Horace

Take away the danger and remove the restraint, and wayward nature runs free.

Those who cross the sea change only the climate, not their character.

Sweet and glorious it is to die for our country.

If matters go badly now, they will not always be so.

A picture is a poem without words.

A word once uttered can never be recalled.

You may drive out nature with a pitchfork, yet she’ll be constantly running back.

Half the vices which the world condemns most loudly have seeds of good in them and require moderated use rather than total abstinence.

The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.

Men are conservatives when they are least vigorous, or when they are most luxurious. They are conservatives after dinner, or before taking their rest; when they are sick or aged. In the morning, or when their intellect or their conscience has been aroused, when they hear music, or when they read poetry, they are radicals.

Worrying is like paying on a debt that may never come due.

To see helpless infancy stretching out her hands, and pouring out her cries in testimony of dependence, without any powers to alarm jealousy, or any guilt to alienate affection, must surely awaken tenderness in every human mind; and tenderness once excited will be hourly increased by the natural contagion of felicity, by the repercussion of communicated pleasure, by the consciousness of dignity of benefaction.

Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.

See, I think you live on earth a certain number of times until you finish what it is that you were meant to do here. And then you go on. I don’t think I’ll be back here. I think I’m done.

A patronizing disposition always has its meaner side.

Never allow a person to tell you no who doesn’t have the power to say yes.

The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.

That observation which is called knowledge of the world will be found much more frequently to make men cunning than good.

To watch this crystal globe just sent from heaven to associate with me. While these clouds and this somber drizzling weather shut all in, we two draw nearer and know one another. The gathering in of the clouds with the last rush and dying breath of the wind, and then the regular dripping of twigs and leaves the country over, the impression of inward comfort and Sociableness, the drenched stubble and trees that drop beads on you as you pass, their dim outline seen through the rain on all sides drooping in sympathy with yourself. These are my undisputed territory. This is Nature’s English comfort.

It is not he who gains the exact point in dispute who scores most in controversy – but he who has shown the better temper.

Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.