How to Make a Career Out of Nothing

Nil recitas et vis, Mamerce, poeta videri. Quidquid vis esto, dummodo nil recites. You recite nothing, and yet wish, Mamercus, to be held a poet. Be what you like — provide you recite nothing.

Martial, Epigrams, Book 2, LXXXVIII
English translation by Walter C. A. Ker

An elephant seal on King George Island, Antarctica. Photo: Özge Elif Kızıl/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images.