Horace

He gains everyone’s approval who mixes the pleasant with the useful.

In labouring to be concise, I become obscure.

The man is either mad, or he is making verses.

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

He who is upright in his way of life and free from sin.

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

You don’t stop laughing when you grow old, you grow old when you stop laughing.

Belief like any other moving body follows the path of least resistance.

Is not every man sometimes a radical in politics? 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.

Everyone has the right to be stupid on occasion, but Comrade Macdonald abuses the privilege.

Don’t call a woman a bitch. Call her an ass-hole. It still gets your point across and it’s not sexist.

The first time someone shows you who they are, believe them.

Nothing is more simple than greatness; indeed, to be simple is to be great.

We love and lose in China, we weep on England’s moors, and laugh and moan in Guinea, and thrive on Spanish shores. We seek success in Finland, are born and die in Maine. In minor ways we differ, in major we’re the same.

Why should we take advice on sex from the pope? If he knows anything about it, he shouldn’t!

Nature magically suits a man to his fortunes, by making them the fruit of his character.

Love is only one of many passions.

The first thing a great person does, is make us realize the insignificance of circumstance.

Gold will be slave or master.

If we win, nobody will care. If we lose, there will be nobody to care.

If government knew how, I should like to see it check, not multiply, the population. When it reaches its true law of action, every man that is born will be hailed as essential.