Horace Quotations | Page 4

Rule your mind or it will rule you.

It is right for him who asks forgiveness for his offenses to grant it to others.

Too indolent to bear the toil of writing; I mean of writing well; I say nothing about quantity. [Lat., Piger scribendi ferre laborem; Scribendi recte, nam ut multum nil moror.]

Day is pushed out by day, and each new moon hastens to its death. [Lat., Truditur dies die, Novaeque pergunt interire lunae.]

Carpe diem! Rejoice while you are alive; enjoy the day; live life to the fullest; make the most of what you have. It is later than you think.

When you introduce a moral lesson, let it be brief.

Be ever on your guard what you say of anybody and to whom.

What has this unfeeling age of ours left untried, what wickedness has it shunned?

Those who want much, are always much in need.

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

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

The one who prosperity takes too much delight in will be the most shocked by reverses.

You must often make erasures if you mean to write what is worthy of being read a second time; and don't labor for the admiration of the crowd, but be content with a few choice readers.

Avoid greatness in a cottage there may be more real happiness than kings or their favourites enjoy.

There is nothing assured to mortals.

Be smart, drink your wine.

Surely oak and threefold brass surrounded his heart who first trusted a frail vessel to the merciless ocean.

Nos numeros sumus et fruges consumere nati. We are but ciphers, born to consume earth's fruits.

Whatever your advice, make it brief.

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.

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

By the favour of the heavens

You have played enough; you have eaten and drunk enough. Now it is time for you to depart.

It is grievous to be caught.

The Sun, the stars and the seasons as they pass, some can gaze upon these with no strain of fear.

Let this be your wall of brass, to have nothing on your conscience, no guilt to make you turn pale.

Don't just think, do.

The hour of happiness will be the more welcome, the less it was expected.

The Muse gave the Greeks genius and the art of the well-turned phrase.

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.

For example, the tiny ant, a creature of great industry, drags with its mouth whatever it can, and adds it to the heap which she is piling up, not unaware nor careless of the future.

Drawing is the true test of art.

Painters and poets have equal license in regard to everything.

To have begun is half the job; be bold and be sensible.

There are calumnies against which even innocence loses courage.

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

Be this thy brazen bulwark, to keep a clear conscience, and never turn pale with guilt.

Let me posses what I now have, or even less, so that I may enjoy my remaining days, if Heaven grant any to remain.

The brave are born from the brave and good. In steers and in horses is to be found the excellence of their sire; nor do savage eagles produce a peaceful dove.

Whom does undeserved honour please, and undeserved blame alarm, but the base and the liar?

And Tragedy should blush as much to stoop To the low mimic follies of a farce, As a grave matron would to dance with girls.

Remember you must die whether you sit about moping all day long or whether on feast days you stretch out in a green field, happy with a bottle of Falernian from your innermost cellar.

That destructive siren, sloth, is ever to be avoided.

If you drive nature out with a pitchfork, she will soon find a way back.

Of writing well the source and fountainhead is wise thinking.

Drive Nature out with a pitchfork, yet she hurries back, And will burst through your foolish contempt, triumphant.

Once sent out, a word takes wings beyond recall.

As riches grow, care follows, and a thirst For more and more.

An accomplished man to his fingertips.

A crafty knave needs no broker.

Naked I seek the camp of those who desire nothing.

Never despair while under the guidance and auspices of Teucer.

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?.

Wherever the storm carries me, I go a willing guest.

Humble things become the humble.

Busy idleness urges us on.

He who studies to imitate the poet Pindar, O Julius, relies on artificial wings fastened on with wax, and is sure to give his name to a glassy sea.

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

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

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.

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

Everything that is superfluous overflows from the full bosom.

Though your threshing floor grind a hundred thousand bushels of corn, not for that reason will your stomach hold more than mine.

The consummate pleasure (in eating) is not in the costly flavour, but in yourself. Do you seek for sauce for sweating?

The envious pine at others' success; no greater punishment than envy was devised by Sicilian tyrants.

One goes to the right, the other to the left; both are wrong, but in different directions.

As a neighboring funeral terrifies sick misers, and fear obliges them to have some regard for themselves; so, the disgrace of others will often deter tender minds from vice.

Sometimes even excellent Homer nods.

Fate with impartial hand turns out the doom of high and low; her capacious urn is constantly shaking the names of all mankind.

I am frightened at seeing all the footprints directed towards thy den, and none returning.

Who then is sane? He who is not a fool.

What does drunkenness not accomplish? It unlocks secrets, confirms our hopes, urges the indolent into battle, lifts the burden from anxious minds, teaches new arts.

Lighten grief with hopes of a brighter morrow; Temper joy, in fear of a change of fortune.

Ah Fortune, what god is more cruel to us than thou! How thou delightest ever to make sport of human life!

A wise God shrouds the future in obscure darkness.

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

The impartial earth opens alike for the child of the pauper and the king.

Care clings to wealth: the thirst for more Grows as our fortunes grow.

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

I shall not altogether die.

Death's dark way Must needs be trodden once, however we pause.

That best of blessings, a contented mind.

Remember to be calm in adversity.

Anger is a momentary madness.

Books have their destinies.

When I struggle to be terse, I end by being obscure.

We are all gathered to the same fold.

Weigh well what your shoulders can and cannot bear.

Once begun, A task is easy; half the work is done.

The short span of life forbids us to take on far-reaching hopes.

The ear of the bridled horse is in the mouth.

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

Is virtue raised by culture, or self-sown?

Virtue consists in fleeing vice.

All else-valor, a good name, glory, everything in heaven and earth-is secondary to the charm of riches.

Sweet and glorious it is to die for our country.

The poets aim is either to profit or to please, or to blend in one the delightful and the useful. Whatever the lesson you would convey, be brief, that your hearers may catch quickly what is said and faithfully retain it. Every superfluous word is spilled from the too-full memory.

One night awaits all, and death's path must be trodden once and for all.

Punishment closely follows guilt as its companion.