Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Favor
Gratia, quæ tarda est, ingrata est: gratia namque
Cum fieri properat, gratia grata magis.
A favor tardily bestowed is no favor; for a favor quickly granted is a more agreeable favor.
Ausonius—Epigrams. LXXXII. 1.
Nam improbus est homo qui beneficium scit sumere et reddere nescit.
That man is worthless who knows how to receive a favor, but not how to return one.
Plautus—Persa. V. 1. 10.
Nam quamblibet sæpe obligati, si quid unum neges, hoc solum meminerunt, quod negatum est.
For however often a man may receive an obligation from you, if you refuse a request, all former favors are effaced by this one denial.
Pliny the Younger—Epistles. III. 4.
Beneficium accipere, libertatem est vendere.
To accept a favor is to sell one’s freedom.
Syrus—Maxims.
Neutiquam officium liberi esse hominis puto
Cum is nihil promereat, postulare id gratiæ apponi sibi.
No free man will ask as favor, what he can not claim as reward.
Terence—Andria. II. 1. 32.