The good and straightforward person should resemble one who stinks of goat, in the sense that whoever comes close will immediately sense him, whether they want to or not.
[τοιοῦτον ὅλως δεῖ τὸν ἁπλοῦν καὶ ἀγαθὸν εἶναι, οἶον γράσωνα, ἵνα ὁ παραστὰς ἅμα τῷ προσελθεῖν, θέλει οὐ θέλει, αἴσθηται.]
Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) Roman emperor (161-180), Stoic philosopher
Meditations [To Himself; Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν], Book 11, ch. 15 (11.15) [tr. Needleman/Piazza (2008)]
(Source)
(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:Such must he be for all the world, that is truly simple and good, as he whose arm-holes are offensive, that whosoever stands by, as soon as ever he comes near him, may as it were smell him whether he will or no.
[tr. Casaubon (1634), 11.14]I would have Honesty so incorporated with the Constitution, so mixed up with the Blood and Spirits, that it should be discoverable by the Sences, and as easily distinguish'd as Rankness, or a strong Breath; so that a Man must be forced to find it out whether he would or no.
[tr. Collier (1701)]The man of simplicity and goodness should, in this, resemble such as have a disagreeable smell in their arm-pits; his disposition should be perceived by all who approach him, whether they will or not.
[tr. Hutcheson/Moor (1742)]A truly good and sincere man should be so palpably such, that no one could be a moment in his company or approach him, without being sensibly and necessarily convinced of it.*
*The expression in the original is rather coarse; which the translators have rather heightened than shorted as they might have done.
[tr. Graves (1792)]The man who is honest and good ought to be exactly like a man who smells strong, so that the bystander as soon as he comes near him must smell whether he choose or not.
[tr. Long (1862)]Goodness, true and simple, should be like musk, so redolent that, will-he nill-he, every one who draws near perceives its fragrance.
[tr. Rendall (1898)]The straightforward, good man should be like one of rank odour who can be recognised by the passer by as soon as he approaches, whether he will or no.
[tr. Hutcheson/Chrystal (1902)]The simple and good man should in fact be like a man who has a strong smell about him, so that, as soon as ever he comes near, his neighbour is, will-he nill-he, aware of it.
[tr. Haines (Loeb) (1916)]The simple and good man ought to be entirely such, like the unsavoury man, that those who stand by detect him at once, whether he will or not, as soon as he comes near.
[tr. Farquharson (1944)]Sincerity and goodness ought to have their own unmistakable odor, so that one who encounters this becomes straightaway aware of it despite himself.
[tr. Staniforth (1964)]A good and honest man should be so right through, like one who smells like a goat, so that anyone who comes near him is immediately aware of it whether he wishes it or not.
[tr. Hard (1997 ed.)]A straightforward, honest person should be like someone who stinks: when you're in the same room as them, you know it.
[tr. Hays (2003)]In short, the good and honest man should have the same effect as the unwashed -- anyone close by as he passes detects the aura, willy-nilly, at once.
[tr. Hammond (2006)]In short, a good and honest person should resemble one who smells like a goat in this respect, that anyone who comes near him is immediately aware of it whether he wishes it or not.
[tr. Hard (2011 ed.)]A person who is honest and good is immediately seen as such even by people who were not looking for any such assurance.
[tr. McNeill (2019)]
Quotations about:
stink
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
If e’er to worthy’s lot befell
The grievance of a goatish smell;
If e’er poor mortal limp’d about
A martyr to the racking gout;
Your lucky rival, on my oath,
Has got a glorious share of both.
So, oft as with your love he’s lain,
You’ve had your vengeance on the twain
His odour well-nigh chokes the fair,
His gout is more than man can bear.
[Si cui iure bono sacer alarum obstitit hircus,
aut si quem merito tarda podagra secat,
Aemulus iste tuus, qui vestrum exercet amorem,
mirifice est a te nactus utrumque malum.
nam quotiens futuit totiens ulciscitur ambos:
illam adfligit odore, ipse perit podagra.]Catullus (c. 84 BC – c. 54 BC) Latin poet [Gaius Valerius Catullus]
Carmina # 71 “To Virro” [tr. Cranstoun (1867)]
(Source)
"To Virro" or "To Verro". Not surprisingly, many 19th and early 20th Century translators skip over this one.
