Horace Quotes & Sayings

Who after wine, talks of wars hardships or of poverty. — Horace

Choose a subject equal to your abilities; think carefully what your shoulders may refuse, and what they are capable of bearing. — Horace

People hiss at me, but I applaud myself in my own house, and at the same time contemplate the money in my chest. — Horace

To carry timber into the wood.
[Lat., In silvam ligna ferre.] — Horace

The lofty pine is oftenest shaken by the winds;
High towers fall with a heavier crash;
And the lightning strikes the highest mountain. — Horace

Wherever the storm carries me, I go a willing guest. — Horace

What we read with pleasure we read again with pleasure. — Horace

Gold delights to walk through the very midst of the guard, and to break its way through hard rocks, more powerful in its blow than lightning. — Horace

Seize the day, put no trust in the morrow! — Horace

Envy is not to be conquered but by death. — Horace

To have begun is half the job; be bold and be sensible. — Horace

He is not poor who has a competency. — Horace

Don't yield to that alluring witch, laziness, or else be prepared to surrender all that you have won in your better moments. — Horace

One night awaits all, and death's path must be trodden once and for all. — Horace

Designedly God covers in dark night the issue of futurity. — Horace

Pale death knocks with impartial foot at poor men's hovels and king's palaces. — Horace

In laboring to be concise, I become obscure.
[Lat., Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio.] — Horace

The wolf attacks with his fang, the bull with his horn. — Horace

As riches grow, care follows, and a thirst For more and more. — Horace

Poets, the first instructors of mankind,
Brought all things to the proper native use. — Horace

It is not enough for poems to be beautiful; they must be affecting, and must lead the heart of the hearer as they will. — Horace

I would not exchange my life of ease and quiet for the riches of Arabia. — Horace

Those who want much, are always much in need. — Horace

A jest often decides matters of importance more effectively and happily than seriousness. — Horace

Always keep your composure. You can't score from the penalty box; and to win, you have to score. — Horace

He is always a slave who cannot live on little. — Horace

Let the fictitious sources of pleasure be as near as possible to the true. — Horace

Difficulties elicit talents that in more fortunate circumstances would lie dormant. — Horace

Pale Death beats equally at the poor man's gate and at the palaces of kings. — Horace

Gladly accept the gifts of the present hour. — Horace

He who has begun has half done. Dare to be wise; begin! — Horace

Adversity is wont to reveal genius, prosperity to hide it. — Horace

Give me back my manly vigour, my black hair and ureceded brow
give me back the sweetness in my voice, my musical laugh,
the grief i knew in my cups when the delicious Cinara left me. — Horace

The poets 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. — Horace

Who knows if the gods above will add tomorrow's span to this day's sum? — Horace

He has hay upon his horn. [He is a mischievous person.] — Horace

Painters and poets alike have always had license to dare anything! We know that, and we both claim and allow to others in their turn this indulgence. — Horace

It makes a great difference whether Davus or a hero speaks. — Horace

To the inexperienced it is a pleasant thing to court the favour of the great; an experienced man fears it. — Horace

Excellence when concealed, differs but little from buried worthlessness.
[Lat., Paullum sepultae distat inertiae
Celata virtus.] — Horace

Rains driven by storms fall not perpetually on the land already sodden, neither do varying gales for ever disturb the Caspian sea. — Horace

It was intended to be a vase, it has turned out a pot. — Horace

The gods have given you wealth and the means of enjoying it. — Horace

Abridge your hopes in proportion to the shortness of the span of human life; for while we converse, the hours, as if envious of our pleasure, fly away: enjoy, therefore, the present time, and trust not too much to what to-morrow may produce. — Horace

Moreover, you can't stand so much as an hour of your own company
or spend your leisure properly; you avoid yourself like a truant
or fugitive, hoping by drink or sleep to elude Angst.
But it's no good, for that dark companion stays on your heels — Horace

The miser acquires, yet fears to use his gains. — Horace

Wisdom is not wisdom when it is derived from books alone — Horace

It is hard! But what can not be removed, becomes lighter through patience. — Horace

Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which, in prosperous circumstances, would have lain dormant. — Horace

It is of no consequence of what parents a man is born, as long as he be a man of merit. — Horace

Wise were the kings who never chose a friend till with full cups they had unmasked his soul, and seen the bottom of his deepest thoughts. — Horace

Strength, wanting judgment and policy to rule, overturneth itself. — Horace

Subdue your passion or it will subdue you. — Horace

Lawyers are men who hire out their words and anger. — Horace

My liver swells with bile difficult to repress. — Horace

Pale death approaches with equal step, and knocks indiscriminately at the door of teh cottage, and the portals of the palace. — Horace

Fiction intended to please, should resemble truth as much as possible. — Horace

Pale death with an impartial foot knocks at the hovels of the poor and the palaces of king. — Horace

Carpe diem."

