This used to be among my prayers—a piece of land not so very large, which would contain a garden, and near the house a spring of ever-flowing water, and beyond these a bit of wood.

Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus, 65–8 BCE) often contrasts public ambition with the modest satisfactions of rural life, a theme shaped by his own rise from provincial origins to literary prominence in Augustan Rome. The line comes from a poem in which he reflects on the simple “prayers” he once made—asking not for wealth or power, but for a small, self-sufficient estate: a garden, a reliable spring, and a patch of woodland. Such imagery aligns with Horace’s recurring ideal of contentment and measured desire (the aurea mediocritas, or “golden mean”), and with his personal experience of retreating to the Sabine farm given to him by Maecenas.

The speaker’s “prayers” define happiness as sufficiency rather than excess: a small plot, cultivated food, dependable water, and nearby woods for shade and fuel. The specificity of the wish list underscores a philosophy of limits—desire disciplined into what genuinely sustains life. The quote also implies independence: a spring that “ever-flow[s]” symbolizes security against fortune’s fluctuations, while the garden and wood suggest a balanced, harmonious relationship with nature. In Horace’s broader moral vision, such modest possessions enable freedom of mind, protecting one from the anxieties, obligations, and moral compromises that accompany status-seeking and luxury.