parca manu would normally suggest a lack of generosity, but here paradoxically is a blessing. After bene est the word satis expresses positive satisfaction; cf. 2.18.14 ‘satis beatus unicis Sabinis’, epod. 1.31 f. ‘satis superque me benignitas tua / ditavit’.

The lines appear on a print made by Nicolo Cavalli after Francesco Maggiotto, showing "a man paring a vegetable on a grater, while an old woman pours a boiled piece of meat from a pan, while a boy looks on" (British Museum, number 1951,0714.196; click once or twice to enlarge):