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
envy silence crow
If the crow had been satisfied to eat his prey in silence, he would have had more meat and less quarreling and envy.
writing apology thinking
In my youth I thought of writing a satire on mankind! but now in my age I think I should write an apology for them.
rome noise wealth
Cease to admire the smoke, wealth, and noise of prosperous Rome.
men remember ridicule
Man learns more readily and remembers more willingly what excites his ridicule than what deserves esteem and respect.
acrimony settling ridicule
Ridicule more often settles things more thoroughly and better than acrimony.
sleep wine leisure
Not even for an hour can you bear to be alone, nor can you advantageously apply your leisure time, but you endeavor, a fugitive and wanderer, to escape from yourself, now vainly seeking to banish remorse by wine, and now by sleep; but the gloomy companion presses on you, and pursues you as you fly.
mad insanity majority
He appears mad indeed but to a few, because the majority is infected with the same disease.
laughing age gone
It is time for thee to be gone, lest the age more decent in its wantonness should laugh at thee and drive thee of the stage. [Lat., Tempus abire tibi est, ne . . . Rideat et pulset lasciva decentius aetas.]
distance profane
I abhor the profane rabble and keep them at a distance.
eye procrastination mind
Whatever things injure your eye you are anxious to remove; but things which affect your mind you defer.
Money amassed either serves us or rules us.
fate gains granted
Shun to seek what is hid in the womb of the morrow, and set down as gain in life's ledger whatever time fate shall have granted thee.
may events looking-forward
Busy not yourself in looking forward to the events of to-morrow; but whatever may be those of the days Providence may yet assign you neglect not to turn them to advantage.
may too-much fly-away
Abridge your hopes in proportion to the shortness of the span of human life; for while we converse, the hours, as if envious of our pleasure, fly away: enjoy, therefore, the present time, and trust not too much to what to-morrow may produce.