(Odes: I.11) — Horace

On day is pressed on by another. — Horace

The cask will long retain the flavour of the wine with which it was first seasoned. — Horace

Virtue knowing no base repulse, shines with untarnished honour; nor does she assume or resign her emblems of honour by the will of some popular breeze.
[Lat., Virtus repulse nescia sordidae,
Intaminatis fulget honoribus;
Nec sumit aut ponit secures
Arbitrio popularis aurae.] — Horace

What may not be altered is made lighter by patience. — Horace

I shall strike the stars with my unlifted head. — Horace

These trifles will lead to serious mischief.
[Lat., Hae nugae seria ducent
In mala.] — Horace

Does he council you better who bids you, Money, by right means, if you can: but by any means, make money ? — Horace

He will be loved when dead, who was envied when he was living. — Horace

Mingle a dash of folly with your wisdom. — Horace

Much is wanting to those who seek or covet much. — Horace

Gold will be slave or master. — Horace

The power of daring anything their fancy suggest, as always been conceded to the painter and the poet. — Horace

Our sires' age was worse than our grandsires'. We their sons are more worthless than they: so in our turn we shall give the world a progeny yet more corrupt. — Horace

In the midst of hopes and cares, of apprehensions and of disquietude, regard every day that dawns upon you as if it was to be your last; then super-added hours, to the enjoyment of which you had not looked forward, will prove an acceptable boon. — Horace

What we learn only through the ears makes less impression upon our minds than what is presented to the trustworthy eye. — Horace

When I caution you against becoming a miser, I do not therefore advise you to become a prodigal or a spendthrift. — Horace

She - philosophy is equally helpful to the rich and poor: neglect her, and she equally harms the young and old. — Horace

Of writing well, be sure, the secret lies
In wisdom :therefore study to be wise. — Horace

You must avoid sloth, that wicked siren. — Horace

Nature is harmony in discord. — Horace

I strive to be brief, and become obscure. — Horace

It is the false shame of fools to try to conceal wounds that have not healed. — Horace

I live and reign since I have abandoned those pleasures which you by your praises extol to the skies.
[Lat., Vivo et regno, simul ista reliqui
Quae vos ad coelum effertis rumore secundo.] — Horace

Day is pushed out by day, and each new moon hastens to its death.
[Lat., Truditur dies die,
Novaeque pergunt interire lunae.] — Horace

Do not pursue with the terrible scourge him who deserves a slight whip.
[Lat., Ne scutica dignum horribili sectere flagello.] — Horace

Every man should measure himself by his own standard.
[Lat., Metiri se quemque suo modulo ac pede verum est.] — Horace

It was a wine jar when the molding began: as the wheel runs round why does it turn out a water pitcher? — Horace

The short span of life forbids us to take on far-reaching hopes. — Horace

For example, the tiny ant, a creature of great industry, drags with its mouth whatever it can, and adds it to the heap which she is piling up, not unaware nor careless of the future. — Horace

Leave off asking what tomorrow will bring, and
whatever days fortune will give, count them
as profit. — Horace

This used to be among my prayers - a piece of land not so very large, which would contain a garden — Horace

Increasing wealth is attended by care and by the desire of greater increase. — Horace

Not to be lost in idle admiration is the only sure means of making and preserving happiness. — Horace

The good refrain from sin from the pure love of virtue. — Horace

Good sense is both the first principal and the parent source of good writing. — Horace

By the favour of the heavens — Horace

The fellow is either a madman or a poet. — Horace

Let your mind, happily contented with the present, care not what the morrow will bring with it. — Horace

It is not permitted that we should know everything. — Horace

Happy the man who, removed from all cares of business, after the manner of his forefathers cultivates with his own team his paternal acres, freed from all thought of usury. — Horace

The muse does not allow the praise-de-serving here to die: she enthrones him in the heavens. — Horace