Horace

"Quidquid praecipies esto brevis."

"Carpe diem."

"Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori."

"Ira furor brevis est."

"Cras ingens iterabimus aequor"

"Quamquam ridentem dicere verum quid vetat? ut pueris olim dant crustula blandi doctores, elementa velint ut discere prima."

"What odds does it make to the man who lives within Nature's bounds, whether he ploughs a hundred acres or a thousand?"

"Bona pars hominum est decepta cupidine falso 'nil satis est', inquit, 'quia tanti quantum habeas sis."

"Saepe stilum vertas, iterum quae digna legi sint scripturus."

"Let’s put a limit to the scramble for money. ... Having got what you wanted, you ought to begin to bring that struggle to an end."

"Inde fit ut raro, qui se vixisse beatum dicat et exacto contentus tempore vita cedat uti conviva satur, reperire queamus."

"Non satis est puris versum perscribere verbis."

"Atqui si vitiis mediocribus ac mea paucis mendosa est natura, alioqui recta, velut si egregio inspersos reprehendas corpore naevos, si neque avaritiam neque sordes nec mala lustra obiciet vere quisquam mihi, purus et insons, ut me collaudem, si et vivo carus amicis... at hoc nunc laus illi debetur et a me gratia maior. nil me paeniteat sanum patris huius, eoque non, ut magna dolo factum negat esse suo pars, quod non ingenuos habeat clarosque parentis, sic me defendam."

"Nil sine magno vita labore dedit mortalibus."

"in pace, ut sapiens, aptarit idonea bello"

"Adclinis falsis animus meliora recusat."

"Quocirca vivite fortes, fortiaque adversis opponite pectora rebus"

"Ille sinistrorsum, hic dextrorsum abit : unus utrique Error, sed variis illudit partibus."

"Heu, Fortuna, quis est crudelior in nos Te deus? Ut semper gaudes illudere rebus Humanis!"

"Sed convivatoris uti ducis ingenium res Adversae nudare solent, celare secundae."

"Dum licet, in rebus jucundis vive beatus; Vive memor quam sis aevi brevis."

"Bellaque matribus detestata"

"Nequiquam deus abscidit Prudens Oceano dissociabili Terras, si tamen impiae Non tangenda rates transiliunt vada."

"Vitae summa brevis spem nos vetat inchoare longam."

"Nil desperandum..."

"Nunc vino pellite curas."

"Permitte divis cetera."

"Dum loquimur, fugerit invida Aetas: carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero."

"O matre pulchra filia pulchrior"

"Nunc est bibendum, nunc pede libero pulsanda tellus."

"Aequam memento rebus in arduis servare mentem."

"Auream quisquis mediocritatem diligit, tutus caret obsoleti sordibus tecti, caret invidenda sobrius aula."

"Eheu fugaces, Postume, Postume, labuntur anni nec pietas moram rugis et instanti senectae adferet indomitaeque morti."

"Virginibus puerisque canto."

"Aequa lege Necessitas Sortitur insignes et imos; Omne capax movet urna nomen."

"Iustum et tenacem propositi virum non civium ardor prava iubentium, non vultus instantis tyranni mente quatit solida."

"Si fractus illabatur orbis, impavidum ferient ruinae."

"Vis consili expers mole ruit sua."

"Come, Mercury, by whose minstrel spell Amphion raised the Theban stones, Come, with thy seven sweet strings, my shell, Thy "diverse tones," Nor vocal once nor pleasant, now To rich man's board and temple dear: Put forth thy power, till Lyde bow Her stubborn ear."

"Crescentem sequitur cura pecuniam, Maiorumque fames."

"Magnas inter opes inops."

"Quod adest memento componere aequus."

"Ille potens sui laetusque deget, cui licet in diem dixisse "vixi: cras vel atra nube polum pater occupato vel sole puro.""

"Exegi monumentum aere perennius"

"Pulvis et umbra sumus."

"Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona."

"Quid verum atque decens curo et rogo, et omnis in hoc sum."

"Nullius addictus iurare in verba magistri, quo me cumque rapit tempestas, deferor hospes."

"Virtus est vitium fugere et sapientia prima stultitia caruisse."

"Nos numerus sumus et fruges consumere nati."

"Nam cur quae laedunt oculum festinas demere; si quid est animum, differs curandi tempus in annum?"

"Dimidium facti qui coepit habet; sapere aude; incipe!"

"Qui recte vivendi prorogat horam, Rusticus exspectat dum defluat amnis."

"Semper avarus eget."

"Ira furor brevis est: animum rege: qui nisi paret imperat."

