Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (Roman Poet)

Horace (65–8 BCE,) fully Quintus Horatius Flaccus, was a Roman poet of the Augustan age. A notable satirist and literary critic, he is best known for his Satires (c.35 BCE,) Epodes (c.30 BCE,) Odes (c.23 BCE,) Epistles (c.20 BCE,) and Ars Poetica (c.19 BCE; The Art of Poetry)—these literary classics have been the cornerstones of Western poetry.

Much is known about Horace’s life from a biography by Suetonius and Horace’s own testimony. Born in Venusia (modern-day Venosa in southwest Italy) to a former slave, Horace was sent to Rome and then Athens for an education matching that of a usual upper-class Roman of the time. In Athens, Horace joined Brutus’s army as a junior officer. However, with the fall of Brutus, Horace’s family lost much of its property. Horace returned to Italy under a general amnesty, wrote his first poems, and made friends with Virgil, Varius Rufus, and Gaius Maecenas.

Horace’s standing as the most significant Roman lyric poet rests on the excellence of form revealed by the Odes, and on the depth and detail of his self-portraiture in his literary works. He was considered the principal authority on the composition of poetry; his Ars Poetica set the standards for poetry to govern literary criticism even in the present day.

Horace’s proficient mastery of a wide variety of lyric forms is matched both by the wealth of his subject matter—ranging from politics to love, poetry to ethics, and daily life to biography—and by the multiplicity of his tones, which shift from satire to didacticism and from affection to diatribe.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)

The chief pleasure in eating does not consist in costly seasoning, or exquisite flavor, but in yourself. Do you seek for sauce by labor?
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Topics: Diet, Eating

He has the deed half done who has made a beginning.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Topics: Beginnings, One liners, Action

Mistakes are their own instructors
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Topics: Mistakes

He who has made it a practice to lie and deceive his father, will be the most daring in deceiving others.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Topics: Deception, Deception/Lying

He who is upright in his way of life and free from sin.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Topics: Integrity

Words will not fail when the matter is well considered.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Topics: Words

He that has given today may, if he so please, take away tomorrow.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Topics: Tomorrow, The Future

The secret of all good writing is sound judgment.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Topics: Authors & Writing, Writers

No verse can give pleasure for long, nor last, that is written by drinkers of water.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Topics: Pleasure, Poetry

No one is content with his own lot.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Topics: Reality, Opportunities

While fools shun one set of faults they run into the opposite one.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Topics: Faults, Mistakes

Suffering is but another name for the teaching of experience, which is the parent of instruction and the schoolmaster of life.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Topics: Suffering

One night awaits all, and death’s path must be trodden once and for all.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Topics: Death

When evil times prevail, take care to preserve the serenity of your heart.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Topics: Attitude

The covetous man is always in want.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)

Mix a little foolishness with your serious plans: it’s lovely to be silly at the right moment.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Topics: Foolishness, Fools

Money is a handmaiden, if thou knowest how to use it; a mistress, if thou knowest not.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Topics: Money

He is always a slave who cannot live on little.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Topics: Life

The one who prosperity takes too much delight in will be the most shocked by reverses.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Topics: Adversity

And may I live the remainder of my life for myself; may there be plenty of books and many years’ store of the fruits of the earth.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Topics: Happiness

Who guides below and rules above, the great disposer and the mighty king; than he none greater; next him none can be, or is, or was; supreme, he singly fills the throne.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)

He is armed without who is innocent within, be this thy screen, and this thy wall of brass.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Topics: Innocence

Usually the modest person passes for someone reserved, the silent for a sullen person
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Topics: Humility, Modesty

In the midst of hopes and cares, of apprehensions and of disquietude, regard every day that dawns upon you as if it was to be your last; then super-added hours, to the enjoyment of which you had not looked forward, will prove an acceptable boon.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Topics: Present

Busy idleness urges us on
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Topics: Idleness

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.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Topics: Gossip

Life gives nothing to man without labor.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Topics: Labor

It is sweet to let the mind unbend on occasion.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Topics: Mind

I shall not wholly die, and a great part of me will escape the grave.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Topics: Death, Dying

Believe that each day that shines on you is your last.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Topics: Present, The Present

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