Laudator Temporis Acti

From Horace, Epistles 1.10 (tr. H. Rushton Fairclough):

6-9:

I praise the lovely country's brooks, its groves and moss-grown rocks. In short: I live and reign, as soon as I have left behind what you townsmen with shouts of applause extol to the skies.

                          ego laudo ruris amoeni
rivos et musco circumlita saxa nemusque.
quid quaeris? vivo et regno, simul ista reliqui
quae vos ad caelum fertis rumore secundo.

32-33:

Flee grandeur: though humble be your home, yet in life's race you may outstrip kings and the friends of kings.

     fuge magna; licet sub paupere tecto
reges et regum vita praecurrere amicos.

39-41:

So he who through fear of poverty forfeits liberty, which is better than mines of wealth, will in his avarice carry a master, and be a slave for ever, not knowing how to live on little.

sic, qui pauperiem veritus potiore metallis
libertate caret, dominum vehet improbus atque
serviet aeternum, quia parvo nesciet uti.

44:

You will live wisely, Aristius, if cheerful in your lot.

laetus sorte tua vives sapienter, Aristi.