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Horace on Retirement

← All quotes by Horace

15 quotes

The mountains will be in labor, and a ridiculous mouse will be brought forth.

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

Now is the time for drinking, now the time to dance footloose upon the earth.

Odes (-23)

Time will bring to light whatever is hidden; it will cover up and conceal what is now shining in splendor.

In the hour's short space comes swift death, or joyful victory.

Enjoy the present day, trusting very little to the morrow.

Either a peaceful old age awaits me, or death flies round me with black wings.

As we speak cruel time is fleeing. Seize the day, believing as little as possible in the morrow.

Odes (-23)

While we are speaking envious time will have fled. Seize the present day.

He who would reach the desired goal must, while a boy, suffer and labor much and bear both heat and cold.

It is time for thee to be gone, lest the age more decent in its wantonness should laugh at thee and drive thee off the stage.

Each passing year robs us of some possession.

What does not destructive time destroy?

What will this boaster produce worthy of this mouthing? The mountains are in labor; a ridiculous mouse will be born.

Postumus, Postumus, the years glide by us:
Alas! no piety delays the wrinkles,
Nor the indomitable hand of Death.

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

Attribution

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