Quintilian (~35 AD ~ 100) was in  Emperor Galba‘s retinue following Nero’s death, and Emperor Vespasian made him a consul and tutor to his nephews. His textbook was used for two millennia. I paraphrase one of his quotes as Watch for strange things that work and combine them with many other things that work.

1. If we overthink a goal without action, it becomes confounded by problems.

2. We must speak so clearly that no one can misunderstand us.

3. Speak in such a way that encourages the audience to want to understand.

4. We can form our ideal habits by imitating the best examples available.

5. Your acting immediately in unusual situations relies on the random habits of a younger and less experienced person.

6. Speaking in harmony with the trend of the moment brings forth ideas readily accepted by everyone.

7. Face the audience and speak to the subject being discussed so clearly that no one can misinterpret what you mean without appearing a fool.

8. Precepts learned while interacting with relevant experiences are most likely to be effective in future applications.

9. The relevant emotional experiences of a speaker inspire his eloquence.

10. Speakers who look wise to fools will sound stupid to reasonable people.

11. The power of conviction of a speaker of absurdities will convert more people than a dull presentation of facts.

12. Opportunities are slippery like fish, and we must time our pull to action on the first perceptible nibble.

13. The master understands the structure of his art, but the buyer feels the pleasure.

14. The student who sees no evil speaks no evil, will do no evil, and vice versa.

15. When speaking, eliminate the pompous, promote the simple, smooth the chaotic, introduce clarity, and soften absolutes.

16. A liar must remember what he said to whom and to whom they will tell his lie.

17. It is easier to speak convincingly from a few believable stories than from an abundance of easily verifiable facts.

18. Humans’ ability to speak to one another has given them power over all other living things.

19. We excuse our lack of action as being controlled by our previous commitments.

20. While casually examining a strange something everyone has ignored, we may notice a valuable quality everyone can use.

21. Your humor will often be received as sarcastic criticism and make enemies.

22. A sudden change of fortune can wreak havoc on a man unused to wealth or poverty.

23. Ambition spurs accomplishments and disasters.

24. Nature tends toward equilibrium and harmony but permits anything that can happen to happen.

25. A naturally ignorant man who cannot learn from experience will be impossible to teach anything with academic facts.

26. The goal of teaching is to have the student crave to use his abilities, but a harsh rebuke for a failure may cause him to cease trying.

27. Exposing oneself to clear-thinking, excellent speakers of a language is the best way to learn that culture.

28. When all options for success on a problem are gone, place your full attention on something where you can succeed.

29. A wealthy person has no understanding of the problems of poverty and vice versa.

30. A highly enforced awareness of personal guilt will drag anyone into despondency and torpidity.

31. The laughter of responsible people brings the flexibility of mind into discovering new things, but it can drag fools into derision.

32. Everything that now exists had a beginning and will have an end.

33. Everyone wants to be known for knowing something better than anyone.

34. We imitate others because we have genes that propel us to have those qualities that we observe in our social group.

35. While you are directing your attention to some particular thing, you will be oblivious to everything else except reflex-inducing threats.

36. I should like my students’ parents to be thoughtful, well-educated people.

37. The student who gives the slightest promise has fixed ideas that prohibit exploring outside of their fixed boundaries.

38. He that prematurely finds a fixed form of behavior locks into a system that will deprive him of the ability to adapt to an ever-changing world.

39. Having a present fear that the future will be different from the current situation locks a comfortable person into resistance to all adaptations.

40. The obscurity of a writer is proportional to his incapacity for promotion from himself and others.

41. It would be better for humanity that a man is never born than that he developed a passion for destroying other people.

42. Suffering itself is more character-building than the apprehension of suffering is for improving one’s disposition.

43. Unattainable hopes become destructive to those who earnestly pursue them.

44. It is a mistake to undervalue people who can write well, as writing well proves they can think well.

45. Those who seek the praise of fools will be accepted as fools by the wise.

46. It bears repeating that people of low intelligence can not learn abstract reasoning.

47. Teachers who have larger audiences believe they should receive more pay.

48. Our minds and stomach love a varied diet, and your conscious being can choose to grant them their wishes.

49. The life forms of our world are infinite in variety, as are the potential thoughts of humans.

50. Opportunities and possible punishments only delay the man who is now speaking evil without acting upon his words.

51. It is a perfection of art when you look at the content and not the skill in creating it.

52. An honorable man never swears, except when appropriate.

53. Ambition is a vice eschewed by honorable men.

54. When a brilliant soul languishes in the wilderness for too long, it grows rust that eventually generates phantoms for friends.

55. The pretended admission of a fault is sarcasm directed at oneself but may easily spill over into one’s friendships.

56. A teacher rewards a boy who seeks rewards and avoids reproach and expects many good things from this maturity.

57. We may enjoy lawful desires as they are not prone to the excesses of forbidden pleasures.

58. An exciting thought can provide a place of seclusion even in a crowd.

59. One may work for a long time on a single big problem by breaking it into interesting minor problems that accumulate successes.

60. A wide variety of happenstance events exercise the mind, but the contemplation of good and bad virtues molds one’s character.

61. Ambition includes having the desire for power over other individuals, which multiplies one’s personal power to influence the public.

62. A premature shooting beyond the wisdom of one’s teachers undermines respect for authority and the ambition to become an authority.

63. A liar and cheat are on a short path to destruction.

64. Poets exercise the liberty of poetic license to tell beautiful lies that we yearn to believe.

65. A dull student will derive no more benefit from this teaching than barren earth having a book on agriculture plowed into it.