Top 500 Horace Quotes (2025 Update)
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151. “Whatever hour God has blessed you with, take it with a grateful hand.”

— Horace

152. “Even the worthy Homer sometimes nods.”

— Horace

153. “Dare to begin! He who postpones living rightly is like the rustic who waits for the river to run out before he crosses.”

— Horace

154. “In love there are two evils: war and peace.”

— Horace

155. “Our parents, worse than our grandparents, gave birth to us who are worse than they, and we shall in our turn bear offspring still more evil.”

— Horace

156. “Let your poem be kept nine years.”

— Horace

157. “That corner of the world smiles for me more than anywhere else.”

— Horace

158. “There is measure in all things.”

— Horace

159. “God can change the lowest to the highest, abase the proud, and raise the humble.”

— Horace

160. “Once a word has been allowed to escape, it cannot be recalled.”

— Horace

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

— Horace

162. “A leech that will not quit the skin until sated with blood.”

— Horace

163. “From the egg to the apple.”

— Horace

164. “A heart well prepared for adversity in bad times hopes, and in good times fears for a change in fortune.”

— Horace

165. “We are often deterred from crime by the disgrace of others.”

— Horace

166. “This used to be among my prayers – a piece of land not so very large, which would contain a garden.”

— Horace

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

— Horace

168. “He will always be a slave who does not know how to live upon a little.”

— Horace

169. “What can be found equal to modesty, uncorrupt faith, the sister of justice, and undisguised truth?”

— Horace

170. “Summer treads on heels of spring.”

— Horace

171. “To grow a philosopher’s beard.”

— Horace

172. “Years, following years, steal something every day; At last they steal us from ourselves away.”

— Horace

173. “In avoiding one vice fools rush into the opposite extreme.”

— Horace

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

— Horace

175. “A greater liar than the Parthians.”

— Horace

176. “It is sweet and right to die for the homeland, but it is sweeter to live for the homeland, and the sweetest to drink for it. Therefore, let us drink to the health of the homeland.”

— Horace

177. “Do you count your birthdays with gratitude?”

— Horace

178. “Lighten grief with hopes of a brighter morrow; Temper joy, in fear of a change of fortune.”

— Horace

179. “The mind that is cheerful in its present state, will be averse to all solicitude as to the future, and will meet the bitter occurrences of life with a placid smile.”

— Horace

180. “I am frightened at seeing all the footprints directed towards thy den, and none returning.”

— Horace

181. “A poem is like a painting.”

— Horace

182. “No master can make me swear blind obedience.”

— Horace

183. “Friends fly away when the cask has been drained to the dregs.”

— Horace

184. “Lawyers are men who hire out their words and anger.”

— Horace

185. “Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio.”

— Horace

186. “Add a sprinkling of folly to your long deliberations.”

— Horace

187. “Music is an incitement to love.”

— Horace

188. “My liver swells with bile difficult to repress.”

— Horace

189. “The common people are but ill judges of a man’s merits; they are slaves to fame, and their eyes are dazzled with the pomp of titles and large retinue. No wonder, then, that they bestow their honors on those who least deserve them.”

— Horace

190. “What exile from his country is able to escape from himself?”

— Horace

191. “In hard times, no less than in prosperity, preserve equanimity.”

— Horace

192. “Superfluous words simply spill out when the mind is already full.”

— Horace

193. “The work you are treating is one full of dangerous hazard, and you are treading over fires lurking beneath treacherous ashes.”

— Horace

194. “Let your mind, happily contented with the present, care not what the morrow will bring with it.”

— Horace

195. “When putting words together is good to do it with nicety and caution, your elegance and talent will be evident if by putting ordinary words together you create a new voice.”

— Horace

196. “Let hopes and sorrows, fears and angers be, And think each day that dawns the last you’ll see; For so the hour that greets you unforeseen Will bring with it enjoyment twice as keen.”

— Horace

197. “The mountains are in labour, the birth will be an absurd little mouse.”

— Horace

198. “Sometimes even excellent Homer nods.”

— Horace

199. “A wise God shrouds the future in obscure darkness.”

— Horace

200. “If virtue holds the secret, don’t defer; Be off with pleasure, and be on with her.”

— Horace