Strength without wisdom falls by its own weight;
The strength that wisdom tempers, the gods increase;
The gods abhor that strength whose heart knows nothing
But what impiety is, and it is punished.[Vis consili expers mole ruit sua,
Vim temperatam di quoque provehunt
In maius; idem odere viris
Omne nefas animo moventis.]Horace (65-8 BC) Roman poet and satirist [Quintus Horacius Flaccus]
Odes [Carmina], Book 3, # 4, l. 65ff (3.4.65-68) (23 BC) [tr. Ferry (1997)]
(Source)
"To Calliope." (Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:Uncounsil'd force with his own weight
Is crusht; a force that's temperate
Heaven it self helps: and hates no less
Strength that provokes to wickedness.
[tr. Fanshawe; ed. Brome (1666)]Rash force by its own weight must fall,
But Pious strength will still prevail;
For such the Gods assist, and bless,
But hate a mighty Wickedness.
[tr. Creech (1684)]Strength, mindless, falls by its own weight;
Strength, mix'd with mind, is made more strong
By the just gods, who surely hate
The strength whose thoughts are set on wrong.
[tr. Conington (1872)]Force, void of conduct, falls by its own weight; moreover, the gods promote discreet force to further advantage; but the same beings detest forces, that meditate every kind of impiety.
[tr. Smart/Buckley (1853)]Unreasoning strength by its own weight must fall.
To strength with wisdom blent
Force by the gods is lent.
Who hold in scorn that strength, which is on all
That's impious intent.
[tr. Martin (1864)]By its own weight sinks force, when void of counsel.
'Tis the force tempered which the gods make greater;
But they abhor the force
Which gives blind movement to all springs of crime.
[tr. Bulwer-Lytton (1870)]Strength without wisdom falls headlong by its own weight. The Gods increase success to wisely-regulated strength, but abhor the might which contemplates all manner of iniquity.
[tr. Elgood (1893)]Brute might may rush in headlong course,
But tempered strength the gods make strong
And stronger, while they hate the force
That madly stirs to deeds of wrong.
[tr. Gladstone (1894)]Strength void of counsel! By its own weight it falls,
Strength well-directed, even the Gods increase
To greater force, and hate mere brute-power
Planning in mind ev'ry form of evil.
[tr. Phelps (1897)]Force void of counsel falls by its own weight:
But force restrained the very gods bear on
To greater: so they hate the power
That stirreth every disobedience in the mind.
[tr. Garnsey (1907)]For ill-trained strength by its own weight's o'erborne;
But Heaven, to powers well-ordered, favour lends,
Hating brute-force, which to ill ends
Doth all its travail turn.
[tr. Marshall (1908)]Brute force bereft of wisdom falls to ruin by its own weight. Power with counsel tempered, even the gods make greater. But might that in its soul is bent on all impiety, they hate.
[tr. Bennett (Loeb) (1912)]Force lacking counsel falls by its own weight;
Force temperate the Gods make yet more great --
The Gods who hate the strength that would defy
Their righteous will, and plot iniquity.
[tr. Mills (1924)]Primitive force topples to its own ruin,
But when the mind guides power it prospers; heaven
Helps it: the gods abhor
Brute strength devoted to malignant ends.
[tr. Michie (1963)]Force without wisdom falls of its own
Weight. Even the gods require sense of themselves,
And work better for its guidance. They hate
Evil no matter how strong.
[tr. Raffel (1983)]Force alone, devoid of judgment,
sinks beneath its own weight.
But tempered well by the wisdom of the gods,
it rises higher; for the gods detest
all violence which turns to crime.
[tr. Alexander (1999)]Power without wisdom falls by its own weight:
The gods themselves advance temperate power:
and likewise hate force that, with its whole
consciousness, is intent on wickedness.
[tr. Kline (2015)]Force without wisdom rushes from its own weight:
the gods, too, promote tempered force to something
greater; they also hate force
which stirs wickedness in every soul.
[tr. Wikisource (2021)]Force without wisdom falls of its own weight.
[E.g. (1936)]
