Only a stomach that rarely feels hungry scorns common things.
HoraceRead
Strange - is it not? That of the myriads who Before us passed the door of Darkness through, Not one returns to tell us of the road Which to discover we must travel too.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the mystery of death and the unknown experience that comes after it.
Horace's quote contemplates the inevitability of death and the enigma surrounding it. It suggests that while countless individuals have faced death, none have returned to share their experiences, leaving the living to navigate the journey to the unknown without guidance. This highlights the inherent uncertainty of life and the afterlife, prompting reflection on our mortality and the paths we choose to take in life.
Themes
DeathUnknownMortalityJourneyReflection
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a discussion about the philosophies of life and death.
More from Horace
All quotes →Now is the time for drinking; now the time to beat the earth with unfettered foot.
HoraceRead
Carpe diem! Rejoice while you are alive; enjoy the day; live life to the fullest; make the most of what you have. It is later than you think.
HoraceRead
It is of no consequence of what parents a man is born, as long as he be a man of merit.
HoraceRead
It is not the rich man you should properly call happy, _x000D_ but him who knows how to use with wisdom the blessings of the gods, _x000D_ to endure hard poverty, and who fears dishonor worse than death, _x000D_ and is not afraid to die for cherished friends or fatherland.
HoraceRead
Few cross the river of time and are able to reach non-being. Most of them run up and down only on this side of the river. But those who when they know the law follow the path of the law, they shall reach the other shore and go beyond the realm of death.
HoraceRead
Similar quotes
War has been more common than peace, and extended periods of peace have been rare in a world divided into multiple states
Donald KaganRead
It's very difficult to escape your background. You know, I don't think it's necessary to even try to escape it. More and more, I start to think that it's necessary to see exactly what it is that you inherited on both ends of the stick: your timidity, your courage, your self-deceit, and your honesty - and all the rest of it.
Sam ShepardRead
"You cannot believe what you are saying." "Well, no. Hardly ever. But the philosopher is like the poet. The latter composes ideal letters for an ideal nymph, only to plumb with his words the depths of passion. The philosopher tests the coldness of his gaze, to see how far he can undermine the fortress of bigotry."
Umberto EcoRead
When common objects in this way be come charged with the suggestion of horror, they stimulate the imagination far more than things of unusual appearance; and these bushes, crowding huddled about us, assumed for me in the darkness a bizarre grotesquerie of appearance that lent to them somehow the aspect of purposeful and living creatures. Their very ordinariness, I felt, masked what was malignant and hostile to us.
Algernon BlackwoodRead
Communism, like any other revealed religion, is largely made up of prophecies.
H. L. MenckenRead
I live not in myself, but I become Portion of that around me: and to me High mountains are a feeling, but the hum of human cities torture.
Lord ByronRead