Horace (quotes) - Wisdom Trove

Anger is brief madness
To teach is to delight.
Tear thyself from delay.
Anger is a brief lunacy.
Luck cannot change birth.
Words challenge eternity.
Every old poem is sacred.
The words can not return.
Hatched in the same nest.
Anger is a short madness.
A poem is like a painting.
Be smart, drink your wine.
Busy idleness urges us on.
Anger is momentary madness.
Leave the rest to the gods.
I shall not altogether die.
Books have their destinies.
I shall not completely die.
Take heed lest you stumble.
Dull winter will re-appear.
He can afford to be a fool.
The grammarians are arguing.
It is grievous to be caught.
Carpe diem. (Seize the day.)
Brighter than Parian marble.
Boy, I loathe Persian luxury.
Sapere aude. Dare to be wise.
Anger is short-lived madness.
Anger is a momentary madness.
Gold will be slave or master.
The same night awaits us all.
I teach that all men are mad.
To grow a philosopher’s beard.
We are free to yield to truth.
No man is born without faults.
Make a good use of the present.
What’s well begun is half done.
A crafty knave needs no broker.
Gloriously false. [Like Rahab.]
Don’t long for the unripe grape.
Drawing is the true test of art.
Humble things become the humble.
Virtue consists in fleeing vice.
The covetous are always in want.
In my integrity I’ll wrap me up.
Small things become small folks.
Never despair. [Nil desperandum.]
A picture is a poem without words
Remember to be calm in adversity.
The covetous man is ever in want.
I want to live, and die with you.
Don’t carry logs into the forest.
Nothing is achieved without toil.
Summer treads on heels of spring.
The bowl dispels corroding cares.
A man perfect to the finger tips.
An undertaking beset with danger.
Punishment follows close on crime.
A good resolve will make any port.
There is moderation in everything.
Fidelity is the sister of justice.
Mistakes are their own instructors
Poets wish to profit or to please.
A greater liar than the Parthians.
He who is greedy is always in want.
Rule your mind or it will rule you.
The glory is for those who deserve.
There is a middle ground in things.
Whatever advice you give, be short.
Plant no other tree before the vine.
Aiming at brevity, I become obscure.
Get money first; virtue comes after.
There is nothing assured to mortals.
Whatever your advice, make it brief.
Sometimes even excellent Homer nods.
Pleasure bought with pain does harm.
Joking apart, now let us be serious.
Nonsense, now and then, is pleasant.
A man of refined taste and judgment.
He is not poor who has a competency.
Whatever you want to teach, be brief.
We are all gathered to the same fold.
Even the worthy Homer sometimes nods.
Never without a shilling in my purse.
Begin, be bold and venture to be wise.
Being, be bold and venture to be wise.
Little folks become their little fate.
An accomplished man to his fingertips.
He will be beloved when he is no more.
Death is the last limit of all things.
Who then is sane? He who is not a fool.
Here, or nowhere, is the thing we seek.
In times of stress, be bold and valiant.
Life is largely a matter of expectation.
The man is either crazy or he is a poet.
I court not the votes of the fickle mob.
You must avoid sloth, that wicked siren.
Acquittal of the guilty damns the judge.
Life gives nothing to man without labor.
The fellow is either a madman or a poet.
Fierce eagles breed not the tender dove.
He is praised by some, blamed by others.
Frugality is one thing, avarice another.
Envy is not to be conquered but by death.
That best of blessings, a contented mind.
Be modest in speech, but excel in action.
In trying to be concise I become obscure.
A word once uttered can never be recalled.
I strive to be brief but I become obscure.
Subdue your passion or it will subdue you.
As crazy as hauling timber into the woods.
Those who covet much suffer from the want.
Seize the day, put no trust in the morrow!
Is virtue raised by culture, or self-sown?
Victory is by nature superb and insulting.
I was what you are, you will be what I am.
Those that are little, little things suit.
God made not pleasures for the rich alone.
Money amassed either serves us or rules us.
In labouring to be brief, I become obscure.
In love there are two evils: war and peace.
Labor diligently to increase your property.
Who has self-confidence will lead the rest.
Alas! the fleeting years, how they roll on!
Can you restrain your laughter, my friends?
Forgetful of thy tomb thou buildest houses.
In adversity, remember to keep an even mind.
Riches either serve or govern the possessor.
A word, once sent abroad, flies irrevocably.
Let him who has enough ask for nothing more.
And seek for truth in the groves of Academe.
No master can make me swear blind obedience.
Gladly accept the gifts of the present hour.
A good scare is worth more than good advice.
Lightning strikes the tops of the mountains.
All things considered, nothing is beautiful.
By heaven you have destroyed me, my friends!
Be not for ever harassed by impotent desire.
Fire, if neglected, will soon gain strength.
He tells old wives’ tales much to the point.
Heir follows heir, as wave succeeds to wave.
God has joined the innocent with the guilty.
In labouring to be concise, I become obscure.
I struggle to be brief, and I become obscure.
Nothing’s beautiful from every point of view.
Those who want much, are always much in need.
The ear of the bridled horse is in the mouth.
A hungry stomach rarely despises common food.
No, but you’re wrong now, and always will be.
Force without reason falls of its own weight.
The great virtue of parents is a great dowry.
The man is either mad, or he is making verses.
Tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today.
Patience lightens the burthen we cannot avert.
Force without judgment falls of its own weight.
