Top 500 Horace Quotes (2026 Update)
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201. “The mountains are in labour, the birth will be an absurd little mouse.”

— Horace

202. “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

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

— Horace

204. “Sometimes even excellent Homer nods.”

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

208. “Be smart, drink your wine.”

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

211. “Scribblers are a self-conceited and self-worshipping race.”

— Horace

212. “Who then is free? The wise who can command his passions, who fears not want, nor death, nor chains, firmly resisting his appetites and despising the honors of the world, who relies wholly on himself, whose angular points of character have all been rounded off and polished.”

— Horace

213. “Fiction intended to please, should resemble truth as much as possible.”

— Horace

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

— Horace

215. “My cares and my inquiries are for decency and truth, and in this I am wholly occupied.”

— Horace

216. “There is no retracing our steps.”

— Horace

217. “Take heed lest you stumble.”

— Horace

218. “Nothing is so difficult but that man will accomplish it.”

— Horace

219. “Those who covet much suffer from the want.”

— Horace

220. “Painters and poets have equal license in regard to everything.”

— Horace

221. “What has this unfeeling age of ours left untried, what wickedness has it shunned?”

— Horace

222. “Nos numeros sumus et fruges consumere nati. We are but ciphers, born to consume earth’s fruits.”

— Horace

223. “Alas, Postumus, the fleeting years slip by, nor will piety give any stay to wrinkles and pressing old age and untamable death.”

— Horace

224. “The same night awaits us all.”

— Horace

225. “Your property is in danger when your neighbour’s house is on fire.”

— Horace

226. “It is not every man that can afford to go to Corinth.”

— Horace

227. “Be not caught by the cunning of those who appear in a disguise.”

— Horace

228. “I was what you are, you will be what I am.”

— Horace

229. “People hiss at me, but I applaud myself in my own house, and at the same time contemplate the money in my chest.”

— Horace

230. “Grammatici certant et adhuc sub iudice lis est. – Grammarians dispute, and the case it still before the courts.”

— Horace

231. “Change but the name, and you are the subject of the story.”

— Horace

Featured in: Quotes About Stories

232. “Take as a gift whatever the day brings forth...”

— Horace

233. “A word once let out of the cage cannot be whistled back again.”

— Horace

234. “Without love and laughter there is no joy; live amid love and laughter.”

— Horace

235. “I shall strike the stars with my unlifted head.”

— Horace

236. “The just man having a firm grasp of his intentions, neither the heated passions of his fellow men ordaining something awful, nor a tyrant staring him in the face, will shake in his convictions.”

— Horace

237. “Fierce eagles breed not the tender dove.”

— Horace

238. “It is sweet to let the mind unbend on occasion.”

— Horace

239. “Now is the time for drinking; now the time to beat the earth with unfettered foot.”

— Horace

240. “And seek for truth in the groves of Academe.”

— Horace

241. “It is the false shame of fools to try to conceal wounds that have not healed.”

— Horace

242. “Pale Death beats equally at the poor man’s gate and at the palaces of kings.”

— Horace

243. “This was my prayer: an adequate portion of land with a garden and a spring of water and a small wood to complete the picture.”

— Horace

244. “While we’re talking, envious time is fleeing: pluck the day, put no trust in the future.”

— Horace

245. “Whatever advice you give, be short.”

— Horace

246. “Plant no other tree before the vine.”

— Horace

247. “The cautious wolf fears the pit, the hawk regards with suspicion the snare laid for her, and the fish the hook in its concealment.”

— Horace

248. “The years as they pass plunder us of one thing after another.”

— Horace

249. “I am not bound over to swear allegiance to any master; where the storm drives me I turn in for shelter.”

— Horace

250. “As shines the moon amid the lesser fires.”

— Horace