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
struggle obscure ends
When I struggle to be terse, I end by being obscure.
work obscure recreation
In labouring to be brief, I become obscure.
light confusion obscure
Not to create confusion in what is clear, but to throw light on what is obscure.
trying obscure concise
In trying to be concise I become obscure.
speech obscure concise
In laboring to be concise, I become obscure. [Lat., Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio.]
obscure strive miscellaneous
I strive to be brief, and become obscure.
obscure brevity
Aiming at brevity, I become obscure.
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.
fathers though
Though guiltless, you must expiate your fathers' sins.