"Inter spem curamque, timores inter et iras, Omnem crede diem tibi diluxisse supremum: Grata superveniet quae non sperabitur hora."

"Omnem crede diem tibi diluxisse supremum. grata superveniet, quae non sperabitur hora."

"Me pinguem et nitidum bene curata cute vises, cum ridere voles Epicuri de grege porcum."

"Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque recurret."

"Caelum, non animum mutant, qui trans mare currunt."

"Pauper enim non est, cui rerum suppetit usus. si ventri bene, si lateri est pedibusque tuis, nil divitiae poterunt regales addere maius."

"Quid velit et possit rerum concordia discors"

"Nam neque divitibus contingunt gaudia solis, nec vixit male, qui natus moriensque fefellit."

"Sedit qui timuit ne non succederet."

"Semel emissum volat irrevocabile verbum."

"Qualem commendes, etiam atque etiam aspice, ne mox incutiant aliena tibi peccata pudorem."

"Nam tua res agitur, paries cum proximus ardet."

"Dulcis inexpertis cultura potentis amici; Expertus metuit."

"Interdum volgus rectum videt, est ubi peccat."

"Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit et artes intulit agresti Latio."

"Singula de nobis anni praedantur euntes."

"Natales grate numeras?"

"Inceptis gravibus plerumque et magna professis purpureus, late qui splendeat, unus et alter adsuitur pannus."

"Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio."

"Non satis est pulchra esse poemata; dulcia sunto Et, quocumque uolent, animum auditoris agunto."

"Si vis me flere, dolendum est primum ipsi tibi."

"Format enim Natura prius nos intus ad omnem Fortunarum habitum, juvat, aut impellit ad iram, Aut ad humum moerore gravi deducit, et angit."

"Difficile est proprie communia dicere."

"Nec verbum verbo curabis reddere fidus Interpres."

"Parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus."

"In medias res."

"Et quae Desperat tractata nitescere posse relinquit."

"Scribendi recte sapere est et principium et fons."

"Grais ingenium, Grais dedit ore rotundo Musa loqui, præter laudem nullius avaris. . ."

"Quidquid praecipies, esto brevis, ut cito dicta percipiant animi dociles teneantque fideles: omne supervacuum pleno de pectore manat."

"Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci, lectorem delectando pariterque monendo."

"... Siquid tamen olim scripseris, in Maeci descendat iudicis auris et patris et nostras, nonumque prematur in annum membranis intus positis; delere licebit quod non edideris; nescit uox missa reuerti."

"Sunt delicta tamen quibus ignovisse velimus."

"Indignor quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus;"

"Mediocribus esse poetis Non homines, non di, non concessere columnae."

"Nec satis apparet, cur versus factitet."

"Abnormis sapiens crassaque Minerva."

"Ab ovo Usque ad mala."

"Absentem qui rodit amicum, Qui non defendit alio culpante, solutos Qui captat risus hominum, famamque dicacis; Fingere qui non visa potest, commissa tacere Qui nequit, hic niger est, hunc tu, Romane, caveto."

"Adsit Regula, peccatis quæ pœnas irroget æquas Ne scutica dignum horribili sectere flagello."

"Ars longa, vita brevis."

"Note that Horace wrote four different kinds of poems on account of the four ages, the Odes for boys, the Ars Poetica for young men, the Satires for mature men, the Epistles for old and complete men."

"When I was a boy I knew the Odes of Horace backwards and forwards, and when I came to manhood year by year those odes came knocking at the door of my heart at the most unexpected times and places."

"What harmony can there be between Christ and the devil? What has Horace to do with the Psalter?"

"The influences which formed his moral and poetical character, are the prevalent modes of feeling and thought among the people, who had achieved the conquest of the world, and, weary of their own furious contentions, now began to slumber in the proud consciousness of universal empire. In him as in an individual example appears the change which took place in the fortunes, position, sentiments, occupations, estimation, character, mode of living, when the Roman, from the citizen of a free and turbulent republic, became the subject of a peaceful monarchy."

"The mingling intellectual elements blend together, even in more singular union, in the mind of the Poet. Grecian education and tastes have not polished off the old Roman independence; the imitator of Greek forms of verse writes the purest vernacular Latin; the Epicurean philosophy has not subdued his masculine shrewdness and good sense to dreaming indolence. In the Roman part of his character he blends some reminiscences of the sturdy virtue of the Sabine or Apulian mountaineers, with the refined manners of the city."

