Horace Quotes

This is a fault common to singers that among their friends they were never inclined to sing when they were asked, unasked they never desist.

Wer lächelt, statt zu toben, ist immer der Stärkere.

Either stick to tradition or see that your inventions be consistent.

Saepa stilum vertas, iterum quae digna legi sint scripturas. (Turn the stylus [to erase] often if you would write something worthy of being reread.)

ratio et prudentia curas,
Non locus effusi late maris arbiter, aufert.

[it is reason and wisdom which take away cares, not places affording wide views over the sea.]

nil sine magno vita labore dedit mortalibus

We are but dust and shadow.

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.

Scribendi recte sapere est et principium et fons.

The aim of the poet is to inform or delight, or to combine together, in what he says, both pleasure and applicability to life. In instructing, be brief in what you say in order that your readers may grasp it quickly and retain it faithfully. Superfluous words simply spill out when the mind is already full. Fiction invented in order to please should remain close to reality.

Quae caret ora cruore nostro?

"Caelum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt.
("They change their sky, not their soul, who rush across the sea")"

Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which, in prosperous circumstances, would have lain dormant.

Tu ne quaesieris, scire nefas, quem mihi, quem tibi
finem di dederint, Leuconoe, nec Babylonios
temptaris numeros. ut melius, quidquid erit, pati.
seu pluris hiemes seu tribuit Iuppiter ultimam,
quae nunc oppositis debilitat pumicibus mare:
Tyrrhenum sapias, vina liques et spatio brevi
spem longam reseces. dum loquimur, fugerit invida
aetas: carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero.

Caelum, non animum mutant, qui trans mare currunt.