Horace
Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus, known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus. The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his Odes as just about the only Latin lyrics worth reading: "He can be lofty sometimes, yet he is also full of charm and grace, versatile in his figures, and felicitously daring in his choice of words."...
NationalityRoman
ProfessionPoet
ambition loss desire
Who has courage to say no again and again to desires, to despise the objects of ambition, who is a whole in himself, smoothed and rounded.
hard-times prosperity equanimity
In hard times, no less than in prosperity, preserve equanimity.
climate disposition
In going abroad we change the climate not our dispositions.
opposites fool vices
In avoiding one vice fools rush into the opposite extreme.
wine light soul
Wine brings to light the hidden secrets of the soul.
fall evil use
In avoiding one evil we fall into another, if we use not discretion.
home evil shrews
In an evil hour thou bring'st her home. [You are marrying a shrew.]
sleep long may
In a long work sleep may be naturally expected.
giving propriety ifs
If you cannot conduct yourself with propriety, give place to those who can.
dresses fine ifs
If you are only an underling, don't dress too fine.
may looks tomorrow
If things look badly to-day they may look better tomorrow.
happy enjoy present-day
Enjoy the present day, as distrusting that which is to follow.
vices vain embrace
In vain will you fly from one vice if in your wilfulness you embrace another.
thieves poor owners
It is but a poor establishment where there are not many superfluous things which the owner knows not of, and which go to the thieves.