The miser acquires, yet fears to use his gains.
Take as a gift whatever the day brings forth…
It is sweet to let the mind unbend on occasion.
No poem was ever written by a drinker of water.
In the word of no master am I bound to believe.
There are as many preferences as there are men.
He is always a slave who cannot live on little.
In a long work sleep may be naturally expected.
Learned or unlearned we all must be scribbling.
Even play has ended in fierce strife and anger.
An envious man grows lean at another’s fatness.
He who sings the praises of his boyhood’s days.
Hidden knowledge differs little from ignorance.
Do you hear, or does some fond illusion mock me?
Much is wanting to those who seek or covet much.
Once sent out, a word takes wings beyond recall.
Sweet and glorious it is to die for our country.
And take back ill-polished stanzas to the anvil.
In peace, a wise man makes preparations for war.
Even the good Homer is sometimes caught napping.
Flames too soon acquire strength if disregarded.
Death is the ultimate boundary of human matters.
Be prepared to go mad with fixed rule and method.
Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it.
Captive Greece took captive her savage conqueror.
The secret of all good writing is sound judgment.
The drunkard is convicted by his praises of wine.
The arrow will not always find the mark intended.
We are just statistics, born to consume resources.
Fortune makes a fool of those she favors too much.
There are lessons to be learned from a stupid man.
The tendency of humanity is towards the forbidden.
Naked I seek the camp of those who desire nothing.
A wise God shrouds the future in obscure darkness.
Once begun, A task is easy; half the work is done.
Punishment closely follows guilt as its companion.
He who feared that he would not succeed sat still.
You will live wisely if you are happy in your lot.
I have erected amonument more lasting than bronze.
Strength without judgment falls by its own weight.
Kings play the fool, and the people suffer for it.
Lawyers are men who hire out their words and anger.
He has the deed half done who has made a beginning.
He has half the deed done who has made a beginning.
Remember to preserve a calm soul amid difficulties.
Knowledge without education is but armed injustice.
When you introduce a moral lesson, let it be brief.
Weigh well what your shoulders can and cannot bear.
Ridicule often cuts the knot, where severity fails.
If you are only an underling, don’t dress too fine.
It is not permitted that we should know everything.
Life grants nothing to us mortals without hard work.
If matters go badly now, they will not always be so.
He wins every hand who mingles profit with pleasure.
Wherever the storm carries me, I go a willing guest.
When I struggle to be terse, I end by being obscure.
Smooth out with wine the worries of a wrinkled brow.
Silver is of less value than gold, gold than virtue.
Wine brings to light the hidden secrets of the soul.
Seize the day [Carpe diem]: trust not to the morrow.
What may not be altered is made lighter by patience.
When things are steep, remember to stay level-headed.
Fools through false shame, conceal their open wounds.
That destructive siren, sloth, is ever to be avoided.
To please great men is not the last degree of praise.
Add a sprinkling of folly to your long deliberations.
It’s a good thing to be foolishly gay once in a while.
Though guiltless, you must expiate your fathers’ sins.
He paints a dolphin in the woods, a boar in the waves.
I am not what I once was.
Who then is free? The wise man who can govern himself.
Welcome will arrived, the hour that was not hoped for.
He who has lost his money-belt will go where you wish.
Who after wine, talks of wars hardships or of poverty.
Shun an inquisitive man, he is invariably a tell-tale.
My age, my inclinations, are no longer what they were.
It was intended to be a vase, it has turned out a pot.
All men do not admire and delight in the same objects.
Who then is free? The wise man who can command himself.
I hate the irreverent rabble and keep them far from me.
Words will not fail when the matter is well considered.
All men do not, in fine, admire or love the same thing.
Necessity takes impartially the highest and the lowest.
I abhor the profane rabble and keep them at a distance.
The poet must put on the passion he wants to represent.
Despise pleasure; pleasure bought by pain in injurious.
Live as brave men and face adversity with stout hearts.
He who has begun has half done. Dare to be wise -begin!
To have begun is half the job; be bold and be sensible.
He who is upright in his way of life and free from sin.
Seek not to inquire what the morrow will bring with it.
It is difficult to speak of the universal specifically.
Even in animals there exists the spirit of their sires.
He has hay upon his horn. [He is a mischievous person.]
It is when I struggle to be brief that I become obscure.
It is your concern when your neighbor’s wall is on fire.
It is a sweet and seemly thing to die for one’s country.
A corrupt judge does not carefully search for the truth.
It is hard to utter common notions in an individual way.
Not worth is an example that does not solve the problem.
Riches are first to be sought for; after wealth, virtue.
Nothing is so difficult but that man will accomplish it.
It is good to labor; it is also good to rest from labor.
Betray not a secret even though racked by wine or wrath.
A cup concealed in the dress is rarely honestly carried.
He who would begun has half done. Dare to be wise; begin.
Wisdom is not wisdom when it is derived from books alone.
Undeservedly you will atone for the sins of your fathers.
It is your business when the wall next door catches fire.
The sorrowful dislike the gay, and the gay the sorrowful.
With you I should love to live, with you be ready to die.
A bad reader soon puts to flight both wise men and fools.
The envious man grows lean at the success of his neighbor.
Remember when life’s path is steep to keep your mind even.
The disgrace of others often keeps tender minds from vice.
Adversity is wont to reveal genius, prosperity to hide it.
