Horace Quotes

Life gives nothing to man without labor.

I do not dislike the French from the vulgar antipathy between neighboring nations, but for their insolent and unfounded air of superiority.

Of what use is a fortune to me, if I cannot use it? [Lat., Quo mihi fortunam, si non conceditur uti?]

Often you must turn your stylus to erase, if you hope to write anything worth a second reading.

Music is an incitement to love.

Seize the day, put no trust in the morrow!

Drive Nature forth by force, she'll turn and rout The false refinements that would keep her out.

Knowledge is a mimic creation.

We are free to yield to truth.

That man scorches with his brightness, who overpowers inferior capacities, yet he shall be revered when dead.

Do not pursue with the terrible scourge him who deserves a slight whip. [Lat., Ne scutica dignum horribili sectere flagello.]

He who cannot resist temptation is not a man. Whoever yields to temptation debases himself with a debasement from which he can never arise.

He's arm'd without that's innocent within; Be this thy Screen, and this thy Wall of Brass.

Forgetful of thy tomb thou buildest houses.

Our [British] summers are often, though beautiful for verdure, so cold, that they are rather cold winters.

What is Zen? Zen is looking at things with the eye of God, that is, becoming the thing's eyes so that it looks at itself with our eyes.

The wolf attacks with his fang, the bull with his horn.

The wisest prophets make sure of the event first.

The way to ensure summer in England is to have it framed and glazed in a comfortable room.

He who cannot resist temptation is not a man.

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

Be not caught by the cunning of those who appear in a disguise.

At last some curious traveller from Lima will visit England, and give a description of the ruins of St. Paul's, like the editions of Baalbec and Palmyra.

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.

I hate the uncultivated crowd and keep them at a distance. Favour me by your tongues (keep silence). [Lat., Odi profanum vulgus et arceo. Favete linguis.]

It is sweet to let the mind unbend on occasion.

Every old poem is sacred.

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

After a child has arrived at the legal age for attending school,-whether he be the child of noble or of peasant,-the only two absolute grounds of exemption from attendance are sickness and death.

When you introduce into our schools a spirit of emulation, you have present the keenest spur admissible to the youthful intellect.

He who dethrones the idea of law, bids chaos welcome in its stead.

A good resolve will make any port.

Make a good use of the present.

In adversity be spirited and firm, and with equal prudence lessen your sail when filled with a too fortunate gale of prosperity.

In trying to teach children a great deal in a short time, they are treated not as though the race they were to run was for life, but simply a three-mile heat.

Virtue knows to a farthing what it has lost by not having been vice.

Perfect does not mean perfect actions in a perfect world, bur appropriate actions in an imperfect one.

There is likewise a reward for faithful silence. [Lat., Est et fideli tuta silentio merces.]

Not to be lost in idle admiration is the only sure means of making and preserving happiness.

Don't long for the unripe grape.

As each generation comes into the world devoid of knowledge, its first duty is to obtain possession of the stores already amassed. It must overtake its predecessors before it can pass by them.

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

Cease to ask what the morrow will bring forth, and set down as gain each day that fortune grants.

Poetry is like painting: one piece takes your fancy if you stand close to it, another if you keep at some distance.

A well-prepared mind hopes in adversity and fears in prosperity. [Lat., Sperat infestis, metuit secundis Alteram sortem, bene preparatum Pectus.]

The education already given to the people creates the necessity of giving them more.

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.

Don't carry logs into the forest.

No master can make me swear blind obedience.

Now, that's enough. [Lat., Ohe! jam satis est.]