314 quotes
The more we deny ourselves, the more the gods supply our wants.
If you wish me to weep, you yourself
Must first feel grief.
Ars Poetica, or The Epistle to the Pisones (-18)
And joined with the Nymphs the lovely Graces.
Brave men were living before Agamemnon.
Odes (-23)
What does not destructive time destroy?
The covetous man is ever in want.
Epistles (-20)
He will through life be master of himself and a happy man who from day to day can have said, "I have lived: tomorrow the Father may fill the sky with black clouds or with cloudless sunshine."
Odes (-23)
What does drunkenness not accomplish? It discloses secrets, it ratifies hopes, and urges even the unarmed to battle.
What will this boaster produce worthy of this mouthing? The mountains are in labor; a ridiculous mouse will be born.
Postumus, Postumus, the years glide by us:
Alas! no piety delays the wrinkles,
Nor the indomitable hand of Death.
Boys must not have th' ambitious care of men,
Nor men the weak anxieties of age.
Of writing well be sure the secret lies
In wisdom: therefore study to be wise.
Fair Pyrrha, say, for whom
Your yellow hair you braid,
So trim, so simple!
It is hard! But what can not be removed, becomes lighter through patience.
Why do you laugh? Change but the name, and the story is told of yourself.
Ah, Postumus! they fleet away,
Our years, nor piety one hour
Can win from wrinkles and decay,
And Death's indomitable power.
Odes (-23)
Oh! thou who art greatly mad, deign to spare me who am less mad.
They change their sky, not their mind, who cross the sea. A busy idleness possesses us: we seek a happy life, with ships and carriages: the object of our search is present with us.
How is it Maecenas, that no one lives contented with his lot, whether he has planned it for himself or fate has flung him into it, but yet he praises those who follow different paths?
To have good sense, is the first principle and fountain of writing well.
Ars Poetica, or The Epistle to the Pisones (-18)