Quintus Horatius Flaccus, known as Horace, was a significant Roman lyric poet and critic born in 65 BC.
Despite a brief military career in Brutus’s army, he found his true calling in poetry post-defeat at Philippi.
Granted amnesty by Augustus, he moved to Rome, working as a Treasury clerk while building his literary reputation.
Friendships with Virgil, Varius and Maecenas, an advisor to Augustus, proved critical to his career, leading to published works including Satires, Odes, Epodes and Epistles.
Living a modest life on a Sabine farm gifted by Maecenas, Horace’s verses celebrate ordinary moments, expressing universal sentiments with deceptive simplicity.
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His influential Ars Poetica outlined advice for poets on precision and critique.
His work, praised for its unique expression and profundity, has significantly influenced literature, making Horace, along with Virgil, one of the most revered Augustan poets.
Let’s go through some of the famous Horace quotes.
Greatest Horace Quotes
1. “What’s well begun is half done.” ~ (Horace).
2. “When things are steep, remember to stay level-headed.” ~ (Horace).
3. “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.” ~ (Horace).
4. “Joking apart, now let us be serious.” ~ (Horace).
5. “Rule your mind or it will rule you.” ~ (Horace).
6. “Begin, be bold, and venture to be wise.” ~ (Horace).
7. “Be modest in speech, but excel in action.” ~ (Horace).
8. “Many shall be restored that now are fallen and many shall fall that now are in honor.” ~ (Horace).
9. “He who has begun has half done. Dare to be wise – begin!” ~ (Horace).
10. “Sapere aude. Dare to be wise.” ~ (Horatius).
11. “With self-discipline most anything is possible. Theodore Roosevelt Rule your mind or it will rule you.” ~ (Horace).
12. “Seize the day, and put the least possible trust in tomorrow.” ~ (Horatius ).
13. “I want to live, and die with you.” ~ (Horace).
14. “Fidelity is the sister of justice.” ~ (Horace).
15. “Better to accept whatever happens.” ~ (Horace).
16. “In adversity, remember to keep an even mind.” ~ (Horace).
17. “Who has self-confidence will lead the rest.” ~ (Horace).
18. “Whatever you want to teach, be brief.” ~ (Horace).
19. “Life grants nothing to us mortals without hard work.” ~ (Horace).
Popular Horace Quotes
20. “Think to yourself that every day is your last; the hour to which you do not look forward will come as a welcome surprise.” ~ (Horace).
21. “Teaching brings out innate powers, and proper training braces the intellect.” ~ (Horace).
22. “Kings play the fool, and the people suffer for it.” ~ (Horace).
23. “One cannot know everything.” ~ (Horace).
24. “Wisdom is not wisdom when it is derived from books alone.” ~ (Horace).
25. “Once begun, A task is easy; half the work is done.” ~ (Horace).
26. “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.” ~ (Horace).
27. “Tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today.” ~ (Horace).
28. “Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which, in prosperous circumstances, would have lain dormant.” ~ (Horace).
29. “That best of blessings, a contented mind.” ~ (Horace).
30. “Who then is free? The wise man who can govern himself.” ~ (Horace).
31. “Strength without judgment falls by its own weight.” ~ (Horace).
Powerful Horace Quotes
32. “Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque revenit. You can drive nature out with a pitchfork, she will nevertheless come back.” ~ (Horace).
33. “The higher the tower, the greater the fall thereof.” ~ (Horace).
34. “No man is born without faults.” ~ (Horace).
35. “Remember to be calm in adversity.” ~ (Horace).
36. “Get money first; virtue comes after.” ~ (Horace).
37. “Flames too soon acquire strength if disregarded.” ~ (Horace).
38. “Those who cross the sea, change sky, but not soul.” ~ (Horace).
39. “If you cannot conduct yourself with propriety, give place to those who can.” ~ (Horace).
40. “Live as brave men and face adversity with stout hearts.” ~ (Horace).
Top Horace Quotes
41. “The arrow will not always find the mark intended.” ~ (Horace).
42. “Acquittal of the guilty damns the judge.” ~ (Horace).
43. “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).
44. “Lightning strikes the tops of the mountains.” ~ (Horace).
45. “No one is content with his own lot.” ~ (Horace).
46. “The miser acquires, yet fears to use his gains.” ~ (Horace).
47. “Wisdom at times is found in folly.” ~ (Horace).
48. “Ridicule is often employed with more power and success than severity.” ~ (Horace).
49. “In neglected fields the fern grows, which must be cleared out by fire.” ~ (Horace).
50. “Don’t waste the opportunity.” ~ (Horace).
51. “Doctrina sed vim promovet insitam. Instruction enlarges the natural powers of the mind.” ~ (Horace).
52. “Nothing’s beautiful from every point of view.” ~ (Horace).
53. “In peace, a wise man makes preparations for war.” ~ (Horace).
54. “Drive Nature out with a pitchfork, yet she hurries back, And will burst through your foolish contempt, triumphant.” ~ (Horace).
55. “He who has made it a practice to lie and deceive his father, will be the most daring in deceiving others.” ~ (Horace).
56. “Though your threshing floor grind a hundred thousand bushels of corn, not for that reason will your stomach hold more than mine.” ~ (Horace).
57. “If matters go badly now, they will not always be so.” ~ (Horace).
58. “Wise were the kings who never chose a friend till with full cups they had unmasked his soul, and seen the bottom of his deepest thoughts.” ~ (Horace).
59. “Having no business of his own to attend to, he busies himself with the affairs of others.” ~ (Horace).
60. “That destructive siren, sloth, is ever to be avoided.” ~ (Horace).
Famous Horace Quotes
61. “It is good to labor; it is also good to rest from labor.” ~ (Horace).
