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Horace on Writing

← All quotes by Horace

12 quotes

He wins every hand who mingles profit with pleasure, by delighting and instructing the reader at the same time.

Ars Poetica, or The Epistle to the Pisones (-18)

It will be practicable to blot written words which you do not publish; but the spoken word it is not possible to recall.

Sorrowful words become the sorrowful; angry words suit the passionate; light words a playful expression; serious words suit the grave.

Like sick men’s dreams, when shadowy images appear, and nether head nor feet fit their respective forms.

The labour and tediousness of polishing (any work of art, poetry, painting, etc.) as though with a file.

Of writing well be sure the secret lies
In wisdom: therefore study to be wise.

To have good sense, is the first principle and fountain of writing well.

Ars Poetica, or The Epistle to the Pisones (-18)

Terseness there wants to make the thought ring clear.

We aim at the ideal, and fail. I try
To be concise, and end in being obscure.

Mine be the whetstone’s lot
Which makes steel sharp, though cut itself will not.
Although no writer, I may yet impart
To writing folk the precepts of their art.

Oh yes! believe me, you must draw your pen
Not once or twice, but o’er and o’er again
Through what you’ve written, if you would entice
The man that reads you once to read you twice,
Not making popular applause your cue,
But looking to fit audience, although few.

Good authors, take a brother bard’s advice:
Ponder your subject o’er not once or twice,
And oft and oft consider if the weight
You hope to lift be, or be not too great.
Let but our theme be equal to our powers,
Choice language, clear arrangement, both are ours.

Attribution

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