Horses and poets should be fed, not overfed.

The proverb, "Equi et poetae alendi, non saginandi" (Horses and poets are to be fed, but not fattened), has been attributed to Charles IX, but he was probably merely quoting it. As reported in: The Macmillan Book of Proverbs, Maxims, and Famous Phrases (Macmillan, 1948)