Top 500 Horace Quotes (2025 Update)
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401. “It is your business when the wall next door catches fire.”

— Horace

402. “One Sallow does not make Summer.”

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

405. “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

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

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

— Horace

409. “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

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

415. “Evenhanded fate hath but one law for small and great; the ample urn holds all men’s names.”

— 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. “Wine unlocks the breast.”

— Horace

419. “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

420. “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

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

424. “Take heed lest you stumble.”

— Horace

425. “Words challenge eternity.”

— Horace

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

— Horace

427. “When you have well thought out your subject, words will come spontaneously.”

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

431. “Believe it, future generations.”

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

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

— Horace

450. “Most virtue lies between two vices.”

— Horace