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.
brotherhood folds
We are all gathered to the same fold.
bears shoulders wells
Weigh well what your shoulders can and cannot bear.
done half tasks
Once begun, A task is easy; half the work is done.
hope reaching
The short span of life forbids us to take on far-reaching hopes.
horse ears mouths
The ear of the bridled horse is in the mouth.
fall joy birth
Joys do not fall to the rich alone; nor has he lived ill of whose birth and death no one took note.
self culture virtue
Is virtue raised by culture, or self-sown?
vices fleeing virtue
Virtue consists in fleeing vice.
names heaven earth
All else-valor, a good name, glory, everything in heaven and earth-is secondary to the charm of riches.
country sweet glorious
Sweet and glorious it is to die for our country.
memories lessons may
The poets aim is either to profit or to please, or to blend in one the delightful and the useful. Whatever the lesson you would convey, be brief, that your hearers may catch quickly what is said and faithfully retain it. Every superfluous word is spilled from the too-full memory.
death night path
One night awaits all, and death's path must be trodden once and for all.
punishment guilt companion
Punishment closely follows guilt as its companion.