1 (1) Pythagoras of Samos instructed the region of Italy once called ...

Your want is what I refuse, Dindymus, and
Your refusal is what I want. 106
(6) ‘The to-live,’ then, is nothing other than ‘life,’ and ‘the to-run’ is nothing other than
‘running,’ just as ‘to dance,’ ‘to read,’ ‘to hear’ and ‘to see’ with the article are just
‘dancing,’ ‘reading,’ ‘hearing’ and ‘sight’; ‘to love’ with the article is ‘loving’ or ‘love,’
‘to will’ likewise is ‘willing,’ ‘to know’ is ‘knowing,’ ‘and ‘to be able’ is ‘ability’ or
‘might.’ When people speak crudely, this is why they say ‘as much as I am able,’
meaning ‘to the best of my ability’ or ‘with all my might’ or ‘if I have the strength.’ (7) I
said that the Greeks apply the preposition with an article to the infinitive, as in en tô
peripatein, en tô trechein, en tô petesthai, which have the same force as our gerunds ‘in
walking,’ ‘in running,’ ‘in flying.’ Who does not know that these are just the same as ‘in
a walk,’ ‘in a run’ and ‘in a flight’? When infinitives are used in a nominal sense, then,
they mean the same thing that these nouns mean. Priscian’s understanding here is better
than in the previous case: ‘But the infinitive means the same thing as the content of the
verb, for “to run” is “a run” and “to write” is “a writing” and “to read” is “a reading.”’ 107
(8) Therefore, infinitives are often associated with nouns and with words declined like
nouns, as in Persius:
But it’s a fine thing to be pointed out, for ‘that’s him’
to be said.
And Terence in the Brothers:
To plead your case in front of them is always a better approach;
and in the Eunuch:
To love by long distance
Is definitely better than nothing. 108
Also ‘to read is good,’ ‘to run is useful,’ ‘to write is appropriate,’ ‘to philosophize is best’
– these examples from Priscian are quite good, but the ones I have chosen are more
appropriate since I have connected adjectives with these same infinitives as if they were
substantives, which Priscian does not do. 109 (9) I called the examples I have chosen more
appropriate because I have followed Quintilian, who writes: ‘In the Satire, “and I noted
our dreary way of living,” when he uses the infinitive verb in place of a noun, what he
means is really “our life.”’ 110
106 Zippel cites Pers. 1.9-10, 27; 5.53; Mart. Ep. 5.83.2.
107 Zippel cites Prisc. Gramm. 18.4.43; above, 3.21.
108 Pers. 1.28; Ter. Ad. 608; Eun. 640-1.
109 Zippel cites Prisc. Gramm. 18.4.43.
110 Zippel cites Quint. 9.3.9.
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