Quotes by Horace

Happy the man, and happy he alone, he who can call today his own: he who, secure within, can say, tomorrow, to thy worst, for I have liv'd today.

The ridiculous is more easily retained than the admirable.

The stingy are always in need.

The higher the tower, the greater the fall thereof.

Laugh and the world laughs with you; cry and you cry alone.

It is delightful to play the fool.

All in good time.

You can drive out nature with a pitchfork but she keeps on coming back.

Death is the last limit of all things.

Live mindful of how brief your life is.

He who feared that he would not succeed sat still.

When life's path is steep, keep your mind even.

What fugitive from his country can also escape from himself.

Punishment closely follows guilt as its companion.

Busy not yourself in looking forward to the events of to-morrow; but whatever may be those of the days Providence may yet assign you neglect not to turn them to advantage.

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

I praise her (Fortune) while she lasts; if she shakes her quick wings, I resign what she has given, and take refuge in my own virtue, and seek honest undowered Poverty.

Cease to ask what the morrow
will bring forth,
and set down as gain
each day that fortune grants.

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

Oh! thou who are greatly mad, deign to spare me who am less mad.

Who then is sane? He who is not a fool.

We hate virtue when it is safe; when removed from our sight we diligently seek it.

Boys must not have th' ambitious care of men,
Nor men the weak anxieties of age.

The more a man denies himself, the more shall he obtain from God.

One gains universal applause who mingles the useful with the agreeable, at once delighting and instructing the reader.

Those who covet much suffer from the want.

The arrow will not always find the mark intended.

He who sings the praises of his boyhood's days.

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

There is need of brevity, that the thought may run on.

Aiming at brevity, I become obscure.

Do you count your birthdays with gratitude?

A cup concealed in the dress is rarely honestly carried.

In laboring to be concise, I become obscure.

It is no easy matter to say commonplace things in an original way.

What do sad complaints avail if the offense is not cut down by punishment.

He who is always in a hurry to be wealthy and immersed in the study of augmenting his fortune has lost the arms of reason and deserted the post of virtue.

He despises what he sought; and he seeks that which he lately threw away.

Virtue, dear friend, needs no defense,
The surest guard is innocence:
None knew, till guilt created fear,
What darts or poisoned arrows were.

If nothing is delightful without love and jokes, then live in love and jokes.

Curst is the wretch enslaved to such a vice,
Who ventures life and soul upon the dice.

When a man is pleased with the lot of others, he is dissatisfied with his own, as a matter of course.

It is not enough that poetry is agreeable, it should also be interesting.

Consider well what your strength is equal to, and what exceeds your ability.

Sometimes even excellent Homer nods.

By the favour of the heavens.

Wisdom at times is found in folly.

Mingle some brief folly with wisdom now: To be foolish is sweet at times.

Necessity takes impartially the highest and the lowest.

And seek for truth in the groves of Academe.

My age, my inclinations, are no longer what they were.

In the word of no master am I bound to believe.

Force without judgement falls on its own weight.

A corrupt judge does not carefully search for the truth.

Life gives nothing to man without labor.

What can be found equal to modesty, uncorrupt faith, the sister of justice, and undisguised truth?

The fellow is either a madman or a poet.

What will this boaster produce worthy of this mouthing? The mountains are in labor; a ridiculous mouse will be born.

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

The Muse gave the Greeks genius and the art of the well-turned phrase.

Fire, if neglected, will soon gain strength.

Your property is in danger when your neighbour's house is on fire.

Yet Glory drags in chains behind her dazzling car
the obscure no less than the noble.

Sovereign money procures a wife with a large fortune, gets a man credit, creates friends, stands in place of pedigree, and even of beauty.

A person will gain everyone's approval if he mixes the pleasant with the useful.

I live and reign since I have abandoned those pleasures which you by your praises extol to the skies.

The common people are but ill judges of a man's merits; they are slaves to fame, and their eyes are dazzled with the pomp of titles and large retinue. No wonder, then, that they bestow their honors on those who least deserve them.

It will be practicable to blot written words which you do not publish; but the spoken word it is not possible to recall.

Posterity, thinned by the crime of its ancestors, shall hear of those battles.

No man ever reached to excellence in any one art or profession without having passed through the slow and painful process of study and preparation.

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

Riches either serve or govern the possessor.

Everything, virtue, glory, honor, things human and divine, all are slaves to riches.

A good resolve will make any port.

Catch the opportunity while it lasts, and rely not on what the morrow may bring.

Take away the danger and remove the restraint, and wayward nature runs free.

In truth it is best to learn wisdom, and abandoning all nonsense, to leave it to boys to enjoy their season of play and mirth.

In my youth I thought of writing a satire on mankind! but now in my age I think I should write an apology for them.

If the crow had been satisfied to eat his prey in silence, he would have had more meat and less quarreling and envy.

Now, that's enough.

Those who seek for much are left in want of much. Happy is he to whom God has given, with sparing hand, as much as is enough.

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

Be ever on your guard what you say of anybody and to whom.

Not treasured wealth, nor the consul's lictor, can dispel the mind's bitter conflicts and the cares that flit, like bats, about your fretted roofs.

When evil times prevail, take care to preserve the serenity of your hear.

Don't think, just do.

When your throat is parched with thirst, do you desire a cup of gold?

What does it avail you, if of many thorns only one be removed.

Leuconoe, close the book of fate, For troubles are in store, ... Live today, tomorrow is not.

The just man having a firm grasp of his intentions, neither the heated passions of his fellow men ordaining something awful, nor a tyrant staring him in the face, will shake in his convictions.

False praise can please, and calumny affright
None but the vicious, and the hypocrite.

Silver is less valuable than gold, gold than virtue.

We set up harsh and unkind rules against ourselves. No one is born without faults. That man is best who has fewest.

Heir follows heir, as wave succeeds to wave.

Shun to seek what is hid in the womb of the morrow, and set down as gain in life's ledger whatever time fate shall have granted thee.

Excellence when concealed, differs but little from buried worthlessness.

Flames too soon acquire strength if disregarded.

Brighter than Parian marble.

I have erected amonument more lasting than bronze.