Horace

The secret of all good writing is sound judgment.

We are free to yield to truth.

How does it happen, Maecenas, that no one is content with that lot of which he has chosen or which chance has thrown his way, but praises those who follow a different course?

I shall strike the stars with my unlifted head.

You must often make erasures if you mean to write what is worthy of being read a second time; and don’t labor for the admiration of the crowd, but be content with a few choice readers.

When you introduce a moral lesson, let it be brief.

I went to the Bach Choir concert and heard Mozart’s Requiem. I did not rise warmly to it. Then I heard an extract from Parsifal which I disliked very much. If Bach wriggles, Wagner writhes…

Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. What a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate.

I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.

City life is millions of people being lonesome together.

The soul of God is poured into the world through the thoughts of men.

Doing as others told me, I was blind. Coming when others called me, I was lost. Then I left everyone, myself as well. Then I found myself, myself as well.

The German intellect wants the French sprightliness, the fine practical understanding of the English, and the American adventure; but it has a certain probity, which never rests in a superficial performance, but asks steadily, To what end? A German public asks for a controlling sincerity.

A fool’s brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education.

It is the only sensual pleasure without vice.

The reward of one duty is the power to fulfill another.

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.

The success of great scholars and thinkers is commonly a courtier-like success, not kingly, not manly.

I hate the irreverent rabble and keep them far from me.

Alcohol is the anesthesia by which we endure the operation of life.

It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.