05:24 am - QotD
From the Quotation of the day mailing list, 2008-02-29:
"O learned Maecenas, if you believe old Gratinus, no verses which are written by water-drinkers can please, or be long-lived. Ever since Bacchus enlisted the brain-sick poets among the Satyrs and the Fauns, the sweet muses have usually smelt of wine in the morning." -- Horace, Epistle XIX, on the poetry written by teetotallers.
[Prisco si credis, Maecenas docte, Cratino, nulla placere diu nec uiuere carmina possunt quae scribuntur aquae potoribus; ut male sanos adscripsit Liber Satyris Faunisque poetas, uina fere dulces oluerunt mane Camenae;]
(submitted to the mailing list by Terry Labach)