Horace

Let your literary compositions be kept from the public eye for nine years at least.

Once a word has been allowed to escape, it cannot be recalled.

A portion of mankind take pride in their vices and pursue their purpose; many more waver between doing what is right and complying with what is wrong.

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

Justice though moving with tardy pace, has seldom failed to overtake the wicked in their flight.

The lofty pine is oftenest shaken by the winds; High towers fall with a heavier crash; And the lightning strikes the highest mountain.

Man gives every reason for his conduct save one, every excuse for his crimes save one, every plea for his safety save one; and that one is his cowardice.

Choose silence of all virtues, for by it you hear other men’s imperfections, and conceal your own.

Method goes far to prevent trouble in business: for it makes the task easy, hinders confusion, saves abundance of time, and instructs those that have business depending, both what to do and what to hope.

There is only one thing about which I shall have no regrets when my life ends. I have savored to the full all the small, daily joys. The bright sunshine on the breakfast table; the smell of the air at dusk; the sound of the clock ticking; the light rains that start gently after midnight; the hour when the family come home; Sunday-evening tea before the fire! I have never missed one moment of beauty, not even taken it for granted. Spring, summer, autumn, or winter. I wish I had failed as little in other ways.

Let us be grateful to the mirror for revealing to us our appearance only.

The god of victory is said to be one-handed, but peace gives victory on both sides.

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

He that gives good advice builds with one hand; he that gives good counsel and example builds with both.

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.

I think that age is irrelevant. We’re all pretty much spiritual beings – I consider myself to be about eighty-five. I feel like I’m ancient, like two thousand years old.

The man who writes about himself and his own time is the only man who writes about all people and about all time.

The egoism which enters into our theories does not affect their sincerity; rather, the more our egoism is satisfied, the more robust is our belief.

He took off his hat and shook it (having hurried home as though his own coronation were waiting), and moved now with the slow deliberation of lonely people who have time for every meager requirement of their lives.

The best liar is he who makes the smallest amount of lying go the longest way.

Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.