Horace Men Quotations

The envious man grows lean at the success of his neighbor.

Pale Death beats equally at the poor man's gate and at the palaces of kings.

To have a great man for an intimate friend seems pleasant to those who have never tried it; those who have, fear it. [Lat., Dulcis inexpertis cultura potentis amici; Expertus metuit.]

You traverse the world in search of happiness which is within the reach of every man. A contented mind confers it on all.

Lawyers are men who hire out their words and anger.

It is of no consequence of what parents a man is born, as long as he be a man of merit.

All men do not, in fine, admire or love the same thing.

For a man learns more quickly and remembers more easily that which he laughs at, than that which he approves and reveres.

There are lessons to be learned from a stupid man.

Virtuosi have been long remarked to have little conscience in their favorite pursuits. A man will steal a rarity who would cut off his hand rather than take the money it is worth. Yet, in fact, the crime is the same.

Never inquire into another man's secret; bur conceal that which is intrusted to you, though pressed both be wine and anger to reveal it.

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

Why then should words challenge Eternity, When greatest men, and greatest actions die? Use may revive the obsoletest words, And banish those that now are most in vogue; Use is the judge, the law, and rule of speech.

The man who has lost his purse will go wherever you wish. [Lat., Ibit eo quo vis qui zonam perdidit.]

The common people are but ill judges of a man's merits; they are slaves to fame, and their eyes are dazzled with the pomp of titles and large retinue. No wonder, then, that they bestow their honors on those who least deserve them.

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.

The man is either mad or his is making verses. [Lat., Aut insanit homo, aut versus facit.]

Neither men, nor gods, nor booksellers' shelves permit ordinary poets to exist. [Lat., Mediocribus esse poetis Non homines, non di, non concessere columnae.]

Boys must not have th' ambitious care of men, Nor men the weak anxieties of age.

Many brave men lived before Agamemnon; but, all unwept and unknown, are lost in the distant night, since they are without a divine poet (to chronicle their deeds). [Lat., Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona Multi; sed omnes illacrimabiles Urguentur ignotique sacro.]

Mediocrity is not allowed to poets, either by the gods or men.

It is not the rich man you should properly call happy, but him who knows how to use with wisdom the blessings of the gods, to endure hard poverty, and who fears dishonor worse than death, and is not afraid to die for cherished friends or fatherland.

When a man is just and firm in his purpose, The citizens burning to approve a wrong Or the frowning looks of a tyrant Do not shake his fixed mind, nor the Southwind. Wild lord of the uneasy Adriatic, Nor the thunder in the mighty hand of Jove: Should the heavens crack and tumble down, As the ruins crushed him he would not fear.

Live as brave men and face adversity with stout hearts.

The man who is just and resolute will not be moved from his settled purpose, either by the misdirected rage of his fellow citizens, or by the threats of an imperious tryant.

If a man's fortune does not fit him, it is like the shoe in the story; if too large it trips him up, if too small it pinches him.

Those who want much, are always much in need; happy the man to whom God gives with a sparing hand what is sufficient for his wants.

An accomplished man to his fingertips.

That man scorches with his brightness, who overpowers inferior capacities, yet he shall be revered when dead.

What impropriety or limit can there be in our grief for a man so beloved?.

Glory drags all men along, low as well as high, bound captive at the wheels of her glittering car.

Even virtue followed beyond reason's rule May stamp the just man knave, the sage a fool.

There are as many preferences as there are men.

The changing year's successive plan Proclaims mortality to man.

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

The man is either crazy or he is a poet.

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

No man ever reached to excellence in any one art or profession without having passed through the slow and painful process of study and preparation.

The covetous man is ever in want.

To please great men is not the last degree of praise.

I teach that all men are mad.

Life gives nothing to man without labor.

Men more quickly and more gladly recall what they deride than what they approve and esteem.

Help a man against his will and you do the same as murder him.

Multa ferunt anni venientes commoda secum, Multa recedentes adimiunt. (The years, as they come, bring many agreeable things with them; as they go, they take many away.)

Nothing is so difficult but that man will accomplish it.

No man is born without faults.

Shun an inquisitive man, he is invariably a tell-tale.

No man ever properly calculates from time to time what it is his duty to avoid.

The man who is tenacious of purpose in a rightful cause is not shaken from his firm resolve by the frenzy of his fellow citizens clamoring for what is wrong, or by the tyrant's threatening countenance.

Let every man find pleasure in practising the profession he has learnt.

He, that holds fast the golden mean, And lives contentedly between The little and the great, Feels not the wants that pinch the poor, Nor plagues that haunt the rich man's door, Imbitt'ring all his state.

Decus et pretium recte petit experiens vir. The man who makes the attempt justly aims at honour and reward.

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

Sovereign money procures a wife with a large fortune, gets a man credit, creates friends, stands in place of pedigree, and even of beauty.

When a man is pleased with the lot of others, he is dissatisfied with his own, as a matter of course.

What prevents a man's speaking good sense with a smile on his face?

No one is born without vices, and he is the best man who is encumbered with the least.

To the inexperienced it is a pleasant thing to court the favour of the great; an experienced man fears it.

Not gods, nor men, nor even booksellers have put up with poets' being second-rate.

To marvel at nothing is just about the one and only thing, Numicius, that can make a man happy and keep him that way.

He that finds out he's changed his lot for worse, Let him betimes the untoward choice reverse: For still, when all is said, the rule stands fast, That each man's shoe be made on his own last.

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.

The more a man denies himself, the more shall he obtain from God.

In peace, a wise man makes preparations for war.

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

A man of refined taste and judgment.

A man perfect to the finger tips.

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

An envious man grows lean at another's fatness.

As many men as there are existing, so many are their different pursuits.

He who preserves a man's life against his will does the same thing as if he slew him.

He who speaks ill of an absent friend, or fails to take his part if attacked by another, that man is a scoundrel.

Happy is the man to whom nature has given a sufficiency with even a sparing hand.

Happy the man who, removed from all cares of business, after the manner of his forefathers cultivates with his own team his paternal acres, freed from all thought of usury.

Mediocrity in poets has never been tolerated by either men, or gods, or booksellers.

Man is never watchful enough against dangers that threaten him every hour. [Lat., Quid quisque vitet nunquam homini satis Cautum est in horas.]

The more a man denies himself, the more he shall receive from heaven. Naked, I seek the camp of those who covet nothing. [Lat., Quanto quisque sibi plura negaverit, A dis plura feret. Nil cupientium Nudus castra peto.]

The man who thinks with Horace thinks divine.

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

A man polished to the nail. [Lat., Ad unguem factus home.]

Who is a good man? He who keeps the decrees of the fathers, and both human and divine laws. [Lat., Vir bonus est quis? Qui consulta patrum, qui leges juraque servat.]

You will not rightly call him a happy man who possesses much; he more rightly earns the name of happy who is skilled in wisely using the gifts of the gods, and in suffering hard poverty, and who fears disgrace as worse than death. [Lat., Non possidentem multa vocaveris Recte beatum; rectius occupat Nomen beati, qui Deorum Muneribus sapienter uti, Duramque callet pauperiem pati, Pejusque leto flagitium timet.]

Every man should measure himself by his own standard. [Lat., Metiri se quemque suo modulo ac pede verum est.]

The same (hated) man will be loved after he's dead. How quickly we forget.

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

That man lives happy and in command of himself, who from day to day can say I have lived. Whether clouds obscure, or the sun illumines the following day, that which is past is beyond recall.

Poets are never allowed to be mediocre by the gods, by men or by publishers.