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
sea names wings
He who studies to imitate the poet Pindar, O Julius, relies on artificial wings fastened on with wax, and is sure to give his name to a glassy sea.
heaven doe muse
The muse does not allow the praise-de-serving here to die: she enthrones him in the heavens.
mad insanity spares
Oh! thou who are greatly mad, deign to spare me who am less mad.
wall powerful gold
Stronger than thunder's winged force All-powerful gold can speed its course; Through watchful guards its passage make, And loves through solid walls to break.
men car wheels
Glory drags all men along, low as well as high, bound captive at the wheels of her glittering car.
overflow superfluous bosoms
Everything that is superfluous overflows from the full bosom.
corn eating grind
Though your threshing floor grind a hundred thousand bushels of corn, not for that reason will your stomach hold more than mine.
sauce eating pleasure
The consummate pleasure (in eating) is not in the costly flavour, but in yourself. Do you seek for sauce for sweating?
punishment tyrants envy
The envious pine at others' success; no greater punishment than envy was devised by Sicilian tyrants.
sick funeral mind
As a neighboring funeral terrifies sick misers, and fear obliges them to have some regard for themselves; so, the disgrace of others will often deter tender minds from vice.
excellence sometimes excellent
Sometimes even excellent Homer nods.
fate hands names
Fate with impartial hand turns out the doom of high and low; her capacious urn is constantly shaking the names of all mankind.
fear footprint frightened
I am frightened at seeing all the footprints directed towards thy den, and none returning.
insanity fool sane
Who then is sane? He who is not a fool.