"You writers, choose a subject that is within your powers and ponder long what your shoulders can and cannot bear. He who makes every effort to select his theme aright will be at no loss for choice of words or lucid arrangement.

"The secret of all good writing is sound judgement... I shall bid the clever imitator to look to life and morals for his real model, and draw thence language true to life.

"The poet's aim is either to profit or to please, or to blend in one the delightful and the useful. Whatever the lesson you would convey, be brief, that your hearers may catch quickly what is said and faithfully retain it. Every superfluous word is spilled from the too-full memory."

-The Art of Poetry (Horace)