Horace

We are often deterred from crime by the disgrace of others.

Wisdom is not wisdom when it is derived from books alone.

Let your literary compositions be kept from the public eye for nine years at least.

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

I am not bound over to swear allegiance to any master; where the storm drives me I turn in for shelter.

Anger is a momentary madness, so control your passion or it will control you.

Your own safety is at stake when your neighbor’s wall is ablaze.

The sea, washing the equator and the poles, offers its perilous aid, and the power and empire that follow it… Beware of me, it says, but if you can hold me, I am the key to all the lands.

The Chinese said of themselves several thousand years ago: China is a sea that salts all the waters that flow into it. Theres another Chinese saying about their country which is much more modernit dates only from the fourth century. This is the saying: The tail of China is large and will not be wagged. I like that one. The British democracy approves the principles of movable party heads and unwaggable national tails. It is due to the working of these important forces that I have the honour to be addressing you at this moment.

The less a man thinks or knows about his virtues, the better we like him.

Liberty is slow fruit. It is never cheap; it is made difficult because freedom is the accomplishment and perfectness of man.

Murder in the murderer is no such ruinous thought as poets and romancers will have it; it does not unsettle him, or fright him from his ordinary notice of trifles; it is an act quite easy to be contemplated.

He never does a proper thing without giving an improper reason for it.

More than once I had seen a noble who had gotten his enemy at a disadvantage stop to pray before cutting his throat.

If you value a man’s regard, strive with him. As to liking, you like your newspaper – and despise it.

We love to overlook the boundaries which we do not wish to pass.

This body of mine is my teacher. This heart of mine, my guide. My dear head struggles to make sense of it all whilst my hands gently remind me to trust and let go.

The people of those foreign countries are very, very ignorant. They looked curiously at the costumes we had brought from the wilds of America. They observed that we talked loudly at table sometimes. They noticed that we looked out for expenses and got what we conveniently could out of a franc, and wondered where in the mischief we came from. In Paris they just simply opened their eyes and stared when we spoke to them in French! We never did succeed in making those idiots understand their own language.

When the righteous man truth away from his righteousness that he hath committed and doeth that which is neither quite lawful nor quite right, he will generally be found to have gained in amiability what he has lost in holiness.

No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of spring.

The characteristic of genuine heroism is its persistency. All men have wandering impulses, fits and starts of generosity. But when you have resolved to be great, abide by yourself, and do not weakly try to reconcile yourself with the world. The heroic cannot be the common, nor the common the heroic.