Top 15 Horace Quotes

Pulvis et umbra sumus. (We are but dust and shadow.)

"Carpe diem."

(Odes: I.11)

Begin, be bold, and venture to be wise.

"Ut haec ipsa qui non sentiat deorum vim habere is nihil omnino sensurus esse videatur."

If any man cannot feel the power of God when he looks upon the stars, then I doubt whether he is capable of any feeling at all.

Rule your mind or it will rule you.

Caelum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt.
(They change their sky, not their soul, who rush across the sea.)

Happy the man, and happy he alone,
he who can call today his own:
he who, secure within, can say,
Tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today.

Be fair or foul, or rain or shine
the joys I have possessed, in spite of fate, are mine.
Not Heaven itself, upon the past has power,
but what has been, has been, and I have had my hour.

"Pactum serva" - "Keep the faith"

Live as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts

he who is greedy is always in want

"Dimidium facti qui coepit habet: sapere aude" ("He who has begun is half done: dare to know!").

Anger is a brief madness.

Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which, in prosperous circumstances, would have lain dormant.

wisdom is not wisdom when it is derived from books alone

A picture is a poem without words.