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
boys luxury persian
Boy, I loathe Persian luxury.
men boys anxiety
Boys must not have th' ambitious care of men, Nor men the weak anxieties of age.
boys play mirth
In truth it is best to learn wisdom, and abandoning all nonsense, to leave it to boys to enjoy their season of play and mirth.
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.]
strong wine boys
Come boy, and pour for me a cup Of old Falernian. Fill it up With wine, strong, sparkling, bright, and clear; Our host decrees no water here. Let dullards drink the Nymph's pale brew, The sluggish thin their blood with dew. For such pale stuff we have no use; For us the purple grape's rich juice. Begone, ye chilling water sprite; Here burning Bacchus rules tonight! Catullus, Selections From Catullus No poems can live long or please that are written by water-drinkers.
school power boys
Alexander at the head of the world never tasted the true pleasure that boys of his own age have enjoyed at the head of a school.
father heart boys
Of Ickworth's boys, their father's joys, There is but one a bad one; The tenth is he, the parson's fee, And indeed he is a sad one. No love of fame, no sense of shame, And a bad heart, let me tell ye: Without, all brass; within, all ass, And the puppy's name is Felly.
guilty pale secrets turn wall
Be this your wall of brass, to have no guilty secrets, no wrong-doing that makes you turn pale
labor mountains mouse ridiculous
The mountains will be in labor, and a ridiculous mouse will be born.
crazy fools-and-foolishness
As crazy as hauling timber into the woods.
avoid cottage favourites greatness happiness kings
Avoid greatness; in a cottage there may be more real happiness than kings or their favourites enjoy.
bowl soul troubles within
Bacchus drowns within the bowl - Troubles that corrode the soul
fond illusion mock
Do you hear, or does some fond illusion mock me?
fools-and-foolishness good mix silly
Mix a little foolishness with your prudence: it's good to be silly at the right moment. (Odes, bk. 4, no. 12, l. 27)