Be ever on your guard what you say of anybody and to whom.
Scribblers are a self-conceited and self-worshipping race.
In avoiding one vice fools rush into the opposite extreme.
If things look badly to-day they may look better tomorrow.
Change but the name, and you are the subject of the story.
Designedly God covers in dark night the issue of futurity.
Desiring things widely different for their various tastes.
We are often deterred from crime by the disgrace of others.
For every folly of their princes, the Greeks feel the lash.
If you wish me to weep, you must first show grief yourself.
It makes a great difference whether Davus or a hero speaks.
As a rule, adversity reveals genius and prosperity hides it
What exile from his country is able to escape from himself?
If you wish me to weep, you yourself must first feel grief.
In going abroad we change the climate not our dispositions.
Despise not sweet inviting love-making nor the merry dance.
A leech that will not quit the skin until sated with blood.
He who has enough for his wants should desire nothing more.
Seize the day, and put the least possible trust in tomorrow.
Seize the day, trusting as little as possible in the future.
Only a stomach that rarely feels hungry scorns common things.
A host is like a general: calamities often reveal his genius.
Of writing well the source and fountainhead is wise thinking.
As riches grow, care follows, and a thirst For more and more.
Everything that is superfluous overflows from the full bosom.
How great, my friends, is the virtue of living upon a little!
What does it avail you, if of many thorns only one be removed
Friends fly away when the cask has been drained to the dregs.
Once a word has been allowed to escape, it cannot be recalled.
Why harass with eternal purposes a mind to weak to grasp them?
Enjoy the present day, trust the least possible to the future.
Mediocrity is not allowed to poets, either by the gods or men.
A word once let out of the cage cannot be whistled back again.
Painters and poets have equal license in regard to everything.
Never despair while under the guidance and auspices of Teucer.
Death’s dark way Must needs be trodden once, however we pause.
He will be loved when dead, who was envied when he was living.
Help a man against his will and you do the same as murder him.
Enjoy the present day, as distrusting that which is to follow.
At Rome I love Tibur; then, like a weathercock, at Tibur Rome.
Bacchus drowns within the bowl – Troubles that corrode the soul
I put up with a great deal to pacify the touchy tribe of poets.
The musician who always plays on the same string is laughed at.
That corner of the world smiles for me more than anywhere else.
Busy idleness urges us on.
There are calumnies against which even innocence loses courage.
The changing year’s successive plan Proclaims mortality to man.
While I am sane I shall compare nothing to the joy of a friend.
In hard times, no less than in prosperity, preserve equanimity.
Dispel the cold, bounteously replenishing the hearth with logs.
Each day that fate adds to your life, put down as so much gain.
Be not caught by the cunning of those who appear in a disguise.
Your own safety is at stake when your neighbor’s wall is ablaze.
Cease to admire the smoke, wealth, and noise of prosperous Rome.
Enjoy in happiness the pleasures which each hour brings with it.
Oh! thou who are greatly mad, deign to spare me who am less mad.
The short span of life forbids us to take on far-reaching hopes.
The human race afraid of nothing, rushes on through every crime.
Who knows whether the gods will add tomorrow to the present hour?
Let us seize, friends, our opportunity from the day as it passes.
The more a man denies himself, the more shall he obtain from God.
Superfluous words simply spill out when the mind is already full.
While fools shun one set of faults they run into the opposite one.
Govern your temper, which will rule you unless kept in subjection.
The pleasure of eating is not in the costly flavor but in yourself.
In an evil hour thou bring’st her home. [You are marrying a shrew.]
He tosses aside his paint-pots and his words a foot and a half long.
He gains everyone’s approval who mixes the pleasant with the useful.
The mountains will be in labor, and a ridiculous mouse will be born.
citizens, first acquire wealth; you can practice virtue afterward.
Adversity reveals the genius of a general; good fortune conceals it.
No poems can please long or live that are written by water drinkers.
They change their skies, but not their souls who run across the sea.
In avoiding one evil we fall into another, if we use not discretion.
If you would have me weep, you must first of all feel grief yourself.
Mountains will go into labour, and a silly little mouse will be born.
Ridicule is often employed with more power and success than severity.
Those who go overseas find a change of climate, not a change of soul.
The cook cares not a bit for toil, toil, if the fowl be plump and fat
Whatever hour God has blessed you with, take it with a grateful hand.
I shall not wholly die, and a great part of me will escape the grave.
Clogged with yesterday’s excess, the body drags the mind down with it.
A good and faithful judge ever prefers the honorable to the expedient.
He will always be a slave who does not know how to live upon a little.
The Muse gave the Greeks genius and the art of the well-turned phrase.
Care clings to wealth: the thirst for more Grows as our fortunes grow.
In neglected fields the fern grows, which must be cleared out by fire.
Fiction intended to please, should resemble truth as much as possible.
Vain was the chief’s, the sage’s pride! They had no poet, and they died
As a true translator you will take care not to translate word for word.
Without love and laughter there is no joy; live amid love and laughter.
He, who has blended the useful with the sweet, has gained every point .
Let every man find pleasure in practising the profession he has learnt.
Mighty to inspire new hopes, and able to drown the bitterness of cares.
He makes himself ridiculous who is for ever repeating the same mistake.
No poems can please for long or live that are written by water drinkers.
If you drive nature out with a pitchfork, she will soon find a way back.
One night awaits all, and death’s path must be trodden once and for all.
