Quotations by:
Horace
I am displeased when sometimes even the worthy Homer nods
[Indignor quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus]
He is not poor who has enough of things to use.
If it is well with your belly, chest and feet,
the wealth of kings can give you nothing more.[Pauper enim non est, cui rerum suppetit usus.
si ventri bene, si lateri est pedibusque tuis, nil
divitiae poterunt regales addere maius.]
When your neighbor’s wall is on fire, it becomes your business.
[Num tua res agitur paries cum proximus ardet.]
Anger is momentary madness, so control your passion or it will control you.
[Ira furor brevis est: animum rege: qui nisi paret imperat.]
The years as they pass plunder us of one thing after another.
[Singula de nobis anni praedantur euntes.]
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.”
[Ille potens sui
laetusque deget, cui licet in diem
dixisse “vixi: cras vel atra
nube polum pater occupato
vel sole puro.”]
As we speak, cruel time is fleeing. Seize the day, leave as little as possible to tomorrow.
[… dum loquimur, fugerit invida
aetas: carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero.]
He that holds fast the golden mean,
And lives contentedly between
The little and the great,
Feels not the wants that pinch the poor,
Nor plagues that haunt the rich man’s door.[Auream quisquis mediocritatem diligit, tutus caret obsoleti sordibus tecti, caret invidenda sobrius aula.]
Many brave men lived before Agamemnon, but all unwept and unknown they sleep in endless night, for they had no poets to sound their praises.
We rarely find anyone who can say he has lived a happy life, and who, content with his life, can retire from the world like a satisfied guest.
[Inde fit ut raro, qui se vixisse beatum
dicat et exacto contentus tempore vita
cedat uti conviva satur, reperire queamus.]
Why are you laughing? Just change the name, and the story could be told of you.
[Quid rides? Mutato nomine de te / fabula narratur.]
Horace (65-8 BC) Roman poet and satirist [Quintus Horacius Flaccus]
Sermonum, I.1.69
Sometimes "... fabula de te narratur."
Alternate translations:
- "Do you but change the name / Of you is saide the same."
- "Change but the name, of you the tale is told."
- "Change only the name and this story is also about you."
- "Change but the name, and the tale is told of you."
- "What are you laughing at? Just change the name and the joke's on you."
- "You laugh? Well, just change the name and you'll find that this story, / as a matter of fact, means YOU." (tr. S.P. Bovie (2002))