Horace

No poems can please for long or live that are written by water drinkers.

Patience makes lighter What sorrow may not heal.

Tear thyself from delay.

It is no great art to say something briefly when, like Tacitus, one has something to say; when one has nothing to say, however, and none the less writes a whole book and makes truth into a liar – that I call an achievement.

If you wish me to weep, you must first show grief yourself.

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

One of the most attractive things about the flowers is their beautiful reserve.

It is possible to be free and loving no matter what your circumstances.

Nature… She pardons no mistakes. Her yea is yea, and her nay, nay.

But who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?

A myriad of men are born; they labor and sweat and struggle; …they squabble and scold and fight; they scramble for little mean advantages over each other; age creeps upon them; infirmities follow; …those they love are taken from them, and the joy of life is turned to aching grief. It comes at last-the only unpoisoned gift earth ever had for them-and they vanish from a world where they were of no consequence, …a world which will lament them a day and forget them forever.

Nothing does more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise.

It is not given to us to peer into the mysteries of the future. Still, I avow my hope and faith, sure and inviolate, that in the days to come the British and American peoples will for their own safety and for the good of all walk together side by side in majesty, in justice, and in peace.

The wisdom of nations lies in their proverbs, which are brief and pithy. Collect and learn them; they are notable measures of directions for human life; you have much in little; they save time in speaking; and upon occasion may be the fullest and safest answer.

As men’s prayers are a disease of the will, so are their creeds a disease of the intellect.

Learn to say “I don’t know.” If used when appropriate, it will be often.

What fugitive from his country can also escape from himself.

A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.

Virtue knows that it is impossible to get on without compromise, and tunes herself, as it were, a trifle sharp to allow for an inevitable fall in playing.

Play not with paradoxes. That caustic which you handle in order to scorch others may happen to sear your own fingers and make them dead to the quality of things.

That observation which is called knowledge of the world will be found much more frequently to make men cunning than good.