Horace on Life

“Nec vixit male qui natus moriensque fefellit. Nor has he spent his life badly who has passed it in privacy.”

“Exacto contentus tempore vita cedat uti conviva satur. Content with his past life, let him take leave of life like a satiated guest.”

“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."”

“Vitæ summa brevis spem nos vetat inchoare longam. Jam te premet nox, fabulæque Manes, Et domus exilis Plutonia. The short span of life forbids us to spin out hope to any length. Soon will night be upon you, and the fabled Shades, and the shadowy Plutonian home.”

“Vivendi recte qui prorogat horam Rusticus expectat dum defluat amnis; at ille Labitur et labetur in omne volubilis ævum. He who postpones the hour of living as he ought, is like the rustic who waits for the river to pass along (before he crosses); but it glides on and will glide on forever.”

“Ille potens sui Lætusque deget, cui licet in diem Dixisse Vixi; cras vel atra Nube polum pater occupato, Vel sole puro, non tamen irritum Quodcunque retro est efficiet. That man lives happy and in command of himself, who from day to day can say I have lived. Whether clouds obscure, or the sun illumines the following day, that which is past is beyond recall.”

“If my character is flawed by a few minor faults, but is otherwise decent and moral, if you can point out only a few scattered blemishes on an otherwise immaculate surface, if no one can accuse me of greed, or of prurience, or of profligacy, if I live a virtuous life, free of defilement (pardon, for a moment, my self-praise), and if I am to my friends a good friend, my father deserves all the credit... As it is now, he deserves from me unstinting gratitude and praise. I could never be ashamed of such a father, nor do I feel any need, as many people do, to apologize for being a freedman's son.”