Horace Quotes

The foolish are like ripples on water, For whatsoever they do is quickly effaced; But the righteous are like carvings upon stone, For their smallest act is durable.

- Horace

The envious man grows lean at the success of his neighbor.

- Horace

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

- Horace

He gains everyone's approval who mixes the pleasant with the useful.

- Horace

Great effort is required to arrest decay and restore vigor. One must exercise proper deliberation, plan carefully before making a move, and be alert in guarding against relapse following a renaissance.

- Horace

A picture is a poem without words.

- Horace

Begin, be bold and venture to be wise.

- Horace

We are free to yield to truth.

- Horace

It's a good thing to be foolishly gay once in a while.

- Horace

You must avoid sloth, that wicked siren.

- Horace

Time will bring to light whatever is hidden; it will cover up and conceal what is now shining in splendor.

- Horace

Life grants nothing to us mortals without hard work.

- Horace

Refrain from asking what going to happen tomorrow, and everyday that fortune grants you, count as gain.

- Horace

A word, once sent abroad, flies irrevocably.

- Horace

We rarely find anyone who can say he has lived a happy life, and who, content with his life, can retire from the world like a satisfied guest.

- Horace

Let your literary compositions be kept from the public eye for nine years at least.

- Horace

We are often deterred from crime by the disgrace of others.

- Horace

Poets wish to profit or to please.

- Horace

Once a word has been allowed to escape, it cannot be recalled.

- Horace

A word once uttered can never be recalled.

- Horace

Money is a handmaiden, if thou knowest how to use it; a mistress, if thou knowest not.

- Horace

Sad people dislike the happy, and the happy the sad; the quick thinking the sedate, and the careless the busy and industrious.

- Horace

In labouring to be concise, I become obscure.

- Horace

A good and faithful judge ever prefers the honorable to the expedient.

- Horace

The one who cannot restrain their anger will wish undone, what their temper and irritation prompted them to do.

- Horace

Suffering is but another name for the teaching of experience, which is the parent of instruction and the schoolmaster of life.

- Horace

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

- Horace

The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes.

- Horace

While fools shun one set of faults they run into the opposite one.

- Horace

It is no great art to say something briefly when, like Tacitus, one has something to say; when one has nothing to say, however, and none the less writes a whole book and makes truth into a liar - that I call an achievement.

- Horace

It is courage, courage, courage, that raises the blood of life to crimson splendor. Live bravely and present a brave front to adversity.

- Horace

I hate the irreverent rabble and keep them far from me.

- Horace

Undeservedly you will atone for the sins of your fathers.

- Horace

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

- Horace

Mix a little foolishness with your serious plans. It is lovely to be silly at the right moment.

- Horace

It is when I struggle to be brief that I become obscure.

- Horace

No verse can give pleasure for long, nor last, that is written by drinkers of water.

- 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

Pale death, with impartial step, knocks at the hut of the poor and the towers of kings.

- Horace

The man is either mad, or he is making verses.

- Horace

If a man's fortune does not fit him, it is like the shoe in the story; if too large it trips him up, if too small it pinches him.

- Horace

A shoe that is too large is apt to trip one, and when too small, to pinch the feet. So it is with those whose fortune does not suit them.

- Horace

Usually the modest person passes for someone reserved, the silent for a sullen person.

- Horace

Why do you hasten to remove anything which hurts your eye, while if something affects your soul you postpone the cure until next year?

- Horace

A host is like a general: calamities often reveal his genius.

- Horace

Subdue your passion or it will subdue you.

- Horace

If you would have me weep, you must first of all feel grief yourself.

- Horace

A portion of mankind take pride in their vices and pursue their purpose; many more waver between doing what is right and complying with what is wrong.

- Horace

Avoid inquisitive persons, for they are sure to be gossips, their ears are open to hear, but they will not keep what is entrusted to them.

- Horace

Few cross the river of time and are able to reach non-being. Most of them run up and down only on this side of the river. But those who when they know the law follow the path of the law, they shall reach the other shore and go beyond the realm of death.

- Horace

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

- Horace

He who postpones the hour of living is like the rustic who waits for the river to run out before he crosses.

- Horace

Who then is free? The wise man who can command himself.

- Horace

Labor diligently to increase your property.

- Horace

Why harass with eternal purposes a mind to weak to grasp them?

- Horace

He has the deed half done who has made a beginning.

- Horace

He who would begun has half done. Dare to be wise; begin.

- Horace

Fidelity is the sister of justice.

- Horace

Wisdom is not wisdom when it is derived from books alone.

- Horace

The disgrace of others often keeps tender minds from vice.

- Horace

The pen is the tongue of the mind.

- Horace

Make a good use of the present.

- Horace

Strange - is it not? That of the myriads who Before us passed the door of Darkness through, Not one returns to tell us of the road Which to discover we must travel too.

- Horace

One wanders to the left, another to the right. Both are equally in error, but, are seduced by different delusions.

- Horace

Clogged with yesterday's excess, the body drags the mind down with it.

- Horace

To have a great man for a friend seems pleasant to those who have never tried it; those who have, fear it.

- Horace

O imitators, you slavish herd!

- Horace

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

- Horace

A heart well prepared for adversity in bad times hopes, and in good times fears for a change in fortune.

- Horace

Only a stomach that rarely feels hungry scorns common things.

- Horace

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

- Horace

Your own safety is at stake when your neighbor's wall is ablaze.

- Horace

It is your concern when your neighbor's wall is on fire.

- Horace

It is your business when the wall next door catches fire.

- Horace

He is armed without who is innocent within, be this thy screen, and this thy wall of brass.

- Horace

I strive to be brief but I become obscure.

- Horace

Life is largely a matter of expectation.

- Horace

We are just statistics, born to consume resources.

- Horace

When things are steep, remember to stay level-headed.

- Horace

Remember when life's path is steep to keep your mind even.

- Horace

Fortune makes a fool of those she favors too much.

- Horace

Every old poem is sacred.

- Horace

Whoever cultivates the golden mean avoids both the poverty of a hovel and the envy of a palace.

- Horace

He has not lived badly whose birth and death has been unnoticed by the world.

- Horace

You traverse the world in search of happiness, which is within the reach of every man. A contented mind confers it on all.

- Horace

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

- Horace

This is a fault common to all singers, that among their friends they will never sing when they are asked; unasked, they will never desist.

- Horace

He tosses aside his paint-pots and his words a foot and a half long.

- Horace

I never think at all when I write. Nobody can do two things at the same time and do them both well.

- Horace

No poems can please for long or live that are written by water drinkers.

- Horace

Nothing's beautiful from every point of view.

- Horace

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

- Horace

Mountains will go into labour, and a silly little mouse will be born.

- Horace

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

- Horace

If matters go badly now, they will not always be so.

- Horace

Seize the day, and put the least possible trust in tomorrow.

- Horace

Cease to inquire what the future has in store, and take as a gift whatever the day brings forth.

- Horace

Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it.

- Horace

I teach that all men are mad.

- Horace

Anger is a short madness.

- Horace

Lawyers are men who hire out their words and anger.

- Horace

Words will not fail when the matter is well considered.

- Horace

You may drive out nature with a pitchfork, yet she'll be constantly running back.

- Horace

Knowledge without education is but armed injustice.

- Horace

Leave the rest to the gods.

- Horace

Whatever advice you give, be short.

- Horace

Don't think, just do.

- Horace

In adversity remember to keep an even mind.

- Horace

It is a sweet and seemly thing to die for one's country.

- Horace