Horace Quotes

222 Sourced Quotes

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

Horace
There is nothing hard inside the olive; nothing hard outside the nut.

Horace
Silver is less valuable than gold, gold than virtue.
In Latin: Vilius argentum est auro virtutibus aurum.

Horace
As they put it in Greek, we simply don't COUNT. We consume.

Horace
All else-valor, a good name, glory, everything in heaven and earth-is secondary to the charm of riches.

Horace
You may turn nature out of doors with violence, but she will still return.

Horace
When a man is just and firm in his purpose,
The citizens burning to approve a wrong
Or the frowning looks of a tyrant
Do not shake his fixed mind, nor the Southwind.
Wild lord of the uneasy Adriatic,
Nor the thunder in the mighty hand of Jove:
Should the heavens crack and tumble down,
As the ruins crushed him he would not fear.

Horace
One goes to the right, the other to the left; both are wrong, but in different directions.

Horace
Care clings to wealth: the thirst for more Grows as our fortunes grow.

Horace
He, that holds fast the golden mean,
And lives contentedly between
The little and the great,
Feels not the wants that pinch the poor,
Nor plagues that haunt the rich man's door,
Imbitt'ring all his state.

Horace
Keep clear of courts: a homely life transcends The vaunted bliss of monarchs and their friends.

Horace
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.

Horace
With equal pace, impartial Fate
Knocks at the palace, as the cottage gate.

Horace
Receive, dear friend, the truths I teach,
So shalt thou live beyond the reach
Of adverse Fortune's pow'r;
Not always tempt the distant deep,
Nor always timorously creep
Along the treach'rous shore.

Horace
The brave are born from the brave and good. In steers and in horses is to be found the excellence of their sire; nor do savage eagles produce a peaceful dove.

Horace
There is a mean in things, fixed limits on either side of which right living cannot get a foothold.

Horace
Let us both small and great push forward in this work, in this pursuit, if to our country, if to ourselves we would live dear.

Horace
Our years Glide silently away. No tears, No loving orisons repair The wrinkled cheek, the whitening hair That drop forgotten to the tomb.

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

Horace
Lighten grief with hopes of a brighter morrow; Temper joy, in fear of a change of fortune.

Horace
With my head exalted I shall touch the stars.

Horace
What with your friend you nobly share, At least you rescue from your heir.

Horace
Ah Fortune, what god is more cruel to us than thou! How thou delightest ever to make sport of human life!

Horace
The more a man denies himself, the more he shall receive from heaven. Naked, I seek the camp of those who covet nothing.

Horace
Stop looking for the place where a late rose may yet linger.

Horace
His thinking does not produce smoke after the flame, but light after smoke.

Horace
Scholars dispute, and the case is still before the courts.

Horace
While we're talking, envious time is fleeing: seize the day, put no trust in the future.

Horace
None knows the reason why this curse
Was sent on him, this love of making verse.

Horace
Struggling to be brief I become obscure.

Horace