As many men as there are existing, so many are their different pursuits.
Finally we have a victory, not only morally but also in a material sense,
The hour of happiness will be the more welcome, the less it was expected.
The impartial earth opens alike for the child of the pauper and the king.
When evil times prevail, take care to preserve the serenity of your hear.
Mountains will be in labour, and the birth will be an absurd little mouse.
Let the fictitious sources of pleasure be as near as possible to the true.
What impropriety or limit can there be in our grief for a man so beloved?.
What with your friend you nobly share, At least you rescue from your heir.
What do sad complaints avail if the offense is not cut down by punishment.
Be not ashamed to have had wild days, but not to have sown your wild oats.
His anger is easily excited and appeased, and he changes from hour to hour.
When you have well thought out your subject, words will come spontaneously.
If you cannot conduct yourself with propriety, give place to those who can.
Pale Death beats equally at the poor man’s gate and at the palaces of kings.
Ridicule more often settles things more thoroughly and better than acrimony.
Increasing wealth is attended by care and by the desire of greater increase.
Change generally pleases the rich.
The avarice person is ever in want; let your desired aim have a fixed limit.
Take away the danger and remove the restraint, and wayward nature runs free.
Teaching brings out innate powers, and proper training braces the intellect.
Consider well what your strength is equal to, and what exceeds your ability.
Anger is a momentary madness, so control your passion or it will control you.
It is the false shame of fools to try to conceal wounds that have not healed.
Good sense is both the first principal and the parent source of good writing.
He has not lived badly whose birth and death has been unnoticed by the world.
In vain will you fly from one vice if in your wilfulness you embrace another.
Posterity, thinned by the crime of its ancestors, shall hear of those battles.
While your client is watching for you at the front door, slip out at the back.
He that cuts off twenty years of life Cuts off so many years of fearing death.
No man ever properly calculates from time to time what it is his duty to avoid.
Be brief, that the mind may catch thy precepts, and the more easily retain them.
Boys must not have th’ ambitious care of men, Nor men the weak anxieties of age.
It is right for him who asks forgiveness for his offenses to grant it to others.
A person will gain everyone’s approval if he mixes the pleasant with the useful.
Not to create confusion in what is clear, but to throw light on what is obscure.
Catch the opportunity while it lasts, and rely not on what the morrow may bring.
You may drive out nature with a pitchfork, yet she’ll be constantly running back.
What has this unfeeling age of ours left untried, what wickedness has it shunned?
Come, let us take a lesson from our forefathers, and enjoy the Christmas holyday.
Happy is the man to whom nature has given a sufficiency with even a sparing hand.
Capture your reader, let him not depart, from dull beginnings that refuse to start
Drive Nature from your door with a pitchfork, and she will return again and again.
Now is the time for drinking; now the time to beat the earth with unfettered foot.
In the same [hospitable] manner that a Calabrian would press you to eat his pears.
If virtue holds the secret, don’t defer; Be off with pleasure, and be on with her.
Let your literary compositions be kept from the public eye for nine years at least.
Difficulties elicit talents that in more fortunate circumstances would lie dormant.
Let your character be kept up the very end, just as it began, and so be consistent.
The cask will long retain the flavour of the wine with which it was first seasoned.
No verse can give pleasure for long, nor last, that is written by drinkers of water.
Everything, virtue, glory, honor, things human and divine, all are slaves to riches.
Let those who drink not, but austerely dine, dry up in law; the Muses smell of wine.
Hired mourners at a funeral say and do – A little more than they whose grief is true
Mediocrity in poets has never been tolerated by either men, or gods, or booksellers.
Money is a handmaiden, if thou knowest how to use it A mistress, if thou knowest not.
Usually the modest person passes for someone reserved, the silent for a sullen person
Poets, the first instructors of mankind, Brought all things to the proper native use.
The populace may hiss me, but when I go home and think of my money, I applaud myself.
Many shall be restored that now are fallen and many shall fall that now are in honor.
Deep in the cavern of the infant’s breast; the father’s nature lurks, and lives anew.
He who preserves a man’s life against his will does the same thing as if he slew him.
Noble descent and worth, unless united with wealth, are esteemed no more than seaweed.
False praise can please, and calumny affright None but the vicious, and the hypocrite.
Curst is the wretch enslaved to such a vice, Who ventures life and soul upon the dice.
The one who prosperity takes too much delight in will be the most shocked by reverses.
When we try to avoid one fault, we are led to the opposite, unless we be very careful.
It is of no consequence of what parents a man is born, as long as he be a man of merit.
While we’re talking, envious time is fleeing: pluck the day, put no trust in the future
Be this thy brazen bulwark, to keep a clear conscience, and never turn pale with guilt.
Dismiss the old horse in good time, lest he fail in the lists and the spectators laugh.
Doctrina sed vim promovet insitam. Instruction enlarges the natural powers of the mind.
High descent and meritorious deeds, unless united to wealth, are as useless as seaweed.
The wolf dreads the pitfall, the hawk suspects the snare, and the kite the covered hook.
Even virtue followed beyond reason’s rule May stamp the just man knave, the sage a fool.
Riches with their wicked inducements increase; nevertheless, avarice is never satisfied.
Get what start the sinner may, Retribution, for all her lame leg, never quits his track.
A jest often decides matters of importance more effectively and happily than seriousness.
