Quotes from Horace

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

Once a word has been allowed to escape, it cannot be recalled.

Dare to begin! He who postpones living rightly is like the rustic who waits for the river to run out before he crosses.

The human race afraid of nothing, rushes on through every crime.

Who has courage to say no again and again to desires, to despise the objects of ambition, who is a whole in himself, smoothed and rounded.

Fools through false shame conceal their open wounds.

Day is pushed out by day, and each new moon hastens to its death. [Lat., Truditur dies die, Novaeque pergunt interire lunae.]

Death is the last limit of all things.

Death is the ultimate boundary of human matters.

Pale death, with impartial step, knocks at the hut of the poor and the towers of kings. [Lat., Pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas Regumque turres.]

I shall not altogether die.

Envy is not to be conquered but by death.

Either a peaceful old age awaits me, or death flies round me with black wings. [Lat., Seu me tranquilla senectus Exspectat, seu mors atris circumvolat alis.]

Alas, Postumus, the fleeting years slip by, nor will piety give any stay to wrinkles and pressing old age and untamable death.

Great effort is required to arrest decay and restore vigor. One must exercise proper deliberation, plan carefully before making a move, and be alert in guarding against relapse following a renaissance.

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

When your throat is parched with thirst, do you desire a cup of gold?

Be not for ever harassed by impotent desire.

Do not try to find out - we're forbidden to know - what end the gods have in store for me, or for you.

Books have their destinies.

Knowledge without education is but armed injustice.

The brave are born from the brave and good. In steers and in horses is to be found the excellence of their sire; nor do savage eagles produce a peaceful dove.

Sometimes even excellent Homer nods.

Excellence when concealed, differs but little from buried worthlessness. [Lat., Paullum sepultae distat inertiae Celata virtus.]