Horace

He tosses aside his paint-pots and his words a foot and a half long.

Mountains will go into labour, and a silly little mouse will be born.

Sweet and glorious it is to die for our country.

The pen is the tongue of the mind.

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

Your own safety is at stake when your neighbor’s house is in flames.

Life levels all men. Death reveals the eminent.

Be present in all things and thankful for all things.

Pasteboard pies and paper flowers are being banished from the stage by the growth of that power of accurate observation which is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it….

Go fish and hunt far and wide day by day – farther and wider – and rest thee by many brooks and hearth-sides without misgiving. Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth. Rise free from care before the dawn, and seek adventures. Let the noon find thee by other lakes, and the night overtake thee everywhere at home. There are no larger fields than these, no worthier games than may here be played.

Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books nobody reads.

Only trust thyself, and another shall not betray thee.

Enthusiasm is the leaping lightning, not to be measured by the horse-power of the understanding.

It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.

What fugitive from his country can also escape from himself.

Tragedy was foresworn, in ritual denial of the ripe knowledge that we are drawing away from one another, that we share only one thing, share the fear of belonging to another, or to others, or to God; love or money, tender equated in advertising and the world, where only money is currency, and under dead trees and brittle ornaments prehensile hands exchange forgeries of what the heart dare not surrender.

The Country is both the Philosopher’s Garden and his Library, in which he Reads and Contemplates the Power, Wisdom and Goodness of God.

When a man laughs at his troubles he loses a great many friends. They never forgive the loss of their prerogative.

The never-ending task of self improvement.

People with great gifts are easy to find, but symmetrical and balanced ones never.

There are two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart’s desire. The other is to get it.