He wears himself out by his labours, and grows old through his love of possessing wealth.
Having no business of his own to attend to, he busies himself with the affairs of others.
The man is either mad or his is making verses.
The covetous person is full of fear; and he or she who lives in fear will ever be a slave.
You have played enough; you have eaten and drunk enough. Now it is time for you to depart.
Whom does undeserved honour please, and undeserved blame alarm, but the base and the liar?
One goes to the right, the other to the left; both are wrong, but in different directions.
I am frightened at seeing all the footprints directed towards thy den, and none returning.
Lighten grief with hopes of a brighter morrow; Temper joy, in fear of a change of fortune.
Evenhanded fate hath but one law for small and great; the ample urn holds all men’s names.
In Rome you long for the country. In the country you praise to the skies the distant town.
He is armed without who is innocent within, be this thy screen, and this thy wall of brass.
He appears mad indeed but to a few, because the majority is infected with the same disease.
However rich or elevated, a name less something is always wanting to our imperfect fortune.
When discord dreadful bursts her brazen bars, And shatters locks to thunder forth her wars.
Men more quickly and more gladly recall what they deride than what they approve and esteem.
I prayed only for a small piece of land, a garden, an ever-flowing spring, and bit of woods.
The muse does not allow the praise-de-serving here to die: she enthrones him in the heavens.
Nor has he lived in vain, who from his cradle to his grave has passed his life in seclusion.
Mix a little foolishness with your serious plans; it’s lovely to be silly at the right moment
Let the character as it began be preserved to the last; and let it be consistent with itself.
Be this your wall of brass, to have no guilty secrets, no wrong-doing that makes you turn pale
Mix a little foolishness with your serious plans. It is lovely to be silly at the right moment.
Whoever cultivates the golden mean avoids both the poverty of a hovel and the envy of a palace.
We are but ciphers, born to consume earth’s fruits.
The explanation avails nothing, which in leading us from one difficulty involves us in another.
Let your mind, happily contented with the present, care not what the morrow will bring with it.
Take too much pleasure in good things, you’ll feel The shock of adverse fortune makes you reel.
Faults are committed within the walls of Troy and also without. [There is fault on both sides.]
He has carried every point, who has combined that which is useful with that which is agreeable.
Cease to inquire what the future has in store, and take as a gift whatever the day brings forth.
Sport begets tumultuous strife and wrath, and wrath begets fierce quarrels and war to the death.
Drive Nature forth by force, she’ll turn and rout The false refinements that would keep her out.
How slight and insignificant is the thing which casts down or restores a mind greedy for praise.
I have lived: tomorrow the Father may fill the sky with black clouds or with cloudless sunshine.
Leuconoe, close the book of fate, For troubles are in store, . . . . Live today, tomorrow is not.
The Sun, the stars and the seasons as they pass, some can gaze upon these with no strain of fear.
Cease to ask what the morrow will bring forth, and set down as gain each day that fortune grants.
What can be found equal to modesty, uncorrupt faith, the sister of justice, and undisguised truth?
Glory drags all men along, low as well as high, bound captive at the wheels of her glittering car.
It is not enough for poems to be fine; they must charm, and draw the mind of the listener at will.
The body, enervated by the excesses of the preceding day, weighs down and prostates the mind also.
I never think at all when I write. Nobody can do two things at the same time and do them both well.
The shame of fools conceals their open wounds.
Avoid greatness in a cottage there may be more real happiness than kings or their favourites enjoy.
Let this be your wall of brass, to have nothing on your conscience, no guilt to make you turn pale.
Joys do not fall to the rich alone; nor has he lived ill of whose birth and death no one took note.
Avoid greatness; in a cottage there may be more real happiness than kings or their favourites enjoy.
For everything divine and human, virtue, fame, and honor, now obey the alluring influence of riches.
A stomach that is seldom empty despises common food.
It is said that the propriety even of old Cato often yielded to the exciting influence of the grape.
The man who has lost his purse will go wherever you wish.
Let it (what you have written) be kept back until the ninth year.
The envious pine at others’ success; no greater punishment than envy was devised by Sicilian tyrants.
Leave off asking what tomorrow will bring, and whatever days fortune will give, count them as profit.
Be this our wall of brass, to be conscious of having done no evil, and to grow pale at no accusation.
The power of daring anything their fancy suggest, as always been conceded to the painter and the poet.
Who can hope to be safe? who sufficiently cautious? Guard himself as he may, every moment’s an ambush.
With self-discipline most anything is possible. Theodore Roosevelt Rule your mind or it will rule you.
The horse would plough, the ox would drive the car. No; do the work you know, and tarry where you are.
Refrain from asking what going to happen tomorrow, and everyday that fortune grants you, count as gain.
Whatever things injure your eye you are anxious to remove; but things which affect your mind you defer.
All else-valor, a good name, glory, everything in heaven and earth-is secondary to the charm of riches.
I am not bound over to swear allegiance to any master; where the storm drives me I turn in for shelter.
It was a wine jar when the molding began: as the wheel runs round why does it turn out a water pitcher?
A heart well prepared for adversity in bad times hopes, and in good times fears for a change in fortune.
In Rome you long for the country; in the country oh inconstant! you praise the distant city to the stars
The trainer trains the docile horse to turn, with his sensitive neck, whichever way the rider indicates.
He is not poor who has the use of necessary things.
