Horace Quotes (232 Quotes)

The word once spoken flies beyond recall.

Undeservedly you will atone for the sins of your fathers.

With you I should love to live, with you be ready to die.

Tomorrow we take our course once more over the mighty seas.

Why do you hasten to remove anything which hurts your eye, while if something affects your soul you postpone the cure until next year?

We are just statistics, born to consume resources.

Whatever your advice, make it brief.

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.

I strive to be brief but I become obscure.

Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it.

Subdue your passion or it will subdue you.

It is a sweet and seemly thing to die for one's country.

Mountains will be in labour, and the birth will be an absurd little mouse.

Youth is unduly busy with pampering the outer person.

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

Anger is a short madness.

Painters and poets, you say, have always had an equal license in bold invention. We know we claim the liberty for ourselves and in turn we give it to others.

Do not ask. Such knowledge is not for us.

Life gives nothing to man without labor.

I shall not wholly die, and a great part of me will escape the grave.

It is hard to utter common notions in an individual way

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

Your own safety is at stake when your neighbor's wall is ablaze.

He wins every hand who mingles profit with pleasure.

Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori - It is a sweet and becoming thing to die for ones country.

He is armed without who is innocent within, be this thy screen, and this thy wall of brass.

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.

Alas, Postumus, Postumus, the fleeting years are slipping by.

We are free to yield to truth.

I struggle to be brief, and I become obscure.

As a rule, adversity reveals genius and prosperity hides it.

Money is a handmaiden, if thou knowest how to use it; a mistress, if thou knowest not.

The disgrace of others often keeps tender minds from vice.

The lofty pine is oftenest shaken by the winds; High towers fall with a heavier crash; And the lightning strikes the highest mountain.

Amuse the reader at the same time that you instruct him

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

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.

I have completed a monument more lasting than brass.

I never think at all when I write. Nobody can do two things at the same time and do them both well.

He tosses aside his paint-pots and his words a foot and a half long.

Pale Death with impartial tread beats at the poor man's cottage door and at the palaces of kings.

Who then is free The wise man who can govern himself.

Boy, I loathe Persian luxury.

Don't think, just do.

A picture is a poem without words.

Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant.

He has the deed half done who has made a beginning.

Choose a subject equal to your abilities; think carefully what your shoulders may refuse, and what they are capable of bearing.

Mix a little foolishness with your serious plans. It is lovely to be silly at the right moment.

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