Top 500 Horace Quotes (2024 Update)
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151. “In love there are two evils: war and peace.”

— Horace

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

— Horace

153. “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

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

164. “Summer treads on heels of spring.”

— Horace

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

— Horace

166. “To grow a philosopher’s beard.”

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

170. “He wins every hand who mingles profit with pleasure.”

— Horace

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

— Horace

172. “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

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

— Horace

174. “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

175. “A poem is like a painting.”

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

180. “A greater liar than the Parthians.”

— Horace

181. “Music is an incitement to love.”

— Horace

182. “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

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

185. “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

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

189. “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

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

193. “The impartial earth opens alike for the child of the pauper and the king.”

— Horace

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

— Horace

195. “Sometimes even excellent Homer nods.”

— Horace

196. “How slight and insignificant is the thing which casts down or restores a mind greedy for praise.”

— Horace

197. “Much is wanting to those who seek or covet much.”

— Horace

198. “There are lessons to be learned from a stupid man.”

— Horace

199. “Be smart, drink your wine.”

— Horace

200. “Nor has he lived in vain, who from his cradle to his grave has passed his life in seclusion.”

— Horace