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:If gouty pangs, or a rank goatish smell,
Did ever with poor mortal justly dwell;
Thy rival, Virro, to console thy care,
Hath got of each disease an ample share:
For, when in hot embrace the lovers burn,
She's choak'd with stench, and he with gout is torn.
[tr. Nott (1795) #68]An of a goat-stink damned from armpits fusty one suffer,
Or if a crippling gout worthily any one rack,
'Tis that rival o' thine who lief in loves of you meddles,
And, by a wondrous fate, gains him the twain of such ills.
For that, oft as he ..., so oft that penance be two-fold;
Stifles her stench of goat, he too is kilt by his gout.
[tr. Burton (1893)]If ever anyone was deservedly cursed with an atrocious goat-stench from armpits, or if limping gout did justly gnaw one, it is your rival, who occupies himself with your love, and who wondrously has obtained each these ills from you. For as often as he takes his pleasure, he just as often takes vengeance on both; herself he prostrates by his stink, he is slain by his gout.
[tr. Smithers (1894)]If there ever was a good fellow afflicted with rankness, or one who was racked for his sins with the gout, your rival who shares your privileges has got both from you to a marvel. Whenever they meet, they both pay dear for it; she is overwhelmed with the gust, he half dead with the gout.
[tr. Warre Cornish (1913)]If ever honest fellow was afflicted
With goatish armpits, or a worthy dame
In all her limbs by gout was held constricted,
Then, my good Virro, Mr. What's his name,
Who shares your mistress with you, now must see
That he in both is made your legatee.
He pays a double price for every bout:
His smell offends her, she gives him her gout.
[tr. Wright (1926)]My friend, your rival (if anyone) deserves the curses that have fallen upon him,
for the smell of a goat leaps from his armpits and he is woe fully lamed by fiery sciatica.
But here's a double miracle: since he has inherited your diseases
when he sleeps with your lady she faints away (killed maybe) by the vicious
goat hidden in his arms, while he, poor bastard, lies impotent, weak with the frantic pain
rising from his sciatica.
[tr. Gregory (1931)]If anyone ever deserved such underarm goatodor
or ever merited gout's terrible swellings,
it's that rival of yours, who's sharing not only your mistress
but -- quite miraculously -- your diseases also!
Whenever he fucks her, both of them suffer your vengeance:
she gets your goat & he's the one that your gout gets.
[tr. C. Martin (1979)]If a goat’s smell under the arms rightly prevents anyone,
or if a slow gout deservedly cripples them,
your rival, who keeps your lover busy,
is discovered by you to be wonderfully sick with both.
Now whenever he fucks her, you’re revenged on the pair:
she’s troubled by the smell, he’s ruined by the gout.
[tr. Kline (2001)]If the damnable goat in the armpits justly hurt anyone,
or limping gout ever rightfully caused pain,
that rival of yours, busy humping your shared lover,
by contracting both maladies wonderfully fits the bill:
Every time that he fucks, he punishes both parties:
the odor sickens her, the gout slays him.
[tr. Green (2005)]
Fish and Visitors stink in 3 days.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard (1736 ed.)
(Source)
Another saying Franklin repurposed from other sources. Proverbs comparing things to fish not aging well, or how guests outstay their welcome, or both, are not uncommon over the centuries.
Plautus is often mentioned as the originator of the combined sentiments, but instead he wrote of each individually. In the Asinaria [The Comedy of Asses], Act 1, sc. 3, l. 26 (c. 212-205 BC), he mentions a Roman proverb:CLEARITA: Quasi piscis itidem est amator lenae: nequam est nisi recens.
[Just like a fish, so is a lover to a procuress; he's good for nothing if he isn't fresh.] [tr. Riley (1912)]
[For a brothel-keeper a lover is like a fish: he's no good unless he's fresh. [Source]
[For a madam a lover is just like a fish: if he’s not fresh, he’s worthless. [Loeb]]
Plautus also wrote in Miles Gloriosus [The Swaggering Soldier], Act 3, sc. 1, l. 146 (206 BC):Hospes nullus tam in amici hospitium divorti potest, quin, ubi triduum continuum fuerit, jam odiosis siet.
