When In Rome . . .

There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves
Or lose our ventures.
------------William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar (4.3)
The character Brutus is speaking.


Never let the future disturb you.  
You will meet it, if you have to, 
with the same weapons of reason 
which today arm you against the present.
------------Marcus Aurelius, Meditations: Book VII
(Staniforth translation)


The gladiator takes his counsel in the sand.
------------old Roman proverb
(Barton translation)