“Often must you turn your pencil to erase, if you hope to write something worth a second reading.”

— Horace, Satires, Book I, satire i, lines 72–3 (transl. Rushton Fairclough, 1926)

About Horace

65 BC – 8 BC

Roman lyric poet, author of the "Odes" and "Satires".

“Pale death, with impartial step, knocks at the hut of the poor and the towers of kings.”

“It is right for him who asks forgiveness for his offenses to grant it to others.”

“Seize the day, believing as little as possible in the morrow.”

“I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us that the less we use our power, the greater it will be.”

“The wisest man may be wiser to-day than he was yesterday, and to-morrow than he is to-day.”

“We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep.”

“Give thyself time to learn something new and good, and cease to be whirled around.”

“It is the mark of an educated man to look for precision in each class of things.”

“For the things we have to learn before we can do, we learn by doing.”