Top 500 Horace Quotes (2026 Update)
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401. “Tear thyself from delay.”

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

405. “One Sallow does not make Summer.”

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

Featured in: Firsts Quotes

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

— Horace

Featured in: Firsts Quotes

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

— Horace

414. “Wine unlocks the breast.”

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

418. “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

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

421. “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

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

424. “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

425. “The changing year’s successive plan Proclaims mortality to man.”

— Horace

426. “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

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

433. “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

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

437. “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

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

— Horace

439. “Words challenge eternity.”

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

443. “Live mindful of how brief your life is.”

— Horace

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

— Horace

445. “If things look badly to-day they may look better tomorrow.”

— Horace

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

— Horace

447. “Pale death kicks with impartial foot at the hovels of the poor and the towers of kings.”

— Horace

448. “To drink away sorrow.”

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace