Top 500 Horace Quotes (2024 Update)
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351. “Books have their destinies.”

— Horace

352. “Weigh well what your shoulders can and cannot bear.”

— Horace

353. “Cease to admire the smoke, wealth, and noise of prosperous Rome.”

— Horace

354. “The avarice person is ever in want; let your desired aim have a fixed limit.”

— Horace

355. “It is no great art to say something briefly when, like Tacitus, one has something to say; when one has nothing to say, however, and none the less writes a whole book and makes truth into a liar – that I call an achievement.”

— Horace

356. “Abridge your hopes in proportion to the shortness of the span of human life; for while we converse, the hours, as if envious of our pleasure, fly away: enjoy, therefore, the present time, and trust not too much to what to-morrow may produce.”

— Horace

357. “Money is a handmaiden, if thou knowest how to use it A mistress, if thou knowest not.”

— Horace

358. “Those who want much, are always much in need.”

— Horace

359. “Learned or unlearned we all must be scribbling.”

— Horace

360. “In the word of no master am I bound to believe.”

— Horace

361. “Painters and poets alike have always had license to dare anything! We know that, and we both claim and allow to others in their turn this indulgence.”

— Horace

362. “Get what start the sinner may, Retribution, for all her lame leg, never quits his track.”

— Horace

363. “What odds does it make to the man who lives within Nature’s bounds, whether he ploughs a hundred acres or a thousand?”

— Horace

364. “Life is largely a matter of expectation.”

— Horace

365. “Keep clear of courts: a homely life transcends The vaunted bliss of monarchs and their friends.”

— Horace

366. “Those unacquainted with the world take pleasure in intimacy with great men; those who are wiser fear the consequences.”

— Horace

367. “Fire, if neglected, will soon gain strength.”

— Horace

368. “By the favour of the heavens.”

— Horace

369. “A bad reader soon puts to flight both wise men and fools.”

— Horace

370. “You will have written exceptionally well if, by skilful arrangement of your words, you have made an ordinary one seem original.”

— Horace

371. “Busy idleness urges us on.”

— Horace

372. “A jest often decides matters of importance more effectively and happily than seriousness.”

— Horace

373. “In going abroad we change the climate not our dispositions.”

— Horace

374. “Consider well what your strength is equal to, and what exceeds your ability.”

— Horace

375. “The mad is either insane or he is composing verses.”

— Horace

376. “Many terms which have now dropped out of favour will be revived, and those that are at present respectable, will drop out, if useage so choose with whom resides the decision and the judgment and the code of speech.”

— Horace

377. “The jackdaw, stript of her stolen colours, provokes our laughter.”

— Horace

378. “Who’s started has half finished.”

— Horace

379. “Avoid inquisitive persons, for they are sure to be gossips, their ears are open to hear, but they will not keep what is entrusted to them.”

— Horace

380. “It is difficult to speak of the universal specifically.”

— Horace

381. “Success in the affairs of life often serves to hide one’s abilities, whereas adversity frequently gives one an opportunity to discover them.”

— Horace

382. “Let your literary compositions be kept from the public eye for nine years at least.”

— Horace

383. “I shall not completely die.”

— Horace

384. “The muse does not allow the praise-de-serving here to die: she enthrones him in the heavens.”

— Horace

385. “Of writing well the source and fountainhead is wise thinking.”

— Horace

386. “A word, once sent abroad, flies irrevocably.”

— Horace

387. “Pry not into the affairs of others, and keep secret that which has been entrusted to you, though sorely tempted by wine and passion.”

— Horace

388. “Wherein is the use of getting rid of one thorn out of many?”

— Horace

389. “Those who go overseas find a change of climate, not a change of soul.”

— Horace

390. “Is virtue raised by culture, or self-sown?”

— Horace

391. “Man learns more readily and remembers more willingly what excites his ridicule than what deserves esteem and respect.”

— Horace

392. “Rains driven by storms fall not perpetually on the land already sodden, neither do varying gales for ever disturb the Caspian sea.”

— Horace

393. “It is your business when the wall next door catches fire.”

— Horace

394. “In the midst of hopes and cares, of apprehensions and of disquietude, regard every day that dawns upon you as if it was to be your last; then super-added hours, to the enjoyment of which you had not looked forward, will prove an acceptable boon.”

— Horace

395. “Drive Nature from your door with a pitchfork, and she will return again and again.”

— Horace

396. “Luck cannot change birth.”

— Horace

397. “One Sallow does not make Summer.”

— Horace

398. “At Rome I love Tibur; then, like a weathercock, at Tibur Rome.”

— Horace

399. “How great, my friends, is the virtue of living upon a little!”

— Horace

400. “Mark what and how great blessings flow from a frugal diet; in the first place, thou enjoyest good health.”

— Horace