Top 500 Horace Quotes (2024 Update)
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401. “Evenhanded fate hath but one law for small and great; the ample urn holds all men’s names.”

— Horace

402. “Tear thyself from delay.”

— Horace

403. “Punishment follows close on crime.”

— Horace

404. “The cook cares not a bit for toil, toil, if the fowl be plump and fat.”

— Horace

405. “Mighty to inspire new hopes, and able to drown the bitterness of cares.”

— Horace

406. “Stronger than thunder’s winged force All-powerful gold can speed its course; Through watchful guards its passage make, And loves through solid walls to break.”

— Horace

407. “He possesses dominion over himself, and is happy, who can every day say, “I have lived.” Tomorrow the heavenly father may either involve the world in dark clouds, or cheer it with clear sunshine, he will not, however, render ineffectual the things which have already taken place.”

— Horace

408. “We set up harsh and unkind rules against ourselves. No one is born without faults. That man is best who has fewest.”

— Horace

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

— Horace

410. “A dowried wife, friends, beauty, birth, fair fame, These are the gifts of money, heavenly dame: Be but a moneyed man, persuasion tips Your tongue, and Venus settles on your lips.”

— Horace

411. “He makes himself ridiculous who is for ever repeating the same mistake.”

— Horace

412. “It is said that the propriety even of old Cato often yielded to the exciting influence of the grape.”

— Horace

413. “What with your friend you nobly share, At least you rescue from your heir.”

— Horace

414. “Riches with their wicked inducements increase; nevertheless, avarice is never satisfied.”

— Horace

415. “Riches either serve or govern the possessor.”

— Horace

416. “Think of the wonders uncorked by wine! It opens secrets, gives heart to our hopes, pushes the cowardly into battle, lifts the load from anxious minds, and evokes talents. Thanks to the bottle’s prompting no one is lost for words, no one who’s cramped by poverty fails to find release.”

— Horace

417. “Good sense is both the first principal and the parent source of good writing.”

— Horace

418. “Who has courage to say no again and again to desires, to despise the objects of ambition, who is a whole in himself, smoothed and rounded.”

— Horace

419. “In truth it is best to learn wisdom, and abandoning all nonsense, to leave it to boys to enjoy their season of play and mirth.”

— Horace

420. “Whither, O god of wine, art thou hurrying me, whilst under thy all-powerful influence?”

— Horace

421. “The good refrain from sin from the pure love of virtue.”

— Horace

422. “Everything, virtue, glory, honor, things human and divine, all are slaves to riches.”

— Horace

423. “Words challenge eternity.”

— Horace

424. “It’s a good thing to be foolishly gay once in a while.”

— Horace

425. “Patience lightens the burthen we cannot avert.”

— Horace

426. “He has not lived badly whose birth and death has been unnoticed by the world.”

— Horace

427. “Victory is by nature superb and insulting.”

— Horace

428. “Our years Glide silently away. No tears, No loving orisons repair The wrinkled cheek, the whitening hair That drop forgotten to the tomb.”

— Horace

429. “There are words and accents by which this grief can be assuaged, and the disease in a great measure removed.”

— Horace

430. “God has joined the innocent with the guilty.”

— Horace

431. “Wine unlocks the breast.”

— Horace

432. “Believe it, future generations.”

— Horace

433. “He appears mad indeed but to a few, because the majority is infected with the same disease.”

— Horace

434. “Frugality is one thing, avarice another.”

— Horace

435. “Take heed lest you stumble.”

— Horace

436. “The musician who always plays on the same string is laughed at.”

— Horace

437. “Joys do not fall to the rich alone; nor has he lived ill of whose birth and death no one took note.”

— Horace

438. “There are calumnies against which even innocence loses courage.”

— Horace

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

— Horace

440. “Be this our wall of brass, to be conscious of having done no evil, and to grow pale at no accusation.”

— Horace

441. “Be prepared to go mad with fixed rule and method.”

— Horace

442. “Nonsense, now and then, is pleasant.”

— Horace

443. “Despise not sweet inviting love-making nor the merry dance.”

— Horace

444. “The covetous person is full of fear; and he or she who lives in fear will ever be a slave.”

— Horace

445. “All men do not admire and delight in the same objects.”

— Horace

446. “Oh! thou who are greatly mad, deign to spare me who am less mad.”

— Horace

447. “Envy is not to be conquered but by death.”

— Horace

448. “It makes a great difference whether Davus or a hero speaks.”

— Horace

449. “Most virtue lies between two vices.”

— Horace

450. “Let your character be kept up the very end, just as it began, and so be consistent.”

— Horace