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
guilty pale secrets turn wall
Be this your wall of brass, to have no guilty secrets, no wrong-doing that makes you turn pale
wall guilt pale
Let this be your wall of brass, to have nothing on your conscience, no guilt to make you turn pale.
guilt pale clear-conscience
Be this thy brazen bulwark, to keep a clear conscience, and never turn pale with guilt.
punishment guilt companion
Punishment closely follows guilt as its companion.
arrows guilt defense
Virtue, dear friend, needs no defense, The surest guard is innocence: None knew, till guilt created fear, What darts or poisoned arrows were
judging judgement guilty
Acquittal of the guilty damns the judge.
guilty innocent
God has joined the innocent with the guilty.
guilt man upright
The man of upright life, unstained by guilt
sorrow guilt nerves
Guilt is the very nerve of sorrow.
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.