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
mountain lightning strikes
Lightning strikes the tops of the mountains.
mind care morrow
Let your mind, happily contented with the present, care not what the morrow will bring with it.
cases extremes interfere
Let not a god interfere unless where a god's assistance is necessary. [Adopt extreme measures only in extreme cases.]
return discarded despised
Let him who has once perceived how much that, which has been discarded, excels that which he has longed for, return at once, and seek again that which he despised.
men pleasure profession
Let every man find pleasure in practising the profession he has learnt.
Learned or unlearned we all must be scribbling.
kings play people
Kings play the fool, and the people suffer for it.
carpe-diem seize-the-day morrow
Seize the day [Carpe diem]: trust not to the morrow.
serious
Joking apart, now let us be serious.
vases pot
It was intended to be a vase, it has turned out a pot.
mean men doors
He, that holds fast the golden mean, And lives contentedly between The little and the great, Feels not the wants that pinch the poor, Nor plagues that haunt the rich man's door, Imbitt'ring all his state.
influence grapes cato
It is said that the propriety even of old Cato often yielded to the exciting influence of the grape.
should knows
It is not permitted that we should know everything.
men effort rewards
Decus et pretium recte petit experiens vir. The man who makes the attempt justly aims at honour and reward.