Diary of John Quincy Adams, volume 1
1785-12-12
I am exceedingly pleased with what I have done in Horace; and have come across many very noble Sentiments. One of those in the 9th. Ode, which I read this morning, comes, very near to one, that proceeded from the Saviour of the World. Matthew VI. 34. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Horace Ode IX. 13.
The writer, that has ideas, so correspondent to those uttered by the mouth of god, and that without the real inspiration, must very justly hold his rank among the greatest authors. Mr. Smith set out in the afternoon to return to Boston.
“Cease to ask what the morrow will bring forth, and set down as gain each day that
Fortune grants!” (Horace: The Odes and Epodes, transl. C. E.
Bennett, Cambridge, 1952, p. 28–29 [lines 13–15]). The long series of spaced periods are
JQA's; he failed to include the next line from Horace: “Nor in thy youth
neglect sweet love nor dances, whilst life is still in its bloom and crabbed age is far
away!” (same).