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
hard-work brain nails
He will often have to scratch his head, and bite his nails to the quick. [To succeed he will have to puzzle his brains and work hard.]
wine light soul
Wine brings to light the hidden secrets of the soul.
boyhood praise
He who sings the praises of his boyhood's days.
talking no-trust fleeing
While we're talking, envious time is fleeing: pluck the day, put no trust in the future
arrows mark
The arrow will not always find the mark intended.
passion wine secret
Pry not into the affairs of others, and keep secret that which has been entrusted to you, though sorely tempted by wine and passion.
pain doe pleasure
Pleasure bought with pain does harm.
avert
Patience lightens the burthen we cannot avert.
toil
Nothing is achieved without toil.
mind care bats
Not treasured wealth, nor the consul's lictor, can dispel the mind's bitter conflicts and the cares that flit, like bats, about your fretted roofs.
summer spring heels
Summer treads on heels of spring.
heed
Take heed lest you stumble.
morrow
Seek not to inquire what the morrow will bring with it.
wrinkles age encroachment
Not even piety will stay wrinkles, nor the encroachments of age, nor the advance of death, which cannot be resisted.