Horace

If a man’s fortune does not fit him, it is like the shoe in the story; if too large it trips him up, if too small it pinches him.

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

He has the deed half done who has made a beginning.

It is when I struggle to be brief that I become obscure.

No verse can give pleasure for long, nor last, that is written by drinkers of water.

Strange – is it not? That of the myriads who Before us passed the door of Darkness through, Not one returns to tell us of the road Which to discover we must travel too.

The cat, having sat upon a hot stove lid, will not sit upon a hot stove lid again. But he won’t sit upon a cold stove lid, either.

Nothing makes a man so selfish as work.

Heaven is the work of the best and kindest men and women. Hell is the work of prigs, pedants and professional truth-tellers. The world is an attempt to make the best of Heaven and Hell.

The person is a poor judge who by an action can be disgraced more in failing than they can be honored in succeeding.

A beautiful form is better than a beautiful face; it gives a higher pleasure than statues or pictures; it is the finest of the fine arts.

Though wisdom cannot be gotten for gold, still less can be gotten without it.

A am a great friend of public amusements, they keep people from vice.

As soon as there is life there is danger.

All wonder is the effect of novelty on ignorance.

At the end of my life, with just one breath left, if you come, I’ll sit up and sing.

Good sense is both the first principal and the parent source of good writing.

From his cradle to his grave a man never does a single thing which has any FIRST AND FOREMOST object but one – to secure peace of mind, spiritual comfort, for HIMSELF.

If misery loves company, misery has company enough.

The surest poison is time.

Silence is the great teacher, and to learn its lessons you must pay attention to it. There is no substitute for the creative inspiration, knowledge, and stability that come from knowing how to contact your core of inner silence. The great Sufi poet Rumi wrote, Only let the moving waters calm down, and the sun and moon will be reflected on the surface of your being.