Horace

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

Anger is short madness

Let us my friends snatch our opportunity from the passing day.

What we learn only through the ears makes less impression upon our minds than what is presented to the trustworthy eye.

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

What do sad complaints avail if the offense is not cut down by punishment.

Hasty resolutions are of the nature of vows, and to be equally avoided

Those who attain any excellence, commonly spend life in one pursuit; for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms.

Universities are of course hostile to geniuses, which, seeing and using ways of their own, discredit the routine: as churches and monasteries persecute youthful saints.

As for doing good; that is one of the professions which is full. Moreover I have tried it fairly and, strange as it may seem, am satisfied that it does not agree with my constitution.

One thing only I know, and that is that I know nothing.

My way of joking is to tell the truth. It’s the funniest joke in the world.

Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.

Where a blood relation sobs, an intimate friend should choke up, a distant acquaintance should sigh, a stranger should merely fumble sympathetically with his handkerchief.

The most luxurious possession, the richest treasure anybody has, is his personal dignity.

A man seldom thinks with more earnestness of anything than he does of his dinner.

Life gives nothing to man without labor.

The advice that is wanted is commonly not welcome and that which is not wanted, evidently an effrontery.

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

Beware the barrenness of a busy life.

Revolutions have never lightened the burden of tyranny: they have only shifted it to another shoulder.