Persius

“ You are not the man to utter a huckster's prayer, such as you could only entrust to the gods in privacy. Most of our great men offer their libations from censers that divulge no secrets; it is not every man that is ready to make away with mutterings and whisperings from the temples, and to offer prayers such as all men may hear. ”

“ It is the flesh that has spoilt our oil by mingling it with casia, and misused Tyrian purple for the soaking of Calabrian fleeces; it is this that has bidden us pluck the pearl from the shell, and tear out the veins of shining ore from the native clay. ”

“ Hence your idea of overlaying the faces of the gods with triumphal gold; for you say, "Let those among the brazen brothers [15] rank highest who send us dreams most free from gouty vapours, and let their beards be all of gold! Gold has now ousted Numa's crockery, and the bronze vessels of Saturn; [16] it has supplanted the urns and Tuscan pottery [17] of the Vestals.
61O Souls bowed down to earth, and void of all heavenly thoughts! What avails it to bring our ideas into the temples, and to infer from this sinful flesh of ours what is pleasing to the gods? ”