Horace Quotes

222 Sourced Quotes

He wins every hand who mingles profit with pleasure, by delighting and instructing the reader at the same time.

Horace
What do the ravages of time not injure? Our parents' age (worse than our grandparents') has produced us, more worthless still, who will soon give rise to a yet more vicious generation.

Horace
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.

Horace
Decus et pretium recte petit experiens vir.
The man who makes the attempt justly aims at honour and reward.

Horace
All our hope is fallen, fallen, and the luck of our name lost with Hasdrubal.

Horace
Anger is a brief lunacy, so control your passion or it will control you.

Horace
Oak was round his breast, and triple bronze, who first launched his frail boat on the rough sea.

Horace
Why should truth not be impress'd
Beneath the cover of a jest.

Horace
Then take, good sir, your pleasure while you may; With life so short 'twere wrong to lose a day.

Horace
In peace, as a wise man, he should make suitable preparation for war.

Horace
O Fortune, cruelest of heavenly powers, Why make such game of this poor life of ours?

Horace
Atque inter silvas Academi quaerere verum [And seek for truth in the groves of Academe].

Horace
It is the mountaintop that the lightning strikes.

Horace
As money grows, care follows it and the hunger for more.

Horace
This used to be among my prayers — a piece of land not so very large, which would contain a garden, and near the house a spring of ever-flowing water, and beyond these a bit of wood.

Horace
O fount Bandusian, more sparkling than glass.

Horace
Swift moons make good their losses in the sky,
but when we go down to be
with pious Aeneas, wealthy Tullus, and Ancus,
we are dust and shadow.

Horace
I would not have borne this in my hot youth when Plancus was consul.

Horace
I hate the common herd and keep them off. Hush your tongues; as a priest of the Muses, I sing songs never heard before to virgin girls and boys.

Horace
The year and the hour which robs us of the fair day warn us not to hope for things to last for ever.

Horace
Enjoy the present smiling hour,
And put it out of Fortune's power.

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

Horace
O citizens, first acquire wealth; you can practise virtue afterwards.

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