Dammit, we're nothing but walking bags of wind. Flies rank higher; they do have a bit of spark, whereas we're no more than bubbles.Gareth Schmeling ad loc.:
heu, eheu. utres inflati ambulamus. minoris quam muscae sumus, muscae tamen aliquam virtutem habent, nos non pluris sumus quam bullae.
"A peculiar anthologic maze, an amusing literary chaos, a farrago of quotations, a mere olla podrida of quaintness, a pot pourri of pleasant delites, a florilegium of elegant extracts, a tangled fardel of old-world flowers of thought, a faggot of odd fancies, quips, facetiae, loosely tied" (Holbrook Jackson, Anatomy of Bibliomania) by a "laudator temporis acti," a "praiser of time past" (Horace, Ars Poetica 173).
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Thursday, April 10, 2025
Bubbles
Petronius, Satyricon 42.4-5 (tr. P.G. Walsh):
