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
secret battle doe
What does drunkenness accomplish? It discloses secrets, it ratifies hopes, and urges even the unarmed to battle.
battle crime ancestor
Posterity, thinned by the crime of its ancestors, shall hear of those battles.
punishment crime
Punishment follows close on crime.
sports war wrath
Sport begets tumultuous strife and wrath, and wrath begets fierce quarrels and war to the death.
tree vines plant
Plant no other tree before the vine.
travel happy-life sea
They change their sky, not their mind, who cross the sea. A busy idleness possesses us: we seek a happy life, with ships and carriages: the object of our search is present with us.
stupid men lessons-to-be-learned
There are lessons to be learned from a stupid man.
trust carpe-diem odes
Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero'Snatch at today and trust as little as you can in tomorrow' - (Odes) Often translated as 'Seize the day'.
book fate today
Leuconoe, close the book of fate, For troubles are in store, . . . . Live today, tomorrow is not.
cutting men hands
Virtuosi have been long remarked to have little conscience in their favorite pursuits. A man will steal a rarity who would cut off his hand rather than take the money it is worth. Yet, in fact, the crime is the same.
horse teaching way
The trainer trains the docile horse to turn, with his sensitive neck, whichever way the rider indicates.
kites hawks pitfalls
The wolf dreads the pitfall, the hawk suspects the snare, and the kite the covered hook.
wine men secret
Never inquire into another man's secret; bur conceal that which is intrusted to you, though pressed both be wine and anger to reveal it.
hands want satisfaction
Those who seek for much are left in want of much. Happy is he to whom God has given, with sparing hand, as much as is enough.