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
want deny
The more we deny ourselves, the more the gods supply our wants. [Lat., Quanto quisque sibi plura negaverit, A dis plura feret.]
knows
Thou oughtest to know, since thou livest near the gods. [Lat., Scire, deos quoniam propius contingis, oportet.]
god humble proud
God can change the lowest to the highest, abase the proud, and raise the humble.
god kings next
Who guides below, and rules above, The great disposer, and the mighty king; Than He none greater, next Him none, That can be, is, or was.
father men law
Who is a good man? He who keeps the decrees of the fathers, and both human and divine laws. [Lat., Vir bonus est quis? Qui consulta patrum, qui leges juraque servat.]
earth graves beggar
The earth opens impartially her bosom to receive the beggar and the prince.
happiness men names
You will not rightly call him a happy man who possesses much; he more rightly earns the name of happy who is skilled in wisely using the gifts of the gods, and in suffering hard poverty, and who fears disgrace as worse than death. [Lat., Non possidentem multa vocaveris Recte beatum; rectius occupat Nomen beati, qui Deorum Muneribus sapienter uti, Duramque callet pauperiem pati, Pejusque leto flagitium timet.]
moving justice wicked
Justice, though moving with tardy pace, has seldom failed to overtake the wicked in their flight. [Lat., Raro antecedentem scelestum Deseruit pede poena claudo.]
boys goal suffering
He who would reach the desired goal must, while a boy, suffer and labor much and bear both heat and cold. [Lat., Qui studet optatam cursu coningere metam Multa tulit fecitque puer, sudavit et alsit.]
sweet solace labor
O sweet solace of labors. [Lat., O laborum Dulce lenimen.]
woods timber labor
To carry timber into the wood. [Lat., In silvam ligna ferre.]
life home night
The short span of life forbids us to spin out hope to any length. Soon will night be upon you, and the fabled Shades, and the shadowy Plutonian home.
life rivers waiting
He who postpones the hour of living as he ought, is like the rustic who waits for the river to pass along (before he crosses); but it glides on and will glide forever. [Lat., Vivendi recte qui prorogat horam Rusticus expectat dum defluat amnis; at ille Labitur et labetur in omne volubilis aevum.]
lying
Splendidly mendacious. [Lat., Splendide mendax.]