Horace

One wanders to the left, another to the right. Both are equally in error, but, are seduced by different delusions.

I never think at all when I write. Nobody can do two things at the same time and do them both well.

It’s a good thing to be foolishly gay once in a while.

Nothing is too high for the daring of mortals: we storm heaven itself in our folly.

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

While fools shun one set of faults they run into the opposite one.

I had rather believe all the Fables in the Legend, and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a Mind.

A weed is a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.

Each thought that is welcomed and recorded is a nest egg by the side of which more will be laid.

Manners are the happy ways of doing things; each one a stroke of genius or of love, now repeated and hardened into usage, they form at last a rich varnish, with which the routine of life is washed, and its details adorned. If they are superficial, so are the dew-drops which give such a depth to the morning meadows.

We must hold a man amenable to reason for the choice of his daily craft or profession. It is not an excuse any longer for his deeds that they are the custom of his trade. What business has he with an evil trade?

Do or do not. There is no try.

Knowledge is the treasure, but judgment is the treasurer of the one who is wise.

Whether the flower looks better in the nosegay than in the meadow where it grew and we had to wet our feet to get it! Is the scholastic air any advantage?

If a better system is thine, impart it; if not, make use of mine.

Human ‘beans’ is the only animals that is killing their own kind.

Let us, if we must have great actions, make our own so. All action is of infinite elasticity, and the least admits of being inflated with celestial air, until it eclipses the sun and moon.

To be in time is to be asleep: to be awake is to be in eternity.

Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.

A man who has no office to go to – I don’t care who he is – is a trial of which you can have no conception.

Our words have wings, but fly not where we would.