[Whene’er a man is quartered at a friend’s, if he but stay three days, his company they will grow weary of.] [tr. Thomas]
[No guest is so welcome in a friend's house that he will not become a nuisance after three days.] [Source]
Medieval Italy sees the development of the proverb "L'ospite è come il pesce: dopo tre giorni puzza [The guest is like fish: after three days it stinks]." This is said to derive from the Latin "Post tres saepe dies vilescit piscis et hospes," which is sometimes credited (incorrectly) to Plautus. Wegeler includes that Latin in Philosophia Patrum [Philosophy of the Fathers] (1869) as a proverb (No. 931).
Erasmus in his Adagia [Proverbs] (1523), mentioning Plautus and the Asinaria line above, indicates a shortened version of this is still in circulation as a saying to (indirectly) refer to friends who stay three days or more:Piscis nequam est, nisi recens.
[Fish is bad, unless it's fresh.]
John Lyly wrote in Euphues and His England (1580), "Fish and Guests in three days are stale."
Matthew Henry, in his Bible commentary (1706) on Proverbs 25:17, mentions that Latin proverb "Post tres saepe dies vilescit piscis et hospes" (translating it "After the third day fish and company become distasteful").
Thais smells even worse than a fuller’s old crock,
When, set in the street, it succumbs to a knock,
A he-goat when rutting, a lion’s foul breath,
A skin of a dog done by tanners to death,
A chicken gone rotten while still in the shell,
A jar filled with sauce that has not kept too well.
So wishing somehow to disguise this foul reek,
Whenever she comes to the baths in the week,
She’s covered with unguent and vinegared flour
And layers of powder at least three or four.
But spite of these dodges, and do what she will,
The fact is that Thais of Thais smells still.[Tam male Thais olet, quam non fullonis avari
Testa vetus, media sed modo fracta via,
Non ab amore recens hircus, non ora leonis,
Non detracta cani transtiberina cutis,
5Pullus abortivo nec cum putrescit in ovo,
Amphora corrupto nec vitiata garo.
Virus ut hoc alio fallax permutet odore,
Deposita quotiens balnea veste petit,
Psilothro viret aut acida latet oblita creta
10Aut tegitur pingui terque quaterque faba.
Cum bene se tutam per fraudes mille putavit,
Omnia cum fecit, Thaida Thais olet.]Martial (AD c.39-c.103) Spanish Roman poet, satirist, epigrammatist [Marcus Valerius Martialis]
Epigrams [Epigrammata], Book 6, epigram 93 (6.93) (AD 91) [tr. Pott & Wright (1921)]
(Source)
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:Worse than a fuller's tubb doth Thais stink,
Broke in the streets, and leaking through each chink;
Or lion's belch; or lustfull reeking goats;
Or skin of dogg that dead o' the' bankside floats;
Or half-hatch'd chicken from broke rotten eggs,
Or taynted jarrs of stinking mackrell dreggs.
This vile rank smell with perfumes to disguise,
Whene'er she's in the bath, she doth devise;
She's with pomatum smugg'd, or pain good store,
Or oyle of the bean-flow'r varnishe'd o'er and o'er:
A thousand wayes she tries to make all well;
In vayne, still Thais doth of Thais smell.
[Egerton Manuscript 2982 (16th C)]Poor Thais so smells, as no ill-fated tray,
Of all-catching scourer, just broke in the way:
No love-leaving goat, and no lion's made maw;
No skin from a dog the Transtiberines draw:
No pullet abortive, that rots in the shell:
No cask, where the brine of anchovy did dwell.
Yet all her contagion, the sly would suppress,
Whene'er, at the bath, she deposits her dress.
She smugs in sweet lotion, or sculks in sour chalk;
In mail of fat bean-meal she wisely will calk.
Thus ev'ry art conjur'd, th' offensive to kill,
Alas! the poor Thais brethes poor Thais still.
[tr. Elphinston (1782), Book 6, Part 3, ep. 28]Thais smells worse than an old jar of a covetous fuller just broken in the middle of the street; worse than a goat after an amorous encounter; than the belch of a lion; than a hide torn from a dog on the banks of the Tiber; than chick rotting in an abortive egg; than a jar fetid with spoilt pickle. Cunningly wishing to exchange this disagreeable odour for some other, she, on laying aside her garments to enter the bath, makes herself green with a depilatory, or conceals herself beneath a daubing of chalk dissolved in acid, or covers herself with three or four layers of rich bean-unguent. When by a thousand artifices she thinks she has succeeded in making herself safe, Thais, after all, smells of Thais.
