Top 927 Quotes & Sayings by Horace - Page 14

What can be found equal to modesty, uncorrupt faith, the sister of justice, and undisguised truth?

Everything that is superfluous overflows from the full bosom.

Riches either serve or govern the possessor.

Busy idleness urges us on.

However rich or elevated, a name less something is always wanting to our imperfect fortune.

Ye who write, choose a subject suited to your abilities. [Lat., Sumite materiam vestris, qui scribitis, aequam Viribus.]

The one who prosperity takes too much delight in will be the most shocked by reverses.

My liver swells with bile difficult to repress.

Oh! thou who are greatly mad, deign to spare me who am less mad.

Never despair while under the guidance and auspices of Teucer.

Anger is a momentary madness.

Nothing is swifter than rumor.

The lazy ox wishes for horse-trappings, and the steed wishes to plough. [Lat., Optat ephippia bos piger, optat arare caballus.]

In a moment comes either death or joyful victory. [Lat., Horae Momento cita mors venit aut victoria laeta.]

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.

A man perfect to the finger tips.

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.

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

Come, let us take a lesson from our forefathers, and enjoy the Christmas holyday.

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.]

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.

Seest thou how pale the sated guest rises from supper, where the appetite is puzzled with varieties? The body, too, burdened with I yesterday's excess, weighs down the soul, and fixes to the earth this particle of the divine essence.

Add a sprinkling of folly to your long deliberations.

Glory drags all men along, low as well as high, bound captive at the wheels of her glittering car.

I am frightened at seeing all the footprints directed towards thy den, and none returning.

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

The consummate pleasure (in eating) is not in the costly flavour, but in yourself. Do you seek for sauce for sweating?

Fate with impartial hand turns out the doom of high and low; her capacious urn is constantly shaking the names of all mankind.

A greater liar than the Parthians.

A corrupt judge does not carefully search for the truth.

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).

By heaven you have destroyed me, my friends!

Aiming at brevity, I become obscure.

A bad reader soon puts to flight both wise men and fools.

Change but the name, and you are the subject of the story.

A cup concealed in the dress is rarely honestly carried.

What impropriety or limit can there be in our grief for a man so beloved?.

An undertaking beset with danger.

Can you restrain your laughter, my friends?

The musician who always plays on the same string is laughed at.

Catch the opportunity while it lasts, and rely not on what the morrow may bring.

The muse does not allow the praise-de-serving here to die: she enthrones him in the heavens.

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

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.

An envious man grows lean at another's fatness.

Plant no other tree before the vine.

To drink away sorrow.

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? [Lat., Qui fit, Maecenas, ut nemo quam sibi sortem, Seu ratio dederit, seu fors objecerit, illa Contentus vivat? laudet diversa sequentes.]

If a better system's thine, Impart it frankly, or make use of mine.

It is grievous to be caught.

Designedly God covers in dark night the issue of futurity.

Even in animals there exists the spirit of their sires.

Even play has ended in fierce strife and anger.

Let this be your wall of brass, to have nothing on your conscience, no guilt to make you turn pale.

Whatever your advice, make it brief.

The hour of happiness will be the more welcome, the less it was expected.

You have played enough; you have eaten and drunk enough. Now it is time for you to depart.

Books have their destinies.

By the favour of the heavens

Even the good Homer is sometimes caught napping.