S.A. Bent, comp. Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men. 1887.

Titus

[Titus Flavius Vespasianus; son of Vespasian; born A.D. 40; distinguished himself in Britain and Germany, and in the siege of Jerusalem, 70; became emperor, 79, and was called “the delight of the human race;” died 81.]

Diem perdidi!

Once at supper, reflecting that he had done nothing for any one that day, he broke out with that memorable saying, “My friends, I have lost a day.”—SUETONIUS: Life.

“‘I’ve lost a day’—the prince who nobly cried,

Had been an emperor without his crown.”

YOUNG: Night Thoughts, II. 99.

When his ministers represented to Titus that he promised more than he could perform, he replied, “No one ought to go away downcast from an audience with his prince.”—Ibid. He refused to put any one to death, saying that “he would perish himself, rather than prove the destruction of any man.”

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