Horace (65–8 BCE,) fully Quintus Horatius Flaccus, was a Roman poet of the Augustan age. A notable satirist and literary critic, he is best known for his Satires (c.35 BCE,) Epodes (c.30 BCE,) Odes (c.23 BCE,) Epistles (c.20 BCE,) and Ars Poetica (c.19 BCE; The Art of Poetry)—these literary classics have been the cornerstones of Western poetry.
Much is known about Horace’s life from a biography by Suetonius and Horace’s own testimony. Born in Venusia (modern-day Venosa in southwest Italy) to a former slave, Horace was sent to Rome and then Athens for an education matching that of a usual upper-class Roman of the time. In Athens, Horace joined Brutus’s army as a junior officer. However, with the fall of Brutus, Horace’s family lost much of its property. Horace returned to Italy under a general amnesty, wrote his first poems, and made friends with Virgil, Varius Rufus, and Gaius Maecenas.
Horace’s standing as the most significant Roman lyric poet rests on the excellence of form revealed by the Odes, and on the depth and detail of his self-portraiture in his literary works. He was considered the principal authority on the composition of poetry; his Ars Poetica set the standards for poetry to govern literary criticism even in the present day.
Horace’s proficient mastery of a wide variety of lyric forms is matched both by the wealth of his subject matter—ranging from politics to love, poetry to ethics, and daily life to biography—and by the multiplicity of his tones, which shift from satire to didacticism and from affection to diatribe.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Remember, when life’s path is steep, to keep your mind even.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Topics: The Mind
What we learn only through the ears makes less impression upon our minds than what is presented to the trustworthy eye.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
When things are steep, remember to stay level-headed.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Topics: Discipline
Only a stomach that rarely feels hungry scorns common things.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Topics: Blessings, Gratitude
We set up harsh and unkind rules against ourselves. No one is born without faults. That man is best who has fewest.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Topics: Acceptance, Realization, Awareness, Realistic Expectations
Carpe diem! Rejoice while you are alive; enjoy the day; live life to the fullest; make the most of what you have. It is later than you think.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
He is armed without who is innocent within, be this thy screen, and this thy wall of brass.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Topics: Innocence
Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
He who is greedy is always in want.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Topics: Gratitude, Greed, Blessings, Appreciation
[So] Mingle some brief folly with your wisdom.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Topics: Wisdom
The poets aim is either to profit or to please, or to blend in one the delightful and the useful. Whatever the lesson you would convey, be brief, that your hearers may catch quickly what is said and faithfully retain it. Every superfluous word is spilled from the too-full memory.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Sweet and glorious it is to die for our country.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
When you introduce a moral lesson, let it be brief.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Topics: Education, Brevity, Teaching
Believe that each day is the last to shine upon thee.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
This used to be my prayer – a piece of land not so very large, which would contain a garden, and near the house a spring of ever-flowing water, and beyond these a bit of wood.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Punishment closely follows guilt as its companion.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Topics: Guilt
Take away the danger and remove the restraint, and wayward nature runs free.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Topics: Punishment
He has the deed half done who has made a beginning.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Topics: Action, One liners
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