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Horace on Wisdom

← All quotes by Horace

7 quotes

To flee vice is the beginning of virtue, and to have got rid of folly is the beginning of wisdom.

Epistles (-20)

To your folly add bloodshed, and stir the fire with the sword.

The shame of fools conceals their open wounds.

Who then is free? The wise man who can govern himself.

Force without wisdom falls of its own weight.

Odes (-23)

Sagacious in making useful discoveries.

The poet's 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.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Horace (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.