62. “The hour of happiness which comes unexpectedly is the happiest.” ~ (Horace).
63. “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.” ~ (Horace).
64. “Pale death knocks with impartial foot at poor men’s hovels and king’s palaces.” ~ (Horace).
65. “We are deceived by the appearance of right.” ~ (Horace).
66. “The lofty pine is oftenest shaken by the winds; High towers fall with a heavier crash; And the lightning strikes the highest mountain.” ~ (Horace).
67. “Time will bring to light whatever is hidden it will cover up and conceal what is now shining in splendor.” ~ (Horace).
68. “Wherever the storm carries me, I go as a willing guest.” ~ (Horace).
69. “Adversity reveals the genius of a general; good fortune conceals it.” ~ (Horace).
70. “Often you must turn your stylus to erase, if you hope to write anything worth a second reading.” ~ (Horace).
71. “A picture is a poem without words.” ~ (Horace).
72. “Deep in the cavern of the infant’s breast; the father’s nature lurks, and lives anew.” ~ (Horace).
73. “Silver is of less value than gold, gold than virtue.” ~ (Horace).
74. “When you introduce a moral lesson, let it be brief.” ~ (Horace).
75. “Once sent out, a word takes wings beyond recall.” ~ (Horace).
76. “It is delightful to play the fool.” ~ (Horace).
77. “He paints a dolphin in the woods, a boar in the waves.” ~ (Horace).
78. “Let me possess what I now have, or even less, so that I may enjoy my remaining days, if Heaven grant any to remain.” ~ (Horace).
79. “Quid rides? Mutato nomine de te fabula narratur.” ~ (Horace).
80. “Who then is sane? He who is not a fool.” ~ (Horace).
81. “Fools through false shame, conceal their open wounds.” ~ (Horace).
82. “The words can not return.” ~ (Horace).
83. “If nothing is delightful without love and jokes, then live in love and jokes.” ~ (Horace).
84. “If you are only an underling, don’t dress too fine.” ~ (Horace).
85. “A pauper in the midst of wealth.” ~ (Horace).
86. “Surely oak and threefold brass surrounded his heart who first trusted a frail vessel to the merciless ocean.” ~ (Horace).
87. “Better one thorn plucked out than all remain.” ~ (Horace).
88. “Fortune makes a fool of those she favors too much.” ~ (Horace).
89. “Fortune, delighting in her cruel task, and playing her wanton game untiringly, is ever shifting her uncertain favours.” ~ (Horace).
90. “The cask will long retain the flavour of the wine with which it was first seasoned.” ~ (Horace).
91. “In adversity be spirited and firm, and with equal prudence lessen your sail when filled with a too fortunate gale of prosperity.” ~ (Horace).
92. “Sovereign money procures a wife with a large fortune, gets a man credit, creates friends, stands in place of pedigree, and even of beauty.” ~ (Horace).
93. “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.” ~ (Horace).
94. “Many heroes lived before Agamemnon; but all are unknown and unwept, extinguished in everlasting night, because they have no spirited chronicler.” ~ (Horace).
95. “Drop the question of what tomorrow may bring, and count as profit every day that Fate allows you.” ~ (Horace).
96. “He has half the deed done who has made a beginning.” ~ (Horace).
97. “In times of stress, be bold and valiant.” ~ (Horace).
98. “The great virtue of parents is a great dowry.” ~ (Horace).
99. “It is courage, courage, courage, that raises the blood of life to crimson splendor. Live bravely and present a brave front to adversity.” ~ (Horace).
100. “Remember when life’s path is steep to keep your mind even.” ~ (Horace).
101. “He who feared that he would not succeed sat still.” ~ (Horace).
102. “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.” ~ (Horace).
103. “The wolf attacks with his fang, the bull with his horn.” ~ (Horace).
104. “Remember to preserve a calm soul amid difficulties.” ~ (Horace).
105. “Not to be lost in idle admiration is the only sure means of making and preserving happiness.” ~ (Horace).
Short Horace Quotes
106. “Leave the rest to the gods.” ~ (Horace).
107. “I have lived: tomorrow the Father may fill the sky with black clouds or with cloudless sunshine.” ~ (Horace).
108. “Poets are never allowed to be mediocre by the gods, by men or by publishers.” ~ (Horace).
109. “I prayed only for a small piece of land, a garden, an ever-flowing spring, and bit of woods.” ~ (Horace).
110. “Nothing is too high for the daring of mortals: we storm heaven itself in our folly.” ~ (Horace).
111. “I shall not wholly die, and a great part of me will escape the grave.” ~ (Horace).
112. “Nature is harmony in discord.” ~ (Horace).
113. “Wine brings to light the hidden secrets of the soul.” ~ (Horace).
114. “Whatever hour God has blessed you with, take it with a grateful hand.” ~ (Horace).
115. “Anger is a momentary madness, so control your passion or it will control you.” ~ (Horace).
116. “A man of refined taste and judgment.” ~ (Horace).
117. “To grow a philosopher’s beard.” ~ (Horace).
118. “Summer treads on heels of spring.” ~ (Horace).
Best Horace Quotes
119. “Lighten grief with hopes of a brighter morrow; Temper joy, in fear of a change of fortune.” ~ (Horace).
120. “A word once uttered can never be recalled.” ~ (Horace).
121. “As a rule, adversity reveals genius and prosperity hides it.” ~ (Horace).
122. “In love there are two evils: war and peace.” ~ (Horace).
123. “I am frightened at seeing all the footprints directed towards thy den, and none returning.” ~ (Horace).
124. “Undeservedly you will atone for the sins of your fathers.” ~ (Horace).
125. “Often a purple patch or two is tacked on to a serious work of high promise, to give an effect of color.” ~ (Horace).
