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Quotes by Horace


The covetous man is ever in want.
– Horace
A good and faithful judge ever prefers the honorable to the expedient.
– Horace
A heart well prepared for adversity in bad times hopes, and in good times fears for a change in fortune.
– Horace
A picture is a poem without words.
– 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
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
A word once uttered can never be recalled.
– Horace
Always keep your composure. You can't score from the penalty box; and to win, you have to score.
– Horace
Anger is a short madness.
– Horace
As crazy as hauling timber into the woods.
– 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
Begin, be bold and venture to be wise.
– Horace
Clogged with yesterday's excess, the body drags the mind down with it.
– Horace
Don't think, just do.
– Horace
Every old poem is sacred.
– 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
Fidelity is the sister of justice.
– Horace
Fortune makes a fool of those she favors too much.
– Horace
Good sense is both the first principal and the parent source of good writing.
– 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
He gains everyone's approval who mixes the pleasant with the useful.
– Horace
He has not lived badly whose birth and death has been unnoticed by the world.
– Horace
He is armed without who is innocent within, be this thy screen, and this thy wall of brass.
– Horace
He tosses aside his paint-pots and his words a foot and a half long.
– Horace
He who is upright in his way of life and free from sin.
– Horace
How great, my friends, is the virtue of living upon a little!
– Horace
I hate the irreverent rabble and keep them far from me.
– Horace
I have completed a monument more lasting than brass.
– Horace
I never think at all when I write. Nobody can do two things at the same time and do them both well.
– Horace
I teach that all men are mad.
– 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
If matters go badly now, they will not always be so.
– Horace
In labouring to be concise, I become obscure.
– Horace
It is a sweet and seemly thing to die for one's country.
– 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 of no consequence of what parents a man is born, as long as he be a man of merit.
– Horace
It is the false shame of fools to try to conceal wounds that have not healed.
– Horace
It is your business when the wall next door catches fire.
– Horace
It is your concern when your neighbor's wall is on fire.
– Horace
It's a good thing to be foolishly gay once in a while.
– Horace
Knowledge without education is but armed injustice.
– Horace
Labor diligently to increase your property.
– Horace
Leave the rest to the gods.
– Horace
Let your literary compositions be kept from the public eye for nine years at least.
– Horace
Life is largely a matter of expectation.
– Horace
Make a good use of the present.
– Horace
Mingle some brief folly with your wisdom.
– Horace
Money is a handmaiden, if thou knowest how to use it; a mistress, if thou knowest not.
– Horace
Mountains will go into labour, and a silly little mouse will be born.
– Horace
My liver swells with bile difficult to repress.
– Horace
No verse can give pleasure for long, nor last, that is written by drinkers of water.
– Horace
Nothing's beautiful from every point of view.
– Horace
Now is the time for drinking, now the time to beat the earth with unfettered foot.
– Horace
O imitators, you slavish herd!
– Horace
Only a stomach that rarely feels hungry scorns common things.
– Horace
Poets wish to profit or to please.
– Horace
Sad people dislike the happy, and the happy the sad; the quick thinking the sedate, and the careless the busy and industrious.
– 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
Subdue your passion or it will subdue you.
– Horace
Suffering is but another name for the teaching of experience, which is the parent of instruction and the schoolmaster of life.
– Horace
The disgrace of others often keeps tender minds from vice.
– Horace
The envious man grows lean at the success of his neighbor.
– Horace
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 greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes.
– Horace
The harder you fall, the higher you bounce.
– 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
The man is either mad, or he is making verses.
– Horace
The one who cannot restrain their anger will wish undone, what their temper and irritation prompted them to do.
– Horace
The pen is the tongue of the mind.
– Horace
Think of the wonders uncorked by wine! It opens secrets, gives heart to our hopes, pushes the cowardly into battle, lifts the load from anxious minds, and evokes talents. Thanks to the bottle's prompting no one is lost for words, no one who's cramped by poverty fails to find release.
– Horace
Time will bring to light whatever is hidden; it will cover up and conceal what is now shining in splendor.
– Horace
Undeservedly you will atone for the sins of your fathers.
– Horace
Usually the modest person passes for someone reserved, the silent for a sullen person.
– Horace
We are free to yield to truth.
– Horace
We are just statistics, born to consume resources.
– Horace
We are often deterred from crime by the disgrace of others.
– Horace
What we learn only through the ears makes less impression upon our minds than what is presented to the trustworthy eye.
– Horace
Whatever advice you give, be short.
– Horace
When things are steep, remember to stay level-headed.
– Horace
While fools shun one set of faults they run into the opposite one.
– Horace
Who then is free? The wise man who can govern himself.
– 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
Why harass with eternal purposes a mind to weak to grasp them?
– Horace
Wisdom is not wisdom when it is derived from books alone.
– Horace
Words will not fail when the matter is well considered.
– Horace
You have played enough; you have eaten and drunk enough. Now it is time for you to depart.
– Horace
You must avoid sloth, that wicked siren.
– 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
Your own safety is at stake when your neighbor's wall is ablaze.
– Horace
Patience makes lighter
What sorrow may not heal.
– Horace
Drop the question what tomorrow may bring, and count as profit every day that fate allows you.
– Horace
Faults are soon copied.
– Horace
He who postpones the hour of living rightly is like the rustic who waits for the river to run out before he crosses.
– Horace
He will always be a slave who does not know how to live upon a little.
– Horace
I will not add another word.
– Horace
If you wish me to weep, you must mourn first yourself.
– Horace
Mix a little foolishness with your prudence: It's good to be silly at the right moment.
– Horace
Of writing well the source and fountainhead is wise thinking.
– Horace
Remember when life's path is steep to keep your mind even.
– Horace
The appearance of right oft leads us wrong.
– Horace