[tr. Bohn's Classical (1859)]Thais smells worse even than a grasping fuller's long-used crock, and that, too, just smashed in the middle of the street; than a he-goat fresh from his amours; than the breath of a lion; than a hide dragged from a dog beyond Tiber; than a chicken when it rots in an abortive egg; than a two-eared jar poisoned by putrid fish-sauce. In order craftily to substitute for such a reek another odour, whenever she strips and enters the bath she is green with depilatory, or is hidden behind a plaster of chalk and vinegar, or is covered with three or four layers of sticky bean-flower. When she imagines that by a thousand dodges she is quite safe, Thais, do what she will, smells of Thais.
[tr. Ker (1919)]Old Thais is so rank, shed reeks to heaven,
Like greedy fuller's crock in pieces riven.
No hot he-goat, no lion's breath so rare
Or over-Tiber dog-skin out to air.
An ancient pickle-jar describes her best
Or unhatched chicken in forsaken nest.
To mask her odour by another stench
She doffs her robe and bathes, the dainty wench.
She's green with ointment, smeared with biting clay,
And coats of oily bean her charms array.
Let Thais play what tricks and turns she will,
The scent's breast high; she's the old vixen still.
[tr. Francis & Tatum (1924)]Worse than a fuller’s crock full of stale piss
Smashed in the gutter by the slaughterhouse;
Worse than a he-goat straight from rut, and worse
Than a lion’s breath or chicken when it rots
In an aborted egg, or hide of a dog
Dragged from the Tiber, or a two-eared jar
Of poisonous fish sauce -- so Thais smells
Of Thais, when she steps fresh from the bath.
[tr. O'Connell (1991)]Thais smells worse than the veteran crock of a stingy fuller, recently broken in the middle of the road, or a billy goat fresh from his amours, or a linon's mouth, or a hide from behind Tiber torn from a dog, or a chicken rotting in an aborted egg, or a jar polluted with putrid garum. In order to exchange this stench for a differnet odor, whenever she takes off ehr clothse to get into the bath, the crafty lady is green with depilatory or lurks under a lining of chalk and vnegar, or is coated with three or four layers of thick bean meal. A thousand tricks, and she thinks she's safe. But when all's done, Thais smells of Thais.
[tr. Shackleton Bailey (1993)]Thais smells worse than caustic oil,
Or corpses rotting in the soil,
Or rotten eggs, or rutting goats,
Or swill that's vomited by stoats.
To hide the odor, Thais drenches
Her body with distracting stenches.
But worse than ointments on her shelf,
The smell most dreadful is -- herself.
[tr. Wills (2007), 6.98]
The head of the fish is the first part to smell.
[Ἰχθὺς ἐκ τῆς κεφαλῆς ὄζειν ἄρχεται: ἐπὶ τῶν ἐπιστάτας φαύλους ἐχόντων]
Michael Apostolius (c. 1420 - c. 1480) Greek teacher, writer, copyist [Apostolius Paroemiographus, i.e., Apostolius the proverb-writer]
Apostolius 9.18.12, Tilley F 304
(Source)
See Erasmus, Adages, Book 4, ch. 2, #97 [tr. Drysdall], who cites Apostolius, who appears to have been the first to record the proverb:"The head of a fish begins to stink first." Used of bad rulers, whose contagion poisons the rest of the people. The expression seems to derive from the language of common people.
[Piscis primum a capite foetet ... Piscis a capite primum incipit putere. Dictum in malos principes, quorum contagione reliquum vulgus inficitur. Apparet ab idiotarum vulgo sumptum.]
Alt. trans.:
- "Fish start to stink at the top: [this is a proverb] applied to people who have scoundrels for leaders." [tr. @sentantiq]
- "The fish always stinks from the head downwards: The freshness of a dead fish can be judged from the condition of its head. Thus, when the responsible part (as the leaders of a country, etc.) is rotten, the rest will soon follow. ἰχθὺς ἐκ τῆς κεφαλῆς ὄζειν ἄρχεται, a fish begins to stink from the head." -- Jennifer Speake, ed., Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (2015) [Source]