Horace

It is your concern when your neighbor’s wall is on fire.

In labouring to be concise, I become obscure.

This is a fault common to all singers, that among their friends they will never sing when they are asked; unasked, they will never desist.

What fugitive from his country can also escape from himself.

When you introduce a moral lesson, let it be brief.

Youth is unduly busy with pampering the outer person.

That man is rich whose pleasures are the cheapest.

The public is a ferocious beast; one must either chain it or flee from it.

He is the best sailor who can steer within the fewest points of the wind, and exact a motive power out of the greatest obstacles.

Punishment closely follows guilt as its companion.

You only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out.

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

The beginning is the most important part of the work.

Friendship . . . is an Union of Spirits, a Marriage of Hearts, and the Bond thereof Vertue.

Great feelings will often take the aspect of error, and great faith the aspect of illusion.

If man is to be liberated to enjoy more leisure, he must also be prepared to enjoy this leisure fully and creatively.

Work with some men is as besetting a sin as idleness.

If you have good thoughts, they will shine out of your face like sun beams and you will always look lovely!

Be not simply good – be good for something.

Reality is a sliding door.

Our passions do not live apart in locked chambers but dress in their small wardrobe of notions, bring their provisions to a common table and mess together, feeding out of the common store according to their appetite.