1,095 Quotes by Horace

If you are only an underling, don’t dress too fine.

The common people are but ill judges of a man’s merits; they are slaves to fame, and their eyes are dazzled with the pomp of titles and large retinue. No wonder, then, that they bestow their honors on those who least deserve them.

Joy, grief, desire or fear, whate’er the name The passion bears, its influence is the same; Where things exceed your hope or fall below, You stare, look blank, grow numb from top to toe.

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

You may drive out nature with a pitchfork, yet she’ll be constantly running back.

Better one thorn pluck’d out than all remain.

What odds does it make to the man who lives within Nature’s bounds, whether he ploughs a hundred acres or a thousand?

Shun to seek what is hid in the womb of the morrow, and set down as gain in life’s ledger whatever time fate shall have granted thee.

Take too much pleasure in good things, you’ll feel The shock of adverse fortune makes you reel.