Poverty urges us to do and suffer anything that we may escape from it, and so leads us away from virtue.
Time will bring to light whatever is hidden it will cover up and conceal what is now shining in splendor.
Ah Fortune, what god is more cruel to us than thou! How thou delightest ever to make sport of human life!
He who has made it a practice to lie and deceive his father, will be the most daring in deceiving others.
Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which, in prosperous circumstances, would have lain dormant.
To have a great man for a friend seems pleasant to those who have never tried it; those who have, fear it.
Refrain from asking what is going to happen tomorrow, and everyday that fortune grants you, count as gain.
Does he council you better who bids you, Money, by right means, if you can: but by any means, make money ?
The man who makes the attempt justly aims at honour and reward.
He who postpones the hour of living is like the rustic who waits for the river to run out before he crosses.
Surely oak and threefold brass surrounded his heart who first trusted a frail vessel to the merciless ocean.
There are words and accents by which this grief can be assuaged, and the disease in a great measure removed.
That man scorches with his brightness, who overpowers inferior capacities, yet he shall be revered when dead.
Enjoy thankfully any happy hour heaven may send you, nor think that your delights will keep till another year.
The one who cannot restrain their anger will wish undone, what their temper and irritation prompted them to do.
She – philosophy is equally helpful to the rich and poor: neglect her, and she equally harms the young and old.
Of what use are laws, inoperative through public immortality?
What does drunkenness accomplish? It discloses secrets, it ratifies hopes, and urges even the unarmed to battle.
People hiss at me, but I applaud myself in my own house, and at the same time contemplate the money in my chest.
Knowledge is the foundation and source of good writing.
When I caution you against becoming a miser, I do not therefore advise you to become a prodigal or a spendthrift.
He who speaks ill of an absent friend, or fails to take his part if attacked by another, that man is a scoundrel.
One wanders to the left, another to the right. Both are equally in error, but, are seduced by different delusions.
He has won every vote who mingles profit with pleasure, by delighting and instructing the reader at the same time.
Marble statues, engraved with public inscriptions, by which the life and soul return after death to noble leaders.
Not to hope for things to last forever, is what the year teaches and even the hour which snatches a nice day away.
Let me posses what I now have, or even less, so that I may enjoy my remaining days, if Heaven grant any to remain.
Drive Nature out with a pitchfork, yet she hurries back, And will burst through your foolish contempt, triumphant.
They change their sky, not their soul, who rush across the sea.
In my youth I thought of writing a satire on mankind! but now in my age I think I should write an apology for them.
Poetry is like painting: one piece takes your fancy if you stand close to it, another if you keep at some distance.
Mix a little foolishness with your prudence: it’s good to be silly at the right moment.
If the crow had been satisfied to eat his prey in silence, he would have had more meat and less quarreling and envy.
Not even piety will stay wrinkles, nor the encroachments of age, nor the advance of death, which cannot be resisted.
While we’re talking, time will have meanly run on… pick today’s fruits, not relying on the future in the slightest.
Man learns more readily and remembers more willingly what excites his ridicule than what deserves esteem and respect.
Let not a god interfere unless where a god’s assistance is necessary. [Adopt extreme measures only in extreme cases.]
Gold loves to make its way through guards, and breaks through barriers of stone more easily than the lightning’s bolt.
One gains universal applause who mingles the useful with the agreeable, at once delighting and instructing the reader.
The consummate pleasure (in eating) is not in the costly flavour, but in yourself. Do you seek for sauce for sweating?
Those unacquainted with the world take pleasure in intimacy with great men; those who are wiser fear the consequences.
If you study the history and records of the world you must admit that the source of justice was the fear of injustice.
Fortune, delighting in her cruel task, and playing her wanton game untiringly, is ever shifting her uncertain favours.
What we learn only through the ears makes less impression upon our minds than what is presented to the trustworthy eye.
A wise God shrouds the future in obscure darkness.
Ye who write, choose a subject suited to your abilities.
You can drive nature out with a pitchfork, she will nevertheless come back.
You traverse the world in search of happiness which is within the reach of every man. A contented mind confers it on all.
For a man learns more quickly and remembers more easily that which he laughs at, than that which he approves and reveres.
All singers have this fault: if asked to sing among friends they are never so inclined; if unasked, they never leave off.
Think to yourself that every day is your last; the hour to which you do not look forward will come as a welcome surprise.
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.
Don’t yield to that alluring witch, laziness, or else be prepared to surrender all that you have won in your better moments.
Those who seek for much are left in want of much. Happy is he to whom God has given, with sparing hand, as much as is enough.
The work you are treating is one full of dangerous hazard, and you are treading over fires lurking beneath treacherous ashes.
Day is pushed out by day, and each new moon hastens to its death.
Pale death approaches with equal step, and knocks indiscriminately at the door of teh cottage, and the portals of the palace.
Do not pursue with the terrible scourge him who deserves a slight whip.
Sad people dislike the happy, and the happy the sad; the quick thinking the sedate, and the careless the busy and industrious.
Let us both small and great push forward in this work, in this pursuit, if to our country, if to ourselves we would live dear.
Fate with impartial hand turns out the doom of high and low; her capacious urn is constantly shaking the names of all mankind.
Misfortunes, untoward events, lay open, disclose the skill of a general, while success conceals his weakness, his weak points.
Alas, Postumus, the fleeting years slip by, nor will piety give any stay to wrinkles and pressing old age and untamable death.
