Top 500 Horace Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “If you cannot conduct yourself with propriety, give place to those who can.”

— Horace

52. “Live as brave men and face adversity with stout hearts.”

— Horace

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

— Horace

54. “Lightning strikes the tops of the mountains.”

— Horace

55. “The arrow will not always find the mark intended.”

— Horace

56. “Fortune makes a fool of those she favors too much.”

— Horace

57. “Wisdom at times is found in folly.”

— Horace

58. “No one is content with his own lot.”

— Horace

59. “The hour of happiness which comes unexpectedly is the happiest.”

— Horace

60. “Having no business of his own to attend to, he busies himself with the affairs of others.”

— Horace

61. “Why do you laugh? Change the name and the story is about you.”

— Horace

62. “Deep in the cavern of the infant’s breast; the father’s nature lurks, and lives anew.”

— Horace

63. “Wherever the storm carries me, I go a willing guest.”

— Horace

64. “Pale death knocks with impartial foot at poor men’s hovels and king’s palaces.”

— Horace

65. “Adversity reveals the genius of a general; good fortune conceals it.”

— Horace

66. “In neglected fields the fern grows, which must be cleared out by fire.”

— Horace

67. “It is delightful to play the fool.”

— Horace

68. “It is good to labor; it is also good to rest from labor.”

— Horace

69. “Though your threshing floor grind a hundred thousand bushels of corn, not for that reason will your stomach hold more than mine.”

— Horace

70. “He who has made it a practice to lie and deceive his father, will be the most daring in deceiving others.”

— Horace

71. “That destructive siren, sloth, is ever to be avoided.”

— Horace

72. “Wise were the kings who never chose a friend till with full cups they had unmasked his soul, and seen the bottom of his deepest thoughts.”

— Horace

73. “If matters go badly now, they will not always be so.”

— Horace

74. “Once sent out, a word takes wings beyond recall.”

— Horace

75. “Many heroes lived before Agamemnon; but all are unknown and unwept, extinguished in everlasting night, because they have no spirited chronicler.”

— Horace

76. “We are deceived by the appearance of right.”

— Horace

77. “In times of stress, be bold and valiant.”

— Horace

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

— Horace

79. “A corrupt judge does not carefully search for the truth.”

— Horace

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

— Horace

81. “Often a purple patch or two is tacked on to a serious work of high promise, to give an effect of colour.”

— Horace

82. “Silver is of less value than gold, gold than virtue.”

— Horace

83. “He who feared that he would not succeed sat still.”

— Horace

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

— Horace

85. “A word once uttered can never be recalled.”

— Horace

86. “Often you must turn your stylus to erase, if you hope to write anything worth a second reading.”

— Horace

87. “In my integrity I’ll wrap me up.”

— Horace

88. “Amiability shines by its own light.”

— Horace

89. “The cask will long retain the flavour of the wine with which it was first seasoned.”

— Horace

90. “When you introduce a moral lesson, let it be brief.”

— Horace

91. “He paints a dolphin in the woods, a boar in the waves.”

— Horace

92. “If nothing is delightful without love and jokes, then live in love and jokes.”

— Horace

93. “Fools through false shame, conceal their open wounds.”

— Horace

94. “Let me posses what I now have, or even less, so that I may enjoy my remaining days, if Heaven grant any to remain.”

— Horace

95. “A pauper in the midst of wealth.”

— Horace

96. “If you are only an underling, don’t dress too fine.”

— Horace

97. “Who then is sane? He who is not a fool.”

— Horace

98. “Better one thorn pluck’d out than all remain.”

— Horace

99. “In adversity be spirited and firm, and with equal prudence lessen your sail when filled with a too fortunate gale of prosperity.”

— Horace

100. “Surely oak and threefold brass surrounded his heart who first trusted a frail vessel to the merciless ocean.”

— Horace