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
gay good-things
It's a good thing to be foolishly gay once in a while.
A word once uttered can never be recalled.
art secret mind
What does drunkenness not accomplish? It unlocks secrets, confirms our hopes, urges the indolent into battle, lifts the burden from anxious minds, teaches new arts.
grief joy morrow
Lighten grief with hopes of a brighter morrow; Temper joy, in fear of a change of fortune.
sports human-life fortune
Ah Fortune, what god is more cruel to us than thou! How thou delightest ever to make sport of human life!
wise future darkness
A wise God shrouds the future in obscure darkness.
heirs share rescue
What with your friend you nobly share, At least you rescue from your heir.
kings children earth
The impartial earth opens alike for the child of the pauper and the king.
greed care wealth
Care clings to wealth: the thirst for more Grows as our fortunes grow.
doors return human-nature
Drive Nature from your door with a pitchfork, and she will return again and again.
death dies
I shall not altogether die.
death dark way
Death's dark way Must needs be trodden once, however we pause.
blessing mind
That best of blessings, a contented mind.
matter failing wells
Words will not fail when the matter is well considered.