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.
Choose a subject equal to your abilities; think carefully what your shoulders may refuse, and what they are capable of bearing.
Instead of forming new words I recommend to you any kind of artful management by which you may be able to give cost to old ones
There is a mean in all things; even virtue itself has stated limits; which not being strictly observed, it ceases to be virtue.
The lazy ox wishes for horse-trappings, and the steed wishes to plough.
Excellence when concealed, differs but little from buried worthlessness.
He despises what he sought; and he seeks that which he lately threw away.
Though your threshing floor grind a hundred thousand bushels of corn, not for that reason will your stomach hold more than mine.
In adversity be spirited and firm, and with equal prudence lessen your sail when filled with a too fortunate gale of prosperity.
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.
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.
One night is awaiting us all, and the way of death must be trodden once.
Rains driven by storms fall not perpetually on the land already sodden, neither do varying gales for ever disturb the Caspian sea.
The cautious wolf fears the pit, the hawk regards with suspicion the snare laid for her, and the fish the hook in its concealment.
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.
I beseech you to treasure up in your hearts these my parting words: Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.
Pry not into the affairs of others, and keep secret that which has been entrusted to you, though sorely tempted by wine and passion.
Shun to seek what is hid in the womb of the morrow, and set down as gain in life’s ledger whatever time fate shall have granted thee.
Better wilt thou live…by neither always pressing out to sea nor too closely hugging the dangerous shore in cautious fear of storms.
It is but a poor establishment where there are not many superfluous things which the owner knows not of, and which go to the thieves.
The lofty pine is oftenest shaken by the winds; High towers fall with a heavier crash; And the lightning strikes the highest mountain.
Why do you hasten to remove anything which hurts your eye, while if something affects your soul you postpone the cure until next year?
I would advise him who wishes to imitate well, to look closely into life and manners, and thereby to learn to express them with truth.
He will often have to scratch his head, and bite his nails to the quick. [To succeed he will have to puzzle his brains and work hard.]
It is courage, courage, courage, that raises the blood of life to crimson splendor. Live bravely and present a brave front to adversity
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.
A shoe that is too large is apt to trip one, and when too small, to pinch the feet. So it is with those whose fortune does not suit them.
The body oppressed by excesses bears down the mind, and depresses to the earth any portion of the divine spirit we had been endowed with.
Our years Glide silently away. No tears, No loving orisons repair The wrinkled cheek, the whitening hair That drop forgotten to the tomb.
Avoid inquisitive persons, for they are sure to be gossips, their ears are open to hear, but they will not keep what is entrusted to them.
This is a fault common to all singers, that among their friends they will never sing when they are asked; unasked, they will never desist.
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.
Success in the affairs of life often serves to hide one’s abilities, whereas adversity frequently gives one an opportunity to discover them.
Virtue, dear friend, needs no defense, The surest guard is innocence: None knew, till guilt created fear, What darts or poisoned arrows were
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.
Gold delights to walk through the very midst of the guard, and to break its way through hard rocks, more powerful in its blow than lightning.
We rarely find anyone who can say he has lived a happy life, and who, content with his life, can retire from the world like a satisfied guest.
Blind self-love, vanity, lifting aloft her empty head, and indiscretion, prodigal of secrets more transparent than glass, follow close behind.
Man is never watchful enough against dangers that threaten him every hour.
Many heroes lived before Agamemnon; but all are unknown and unwept, extinguished in everlasting night, because they have no spirited chronicler.
Snatch at today and trust as little as you can in tomorrow.
Nothing is difficult to mortals; we strive to reach heaven itself in our folly.
We hate virtue when it is safe; when removed from our sight we diligently seek it.
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.
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.
Happy he who far from business persuits Tills and re-tills his ancestral lands With oxen of his own breeding Having no slavish yoke about his neck.
Not treasured wealth, nor the consul’s lictor, can dispel the mind’s bitter conflicts and the cares that flit, like bats, about your fretted roofs.
A portion of mankind take pride in their vices and pursue their purpose; many more waver between doing what is right and complying with what is wrong.
If you rank me with the lyric poets, my exalted head shall strike the stars.
Mingle a little folly with your wisdom; a little nonsense now and then is pleasant.
He who is always in a hurry to be wealthy and immersed in the study of augmenting his fortune has lost the arms of reason and deserted the post of virtue.
I hate the uncultivated crowd and keep them at a distance. Favour me by your tongues (keep silence).
Happy he who far from business, like the primitive are of mortals, cultivates with his own oxen the fields of his fathers, free from all anxieties of gain.
Neither men, nor gods, nor booksellers’ shelves permit ordinary poets to exist.
Imagine every day to be the last of a life surrounded with hopes, cares, anger, and fear. The hours that come unexpectedly will be so much more the grateful.
Whatever you teach, be brief; what is quickly said, the mind readily receives and faithfully retains, everything superfluous runs over as from a full vessel.
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.
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.
Physicians attend to the business of physicians, and workmen handle the tools of workmen.
There is a fault common to all singers. When they’re among friends and are asked to sing they don’t want to, and when they’re not asked to sing they never stop.
Painters and poets, you say, “have always had an equal license in bold invention.” We know; we claim the liberty for ourselves and in turn we give it to others.
Pale death, with impartial step, knocks at the hut of the poor and the towers of kings.
Let him who has once perceived how much that, which has been discarded, excels that which he has longed for, return at once, and seek again that which he despised.
