Horace quotes

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

“Why do you hasten to remove anything which hurts your eye, while if something affects your soul you postpone the cure until next year? ”

— Horace

“We are just statistics, born to consume resources.”

— Horace

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

— Horace

“While fools shun one set of faults they run into the opposite one. ”

— Horace

“Fortune makes a fool of those she favors too much.”

— Horace

“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.”

— Horace

“Begin, be bold and venture to be wise. ”

— Horace

“Knowledge without education is but armed injustice. ”

— Horace

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

— Horace

“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. ”

— Horace

“Cease to inquire what the future has in store, and take as a gift whatever the day brings forth. ”

— Horace

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

— Horace

“A host is like a general: calamities often reveal his genius. ”

— Horace

“ He has the deed half done who has made a beginning. ”

— Horace

“Pale death, with impartial step, knocks at the hut of the poor and the towers of kings. ”

— Horace

“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. ”

— Horace

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

— Horace

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

— Horace

“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. ”

— Horace

“Fidelity is the sister of justice. ”

— Horace

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

— Horace

“In labouring to be concise, I become obscure.”

— Horace

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

— Horace

“Let your literary compositions be kept from the public eye for nine years at least. ”

— Horace

“The pen is the tongue of the mind. ”

— Horace

“I never think at all when I write. Nobody can do two things at the same time and do them both well. ”

— Horace