Horace quotes:

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  • A heart well prepared for adversity in bad times hopes, and in good times fears for a change in fortune.

  • Sad people dislike the happy, and the happy the sad; the quick thinking the sedate, and the careless the busy and industrious.

  • He has not lived badly whose birth and death has been unnoticed by the world.

  • Whoever cultivates the golden mean avoids both the poverty of a hovel and the envy of a palace.

  • 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.

  • Suffering is but another name for the teaching of experience, which is the parent of instruction and the schoolmaster of life.

  • Whatever advice you give, be short.

  • 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.

  • 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.

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

  • 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.

  • Refrain from asking what going to happen tomorrow, and everyday that fortune grants you, count as gain.

  • Nothing's beautiful from every point of view.

  • Usually the modest person passes for someone reserved, the silent for a sullen person.

  • He who postpones the hour of living is like the rustic who waits for the river to run out before he crosses.

  • It is courage, courage, courage, that raises the blood of life to crimson splendor. Live bravely and present a brave front to adversity.

  • Good sense is both the first principal and the parent source of good writing.

  • Undeservedly you will atone for the sins of your fathers.

  • Knowledge without education is but armed injustice.

  • In labouring to be concise, I become obscure.

  • A good and faithful judge ever prefers the honorable to the expedient.

  • Life grants nothing to us mortals without hard work.

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

  • Your own safety is at stake when your neighbor's wall is ablaze.

  • When things are steep, remember to stay level-headed.

  • A picture is a poem without words.

  • The pen is the tongue of the mind.

  • Begin, be bold and venture to be wise.

  • 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.

  • It is your concern when your neighbor's wall is on fire.

  • He is armed without who is innocent within, be this thy screen, and this thy wall of brass.

  • 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.

  • The lofty pine is oftenest shaken by the winds; High towers fall with a heavier crash; And the lightning strikes the highest mountain.

  • 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.

  • Time will bring to light whatever is hidden; it will cover up and conceal what is now shining in splendor.

  • 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.

  • What we learn only through the ears makes less impression upon our minds than what is presented to the trustworthy eye.

  • No verse can give pleasure for long, nor last, that is written by drinkers of water.

  • No poems can please for long or live that are written by water drinkers.

  • The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes.

  • Why harass with eternal purposes a mind to weak to grasp them?

  • A word once uttered can never be recalled.

  • Subdue your passion or it will subdue you.

  • He who would begun has half done. Dare to be wise; begin.

  • It is a sweet and seemly thing to die for one's country.

  • He has the deed half done who has made a beginning.

  • In love there are two evils: war and peace.

  • Captive Greece took captive her savage conquerer and brought the arts to rustic Latium

  • Dimidium facti qui coepit habet: sapere aude (He who has begun is half done: dare to know!).

  • A cultivated wit, one that badgers less, can persuade all the more. Artful ridicule can address contentious issues more competently and vigorously than can severity alone.

  • One wanders to the left, another to the right. Both are equally in error, but, are seduced by different delusions."

  • The one who cannot restrain their anger will wish undone, what their temper and irritation prompted them to do."

  • Ridicule more often settles things more thoroughly and better than acrimony.

  • Many heroes lived before Agamemnon; but all are unknown and unwept, extinguished in everlasting night, because they have no spirited chronicler.

  • 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.]

  • 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.

  • Who can hope to be safe? who sufficiently cautious? Guard himself as he may, every moment's an ambush.

  • Posterity, thinned by the crime of its ancestors, shall hear of those battles.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Anger is short-lived madness.

  • Sorrowful words become the sorrowful; angry words suit the passionate; light words a playful expression; serious words suit the grave. [Lat., Tristia maestum Vultum verba decent; iratum, plena minarum; Ludentem, lasciva: severum, seria dictu.]

  • A mind that is charmed by false appearances refuses better things. [Lat., Acclinis falsis animus meliora recusat.]

  • 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.

  • With self-discipline most anything is possible. Theodore Roosevelt Rule your mind or it will rule you.

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

  • Knowledge is the foundation and source of good writing. [Lat., Scibendi recte sapere est et principium et fons.]

  • Let it (what you have written) be kept back until the ninth year. [Lat., Nonumque prematur in annum.]

  • Often turn the stile [correct with care], if you expect to write anything worthy of being read twice. [Lat., Saepe stilum vertas, iterum quae digna legi sint Scripturus.]

  • 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.]

  • The avarice person is ever in want; let your desired aim have a fixed limit.

  • Riches with their wicked inducements increase; nevertheless, avarice is never satisfied.

  • He will always be a slave who does not know how to live upon a little.

  • Mix a little foolishness with your serious plans. It is lovely to be silly at the right moment.

  • Being, be bold and venture to be wise.

  • He who has begun has half done. Dare to be wise -begin!

  • No master can make me swear blind obedience.

  • He paints a dolphin in the woods, a boar in the waves.

  • What will this boaster produce worthy of this mouthing? The mountains are in labor; a ridiculous mouse will be born. [Lat., Quid dignum tanto feret hic promissor hiatu? Parturiunt montes; nascetur ridiculus mus.]

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

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

  • It is courage, courage, courage, that raises the blood of life to crimson splendor. Live bravely and present a brave front to adversity

  • There is need of brevity, that the thought may run on.

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

  • There are calumnies against which even innocence loses courage.

  • Who then is free? The one who wisely is lord of themselves, who neither poverty, death or captivity terrify, who is strong to resist his appetites and shun honors, and is complete in themselves smooth and round like a globe

  • Dare to begin! He who postpones living rightly is like the rustic who waits for the river to run out before he crosses.

  • Carpe diem. (Seize the day.)

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Rains driven by storms fall not perpetually on the land already sodden, neither do varying gales for ever disturb the Caspian sea.

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

  • Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which, in prosperous circumstances, would have lain dormant.

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

  • The power of daring anything their fancy suggest, as always been conceded to the painter and the poet.

  • The whole race of scribblers flies from the town and yearns for country life.

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

  • Virtue, dear friend, needs no defense, The surest guard is innocence: None knew, till guilt created fear, What darts or poisoned arrows were

  • He who has made it a practice to lie and deceive his father, will be the most daring in deceiving others.

  • The trainer trains the docile horse to turn, with his sensitive neck, whichever way the rider indicates.

  • Fierce eagles breed not the tender dove.

  • The great virtue of parents is a great dowry.

  • No poems can please long or live that are written by water drinkers.

  • No poem was ever written by a drinker of water.

  • Marble statues, engraved with public inscriptions, by which the life and soul return after death to noble leaders.

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

  • 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.

  • An envious man grows lean at another's fatness.

  • In neglected fields the fern grows, which must be cleared out by fire.

  • Fidelity is the sister of justice.

  • Though you strut proud of your money, yet fortune has not changed your birth. [Lat., Licet superbus ambules pecuniae, Fortuna non mutat genus.]

  • Get money first; virtue comes after.

  • A good scare is worth more than good advice.

  • He who is greedy is always in want.

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

  • 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.

  • Enjoy thankfully any happy hour heaven may send you, nor think that your delights will keep till another year.

  • It is the false shame of fools to try to conceal wounds that have not healed.

  • Wine brings to light the hidden secrets of the soul.

  • Wine brings to light the hidden secrets of the soul, gives being to our hopes, bids the coward flight, drives dull care away, and teaches new means for the accomplishment of our wishes.

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