The foolish are like ripples on water, For whatsoever they do is quickly effaced; But the righteous are like carvings upon stone, For their smallest act is durable.
The mind that is cheerful in its present state, will be averse to all solicitude as to the future, and will meet the bitter occurrences of life with a placid smile.
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.
Strange – is it not? That of the myriads who Before us passed the door of Darkness through, Not one returns to tell us of the road Which to discover we must travel too.
The years, as they come, bring many agreeable things with them; as they go, they take many away.)
Often turn the stile [correct with care], if you expect to write anything worthy of being read twice.
Busy not yourself in looking forward to the events of to-morrow; but whatever may be those of the days Providence may yet assign you neglect not to turn them to advantage.
When putting words together is good to do it with nicety and caution, your elegance and talent will be evident if by putting ordinary words together you create a new voice.
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.
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.
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.
Too indolent to bear the toil of writing; I mean of writing well; I say nothing about quantity.
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.
What does not wasting time change! The age of our parents, worse than that of our grandsires, has brought us forth more impious still, and we shall produce a more vicious progeny.
They change their sky, not their mind, who cross the sea. A busy idleness possesses us: we seek a happy life, with ships and carriages: the object of our search is present with us.
Let hopes and sorrows, fears and angers be, And think each day that dawns the last you’ll see; For so the hour that greets you unforeseen Will bring with it enjoyment twice as keen.
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.
To have a great man for an intimate friend seems pleasant to those who have never tried it; those who have, fear it.
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.
Had the crow only fed without cawing she would have had more to eat, and much less of strife and envy to contend with. [To noise abroad our success is to invite envy and competition.]
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.
Joy, grief, desire or fear, whate’er the name The passion bears, its influence is the same; Where things exceed your hope or fall below, You stare, look blank, grow numb from top to toe.
I live and reign since I have abandoned those pleasures which you by your praises extol to the skies.
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.
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.
Cease to inquire what the future has in store, and to take as a gift whatever the day brings forth.
Receive, dear friend, the truths I teach, So shalt thou live beyond the reach Of adverse Fortune’s pow’r; Not always tempt the distant deep, Nor always timorously creep Along the treach’rous shore.
I will perform the function of a whetstone, which is about to restore sharpness to iron, though itself unable to cut.
Great effort is required to arrest decay and restore vigor. One must exercise proper deliberation, plan carefully before making a move, and be alert in guarding against relapse following a renaissance.
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.
There is a proper measure in all things, certain limits beyond which and short of which right is not to be found. Who so cultivates the golden mean avoids the poverty of a hovel and the envy of a palace.
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.
It is time for thee to be gone, lest the age more decent in its wantonness should laugh at thee and drive thee of the stage.
Who loves the golden mean is safe from the poverty of a tenement, is free from the envy of a palace.
Many terms which have now dropped out of favour will be revived, and those that are at present respectable, will drop out, if useage so choose with whom resides the decision and the judgment and the code of speech.
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.
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.
It is no great art to say something briefly when, like Tacitus, one has something to say; when one has nothing to say, however, and none the less writes a whole book and makes truth into a liar – that I call an achievement.
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.
Abridge your hopes in proportion to the shortness of the span of human life; for while we converse, the hours, as if envious of our pleasure, fly away: enjoy, therefore, the present time, and trust not too much to what to-morrow may produce.
Sorrowful words become the sorrowful; angry words suit the passionate; light words a playful expression; serious words suit the grave.
In the midst of hopes and cares, of apprehensions and of disquietude, regard every day that dawns upon you as if it was to be your last; then super-added hours, to the enjoyment of which you had not looked forward, will prove an acceptable boon.
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.
Few cross the river of time and are able to reach non-being. Most of them run up and down only on this side of the river. But those who when they know the law follow the path of the law, they shall reach the other shore and go beyond the realm of death.
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).
What wonders does not wine! It discloses secrets; ratifies and confirms our hopes; thrusts the coward forth to battle; eases the anxious mind of its burden; instructs in arts. Whom has not a cheerful glass made eloquent! Whom not quite free and easy from pinching poverty!
drink is mighty! secrets it unlocks, Turns hope to fact, sets cowards on to box, Takes burdens from the careworn, finds out parts In stupid folks, and teaches unknown arts. What tongue hangs fire when quickened by the bowl? What wretch so poor but wine expands his soul?
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.
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.
Not even for an hour can you bear to be alone, nor can you advantageously apply your leisure time, but you endeavor, a fugitive and wanderer, to escape from yourself, now vainly seeking to banish remorse by wine, and now by sleep; but the gloomy companion presses on you, and pursues you as you fly.
How does it happen, Maecenas, that no one is content with that lot in life which he has chosen, or which chance has thrown in his way, but praises those who follow a different course?
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.
The aim of the poet is to inform or delight, or to combine together, in what he says, both pleasure and applicability to life. In instructing, be brief in what you say in order that your readers may grasp it quickly and retain it faithfully. Superfluous words simply spill out when the mind is already full. Fiction invented in order to please should remain close to reality.
I have reared a memorial more enduring than brass, and loftier than the regal structure of the pyramids, which neither the corroding shower nor the powerless north wind can destroy; no, not even unending years nor the flight of time itself. I shall not entirely die. The greater part of me shall escape oblivion.

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About Horace

Quotes by Horace