Martial, Epigrams 10.47:

These are the things, my dearest Martial, which make life happier: possessions not gotten from labor, but left to you; a not ungrateful field, a fireplace always warm; never any strife, rarely putting on the toga, a quiet mind; inborn strength, a healthy body; wise simplicity and equal friends; easy dining, and a simple table; sober nights, but still free of cares; a bed that isn’t sad, but still with its share of modesty; sleep to make the shadows short; to wish to be what you are, and to desire nothing else; not to fear your final day, nor yet to wish for it.

Here is the same epigram translated more poetically by Henry Howard:

Vitam quae faciant beatiorem,
Iucundissime Martialis, haec sunt:
Res non parta labore, sed relicta;
Non ingratus ager, focus perennis;
Lis numquam, toga rara, mens quieta;                            5
Vires ingenuae, salubre corpus;
Prudens simplicitas, pares amici;
Convictus facilis, sine arte mensa;
Nox non ebria, sed soluta curis;
Non tristis torus, et tamen pudicus;                            10
Somnus, qui faciat breves tenebras:
Quod sis, esse velis nihilque malis;
Summum nec metuas diem nec optes.

Augustine, Confessions 8.12.29

I was saying these things and weeping in the most bitter contrition of my heart. Then suddenly, I heard a voice from a nearby house of someone, perhaps a boy or girl, I don’t know, singing and repeating, ‘Pick it up and read. Pick it up and read.’ Immediately, my expression changed, and I began to think most intently whether children were accustomed to sing anything like that in the form of some game. It did not occur to me that I had ever heard anything like it, and so I suppressed the first motion of my tears and got up, understanding that I was divinely ordered to do none other than open my book and read the first chapter which I came upon.

I had heard of Antony that he was advised by reading from what he had come upon by chance in the New Testament, as if what he read was spoken to him: ‘Go, sell all that you have and give it to the poor, and you will have a treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.‘ Oh Lord, it was by such an oracle that he was immediately converted to you. And so, struck by what I heard, I returned to the place where Alypius was sitting, for it was there that I had placed the book of the apostle when I had gotten up. I grabbed it, opened it, and read in silence the first chapter on which my eyes fell: ‘Not in eating and drunkenness, not in fornication and shamefulness, not in strife and jealousy, but cloak yourself in the lord Jesus Christ and don’t concern yourself with the flesh in the midst of all your lust.‘

I did not want to read more, nor was it necessary. Indeed, immediately upon reaching the end of this sentence, as if with the light of security poured into my heart, all of the shadows of doubt fled away.

dicebam haec et flebam amarissima contritione cordis mei. et ecce audio vocem de vicina domo cum cantu dicentis et crebro repetentis, quasi pueri an puellae, nescio: ‘tolle lege, tolle lege.’ statimque mutato vultu intentissimus cogitare coepi utrumnam solerent pueri in aliquo genere ludendi cantitare tale aliquid. nec occurrebat omnino audisse me uspiam, repressoque impetu lacrimarum surrexi, nihil aliud interpretans divinitus mihi iuberi nisi ut aperirem codicem et legerem quod primum caput invenissem. audieram enim de Antonio quod ex evangelica lectione cui forte supervenerat admonitus fuerit, tamquam sibi diceretur quod legebatur: ‘vade, vende omnia quae habes, et da pauperibus et habebis thesaurum in caelis; et veni, sequere me,’ et tali oraculo confestim ad te esse conversum. itaque concitus redii in eum locum ubi sedebat Alypius: ibi enim posueram codicem apostoli cum inde surrexeram. arripui, aperui, et legi in silentio capitulum quo primum coniecti sunt oculi mei: ‘non in comessationibus et ebrietatibus, non in cubilibus et impudicitiis, non in contentione et aemulatione, sed induite dominum Iesum Christum et carnis providentiam ne feceritis in concupiscentiis.’ nec ultra volui legere nec opus erat. statim quippe cum fine huiusce sententiae quasi luce securitatis infusa cordi meo omnes dubitationis tenebrae diffugerunt.

Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights 13.18:

What, in Marcus Cato’s work, the words ‘between the mouth and the morsel’ mean.

There is a speech of Marcus Cato the Censor On Aediles Wrongly Created. These are the words from the speech: ‘Now they say that the grain is good in the fields and plains. Don’t get too excited on that account. For I have often heard that many things can happen between the mouth and the morsel; and indeed, between the morsel and the grain itself, there is a long gap.’

Erucius Clarus, who was city prefect and twice consul, a most enthusiastic admirer of ancient customs and literature, wrote to Sulpicius Apollinaris, the most learned man in our memory, that he asked and begged Apollinaris to write back and tell him what the hell that expression meant.

Then in my presence (for at that time, I was a young man following him in Rome for the sake of education) wrote back to Clarus in brief, seeing that he was a learned man, that the ancient proverb ‘between the mouth and the morsel’ meant the same as those proverbial Greek verses:

There is a lot between the cup and the edge of the lip.

Quid aput M. Catonem significent verba haec “inter os atque offam”. I. Oratio est M. Catonis Censorii de aedilibus vitio creatis. Ex ea oratione verba haec sunt: “Nunc ita aiunt in segetibus, in herbis bona frumenta esse. Nolite ibi nimiam spem habere. Saepe audivi inter os atque offam multa intervenire posse; verumvero inter offam atque herbam ibi vero longum intervallum est”. II. Erucius Clarus, qui praefectus urbi et bis consul fuit, vir morum et litterarum veterum studiosissimus, ad Sulpicium Apollinarem scripsit, hominem memoriae nostrae doctissimum, quaerere sese et petere, uti sibi rescriberet, quaenam esset eorum verborum sententia. III. Tum Apollinaris nobis praesentibus – nam id temporis ego adulescens Romae sectabar eum discendi gratia – rescripsit Claro ut viro erudito brevissime vetus esse proverbium “inter os et offam” idem significans, quod Graecus ille paroimiodes versus:

 πολλὰ μεταξὺ πέλει κύλικος καὶ χείλεος ἄκρου.