Horace Quotes

222 Sourced Quotes

The mind enamored with deceptive things, declines things better.

Horace
How light, how small is the thing which casts down or restores a mind greedy for praise.

Horace
In Rome you long for the country; in the country— oh inconstant! —you praise the distant city to the stars.

Horace
Let a play have five acts, neither more nor less.

Horace
We belabour each other, and with tit for tat use up our foe, like Samnites, in a long-drawn bout, till the first lamps are lighted.
Of literary battles

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

Horace
Believe each day that has dawned is your last. Some hour to which you have not been looking forward will prove lovely. As for me, if you want a good laugh, you will come and find me fat and sleek, in excellent condition, one of Epicurus's herd of pigs.

Horace
Many terms which have now dropped out of favour will be revived, and those that are at present respectable will drop out, if usage so choose, with whom lies the decision, the judgement, and the rule of speech.

Horace
Barefaced poverty drove me to writing verses.

Horace
To marvel at nothing is just about the one and only thing, Numicius, that can make a man happy and keep him that way.

Horace
Make money, money by fair means if you can, if not, by any means money.

Horace
It is not the least praise to have pleased leading men. Not everyone is lucky enough to get to Corinth.

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

Horace
Gloriously perjured, a maiden famous to all time.

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

Horace
Many brave men lived before Agamemnon; but all are overwhelmed in eternal night, unwept, unknown, because they lack a sacred poet.

Horace
The Muse gave the Greeks their native character, and allowed them to speak in noble tones, they who desired nothing but praise.

Horace
Surely oak and threefold brass surrounded his heart who first trusted a frail vessel to the merciless ocean.

Horace
But you, though in the very shadow of death, place contracts for cutting marble slabs, and build houses without giving a thought to your tomb.

Horace
Ah me, Postumus, Postumus, the fleeting years are slipping by.

Horace
You ask me why a soft numbness diffuses all my inmost senses with deep oblivion, as though with thirsty throat I'd drained the cup that brings the sleep of Lethe.

Horace
Let hopes and sorrows, fears and angers be, And think each day that dawns the last you'll see; For so the hour that greets you unforeseen Will bring with it enjoyment twice as keen.

Horace
He is not poor who has enough of things to use. If it is well with your belly, chest and feet, the wealth of kings can give you nothing more.

Horace
Force, unaided by judgement, collapses through its own weight.

Horace
Whatever madness their kings commit, the Greeks take the beating.

Horace