Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) - 1.2.3. lyrics

How much safer it is to trade in second cla** wares, I mean with freedwomen, whom Sallust runs after As insanely as any adulterer. Yet if he wished To be kind and generous in accord with his means, With reason's prompting, as modest liberality allows, He'd give just enough, not what meant shame and ruin For himself. But no he hugs himself and admires himself And praises himself for it, because: ‘I never touch wives.' As Marsaeus, Origo's lover, who gave the house and farm He inherited to an actress, once said: ‘May I never Have anything to do with other men's wives.' But you have with prostitutes and actresses, and so Your reputation suffers more than your wealth. Or Is it enough for you to avoid the tag, but not what Causes harm on every side? To throw away a good name, And squander an inheritance, is always wicked. What matter whether you sin with a wife or a who*e?