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Horace Quotes

Quintus Horatius Flaccus (8 December 65 BC – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading lyric poet in Latin.

Philosophers
Poets
Satirists

Also known as: Quintus Horatius Flaccus

Random Horace quote

314 quotes

See it be wrought on one consistent plan,
And end the same creation it began.

And yet more bright
Shines out the Julian star,
As moon outglows each lesser light.

If a man's fortune does not fit him, it is like the shoe in the story; if too large it trips him up, if too small it pinches him.

He who studies to imitate the poet Pindar, O Julius, relies on artificial wings fastened on with wax, and is sure to give his name to a glassy sea.

Tomorrow we will be back on the vast ocean.

He who postpones the hour of living as he ought, is like the rustic who waits for the river to pass along (before he crosses); but it glides on and will glide on forever.

For nature forms our spirits to receive
Each bent that outward circumstance can give:
She kindles pleasure, bids resentment glow,
Or bows the soul to earth in hopeless woe.

Ars Poetica, or The Epistle to the Pisones (-18)

So that, you know, I was eager to distinguish the straight from the crooked, and to hunt for truth in the groves of Academe.

Let’s put a limit to the scramble for money. ...
Having got what you wanted, you ought to begin to bring that struggle to an end.

Satires (-35)

Terseness there wants to make the thought ring clear.

Great effort is required to arrest decay and restore vigor. One must exercise proper deliberation, plan carefully before making a move, and be alert in guarding against relapse following a renaissance.

Quo mihi fortunam, si non conceditur uti?
Of what use is a fortune to me, if I cannot use it?

If whole in life, and free from sin,
Man needs no Moorish bow, nor dart
Nor quiver, carrying death within
By poison's art.

I am displeased when sometimes even the worthy Homer nods

Ars Poetica, or The Epistle to the Pisones (-18)

Where there are many beauties in a poem I shall not cavil at a few faults proceeding either from negligence or from the imperfection of our nature.

Here indeed I am; this is my position.

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.

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

You will not rightly call him a happy man who possesses much; he more rightly earns the name of happy who is skilled in wisely using the gifts of the gods, and in suffering hard poverty, and who fears disgrace as worse than death.

Be just: and mete to crime its condign pain;
Nor use the murd’rous lash where suits the cane.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Horace (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.