Original text (Latin)
To flee vice is the beginning of virtue, and to have got rid of folly is the beginning of wisdom.
The mountains will be in labor, and a ridiculous mouse will be brought forth.
Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.
The free-lance writer is a man who is paid per piece or per word or perhaps.
Three sleepless nights I passed in sounding on,
Through words and things, a dim and perilous way.
Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Horace (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.