"As compared with the highest lyric poetry, the Odes of Horace are greatly deficient; but as occasional pieces inspired by friendship, by moral sentiment, or as graceful and finished love-verses, they are perfect; their ease, spirit, perspicuity, elegance, and harmony compensate, as far as may be, for the want of the nobler characteristics of daring conception, vehemence, sublimity, and passion."

"His mind was by no means speculative. His was the plain, practical philosophy of common sense... the wisdom of Horace—it may be said without disparagement, for it was the only real attainable wisdom—was that of the world."

"Horace is addressing men accustomed to deal with men—men formed in the vigorous school of public life; and though now reposing perhaps from those more solid and important cares, maintaining that practical energy of character by which they had forced their way to eminence. That sterner practical genius of the Roman people survived the free institutions of Rome; the Romans seemed, as it were, in their idlest moods, to condescend to amusement, not to consider it, like the Greek, one of the common necessities, the ordinary occupations of life. Horace, therefore, has been, and ever will be, the familiar companion, the delight, not of the mere elegant scholar alone, or the imaginative reader, but, we had almost written, the manual of the statesman and the study of the moral philosopher. Of Rome, or of the Roman mind, no one can know anything who is not profoundly versed in Horace; and whoever really understands Horace will have a more perfect and accurate knowledge of the Roman manners and Roman mind than the most diligent and laborious investigator of the Roman antiquities."

"Horace is not satisfied with some superficial vividness; that would betray his sense; he sees further and more clearly into his subject: to describe itself his mind goes fishing and ferreting through the whole treasure-house of words and figures of speech; as his concepts surpass the ordinary, it is not ordinary words that he needs."

"Of the lyric poets, Horace is almost the only one worth reading; he can be lofty sometimes, and yet he is also full of charm and grace, versatile in his Figures, and felicitously daring in his choice of words."

"His chief claim to literary originality is not that on which he himself rested his hopes of immortality,—that of being the first to adapt certain lyrical metres to the Latin tongue,—but rather that of being the first of those whose works have reached us who establishes a personal relation with his reader, speaks to him as a familiar friend, gives him good advice, tells him the story of his life, and shares with him his private tastes and pleasures,—and all this without any loss of self-respect, any want of modesty or breach of good manners, and in a style so lively and natural that each new generation of readers might fancy that he was addressing them personally and speaking to them on subjects of everyday modern interest."

"The best Genius and most Gentleman-like of Roman Poets."

"We have seen that it is still a debated question whether Horace was a poet. Whatever the answer to that question may be, and whether it be considered a question which requires to be asked or not, it cannot be denied that he possesses in perfection the mechanical requisites for the gay art, an exquisite ear for rhythm, and curious felicity of expression. And while we must deny to him the genuine ardour which makes the passion of Catullus breathe and burn, we cannot but recognize in him qualities which will secure for him the admiration and love of every lover of literature, as long as there exists in the minds of men a sympathy with an honest, manly, and cultured spirit, a genial friendliness, sound common-sense, and urbane self-respect."

"But to the modern world, down to this very great date, Horace is almost an idol. He has forged a link of union between intellects so diverse as those of Dante, Montaigne, Bossuet, Lafontaine, and Voltaire, Hooker, Chesterfield, Gibbon, Wordsworth, and Thackeray. Mystic and atheist, scoffer and preacher, recluse and leader of fashion have in Horace one subject on which they are sympathetic with each other. Gibbon never traveled without a copy of his poems in his pocket; Hooker fled with his Horace to the fields from the reproaches of a railing wife; Thackeray is content if his hero, the future man of the world, has enough Latin on leaving school "to quote Horace respectably through life." Indeed, a certain modicum of Horace is often the remnant of classic lore that the average Englishman and Irishman care to carry with them into the arena of active life. A fancied slight to the memory of Horace is resented in England as a personal insult, and a visit to Italy is nothing unless you have done your duty to the shrine of the poet."

"We owe to Horace a precious store of pointed aphorisms and shrewd comments on life, which, apart from all controversies about his place in poetry, must ever establish a kind of personal relation with his reader, and must have a permanent (perhaps an increasing) value for the world. His odes, moreover, as regards diction and metrification, are a marvelously successful experiment. Whatever may be thought about the meaning which underlies them, their form is perfection itself, and they defy imitation. No attempt to reproduce their effect in Latin or in any other language has met with even a moderate measure of success."

"The gaiety of his spirit and the music of his lyrics will ever fascinate the young; his shrewd common sense will attract the man of the world, whatever be his time of life, his country, or his epoch; and he will always be the most perfect exponent of the actual life and movement of the Augustan age."

"Lyckan kommer lyckan går."

"Se caçares, não te gabes; se não caçares, não te enfades."