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
wise future darkness
A wise God shrouds the future in obscure darkness.
wise future darkness
A wise God shrouds the future in obscure darkness. [Lat., Prudens futuri temporis exitum Caliginosa nocte premit deus.]
future stores cease
Cease to inquire what the future has in store, and to take as a gift whatever the day brings forth. [Lat., Quid sit futurum cras, fuge quaerere: et Quem Fors dierum cunque dabit, lucro Appone.]
thankful future
Take as a gift whatever the day brings forth...
future today littles
Seize today and put as little trust as you can in tomorrow.
believe generations future-generation
Believe it, future generations.
brings cease future greek-poet
Cease to inquire what the future has in store, and take as a gift whatever the day brings forth.
future greatness men
Men are often capable of greater things than they perform - They are sent into the world with bills of credit, and seldom draw to their full extent.
guilty pale secrets turn wall
Be this your wall of brass, to have no guilty secrets, no wrong-doing that makes you turn pale
struggle
I struggle to be brief, and I become obscure.
died pride vain
Vain was the chief's, the sage's pride! They had no poet, and they died
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)
fools-and-foolishness lovely mix moment serious silly
Mix a little foolishness with your serious plans; it's lovely to be silly at the right moment
absurd birth mountains
Mountains will be in labour, and the birth will be an absurd little mouse.