Now is the time for drinking, now the time to dance footloose upon the earth.
Horace on New Year
19 quotes
God perchance will by a happy change restore these things to a settled condition.
In the hour's short space comes swift death, or joyful victory.
If matters go badly now, they will not always be so.
With what knot shall I hold this Proteus, who so often changes his countenance?
A vase is begun; why, as the wheel goes round, does it turn out a pitcher?
He despises what he sought; and he seeks that which he lately threw away.
The lazy ox wishes for horse-trappings, and the steed wishes to plough.
He pulls down, he builds up, he changes squares into circles.
Enjoy the present day, trusting very little to the morrow.
As we speak cruel time is fleeing. Seize the day, believing as little as possible in the morrow.
Odes (-23)
While we are speaking envious time will have fled. Seize the present day.
A wise God shrouds the future in obscure darkness.
Cease to inquire what the future has in store, and to take as a gift whatever the day brings forth.
Each passing year robs us of some possession.
What does not destructive time destroy?
Change generally pleases the rich.
Attribution
Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Horace (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.