Virtus est vitium fugere, et sapientia prima stultitia caruisse
“Virtue begins with fleeing vice, and the first step of wisdom is to be free of folly.”
Horace, Epistles 1.1
What does “Virtus est vitium fugere, et sapientia prima stultitia caruisse” mean?
Virtus est vitium fugere, et sapientia prima stultitia caruisse translates as “Virtue begins with fleeing vice, and the first step of wisdom is to be free of folly.”
Becoming good starts by avoiding the bad, and becoming wise starts by abandoning foolishness. Horace makes moral progress sound achievable.
“Virtus est vitium fugere, et sapientia …” word by word
| Latin | English | Grammar |
|---|---|---|
| Virtus | virtue, moral excellence | nominative singular feminine of virtus, “virtue”; subject of the first clause |
| est | is | third person singular present indicative of sum, “I am” |
| vitium | vice, fault | accusative singular neuter of vitium, “vice”; object of fugere |
| fugere | to flee, to avoid | present infinitive of fugio, “I flee”; the infinitive acts as the noun that completes “is” |
| et | and | conjunction joining the two halves of the line |
| sapientia | wisdom | nominative singular feminine of sapientia, “wisdom”; subject of the second clause |
| prima | first, the first step | nominative singular feminine of primus, “first”, agreeing with sapientia |
| stultitia | folly, foolishness | ablative singular feminine of stultitia, “folly”; the ablative is the thing you are free of |
| caruisse | to have been without, to be free of | perfect infinitive of careo, “I lack”; takes the ablative. The verb est is left out and understood |
How to pronounce “Virtus est vitium fugere, et sapientia …”
The main differences are v (w in Classical, v in Church), and the soft t before i in vitium, sapientia and stultitia (Church ts, Classical plain t).
The story behind it
Word for word the line says “Virtue is to flee vice, and the first wisdom is to have been without folly”. It comes from Horace’s Epistles 1.1, a verse letter addressed to his patron Maecenas.
In that letter Horace explains that he has stepped back from writing lyric poetry to give his attention to philosophy and to living well. He does not claim to be a finished sage, and this couplet shows why: it sets the bar at avoidance of error rather than perfection.
The line has lived on as a plain, practical piece of moral advice. It is quoted in discussions of ethics and education, where the point is that improvement starts with removing faults, not with grand ambition.
How to use “Virtus est vitium fugere, et sapientia …”
Fits a self-improvement journal, a classroom wall on character, a speech about starting small, or a personal motto for someone who values steady progress over perfection. It works best quoted whole, with the translation beside it.
- Latin
- Virtus est vitium fugere, et sapientia prima stultitia caruisse
- English
- Virtue begins with fleeing vice, and the first step of wisdom is to be free of folly.
- Source
- Horace, Epistles 1.1
- Era
- Classical
- Theme
- Virtue
Common mistakes
- The line is Horace, not a Stoic or Christian maxim, although it is often quoted in those settings.
- It is long for a tattoo, and people often cut it to “Virtus est vitium fugere”. That is still correct, but you lose the half about wisdom.
- Stultitia caruisse means “to have been free of folly”, not “to lack wisdom”. Careo means “to lack”, but here what is lacked is something bad, so the sense is positive.
- In prima stultitia caruisse, the word prima belongs with sapientia, not with stultitia. The first step is wisdom, not the first folly.
Questions about “Virtus est vitium fugere, et sapientia …”
What does “Virtus est vitium fugere” mean literally?
“Virtue is to flee vice.” The infinitive fugere works like a noun, so the idea is that fleeing vice is itself the beginning of virtue.
Who said “Virtus est vitium fugere, et sapientia prima stultitia caruisse”?
Horace, in Epistles 1.1, his verse letter to Maecenas.
How do you pronounce “Virtus est vitium fugere”?
In Classical Latin: WEER-toos est WIH-tee-oom FOO-geh-reh. In Church Latin the v is a v and the ti in vitium sounds like tsee.
Can I use only the first half of the quote for a tattoo?
Yes. “Virtus est vitium fugere” is complete and correct on its own, but it carries only half of Horace’s thought.
More to explore
Translation and grammar checked by Latin Quoter · last reviewed November 2026
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