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.
wall fire neighbor
It is your concern when your neighbor's wall is on fire.
wall innocence innocent
He is armed without who is innocent within, be this thy screen, and this thy wall of brass.
wall powerful gold
Stronger than thunder's winged force All-powerful gold can speed its course; Through watchful guards its passage make, And loves through solid walls to break.
wall doors fire
It is your business when the wall next door catches fire.
wall greed want
The avarice person is ever in want; let your desired aim have a fixed limit.
wall faults sides
Faults are committed within the walls of Troy and also without. [There is fault on both sides.]
wall evil done
Be this our wall of brass, to be conscious of having done no evil, and to grow pale at no accusation.
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.