"A good and faithful judge ever prefers the honorable to the expedient.""A heart well prepared for adversity in bad times hopes, and in good times fears for a change in fortune.""A host is like a general: calamities often reveal his genius.""A picture is a poem without words.""A portion of mankind take pride in their vices and pursue their purpose; many more waver between doing what is right and complying with what is wrong.""A shoe that is too large is apt to trip one, and when too small, to pinch the feet. So it is with those whose fortune does not suit them.""A word once uttered can never be recalled.""A word, once sent abroad, flies irrevocably.""Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant.""Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it.""Always keep your composure. You can't score from the penalty box; and to win, you have to score.""Anger is a short madness.""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.""Begin, be bold and venture to be wise.""Cease to inquire what the future has in store, and take as a gift whatever the day brings forth.""Choose a subject equal to your abilities; think carefully what your shoulders may refuse, and what they are capable of bearing.""Clogged with yesterday's excess, the body drags the mind down with it.""Don't think, just do.""Every old poem is sacred.""Few cross the river of time and are able to reach non-being. Most of them run up and down only on this side of the river. But those who when they know the law follow the path of the law, they shall reach the other shore and go beyond the realm of death.""Fidelity is the sister of justice.""Fortune makes a fool of those she favors too much.""Good sense is both the first principal and the parent source of good writing.""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.""He gains everyone's approval who mixes the pleasant with the useful.""He has not lived badly whose birth and death has been unnoticed by the world.""He has the deed half done who has made a beginning.""He is armed without who is innocent within, be this thy screen, and this thy wall of brass.""He tosses aside his paint-pots and his words a foot and a half long.""He who postpones the hour of living is like the rustic who waits for the river to run out before he crosses.""He who would begun has half done. Dare to be wise; begin.""I hate the irreverent rabble and keep them far from me.""I never think at all when I write. Nobody can do two things at the same time and do them both well.""I strive to be brief but I become obscure.""I teach that all men are mad.""If a man's fortune does not fit him, it is like the shoe in the story; if too large it trips him up, if too small it pinches him.""If matters go badly now, they will not always be so.""If you would have me weep, you must first of all feel grief yourself.""In adversity remember to keep an even mind.""In labouring to be concise, I become obscure.""It is a sweet and seemly thing to die for one's country.""It is courage, courage, courage, that raises the blood of life to crimson splendor. Live bravely and present a brave front to adversity.""It is no great art to say something briefly when, like Tacitus, one has something to say; when one has nothing to say, however, and none the less writes a whole book and makes truth into a liar - that I call an achievement.""It is of no consequence of what parents a man is born, as long as he be a man of merit.""It is the false shame of fools to try to conceal wounds that have not healed.""It is when I struggle to be brief that I become obscure.""It is your business when the wall next door catches fire.""It is your concern when your neighbor's wall is on fire.""It's a good thing to be foolishly gay once in a while.""Knowledge without education is but armed injustice.""Labor diligently to increase your property.""Lawyers are men who hire out their words and anger.""Leave the rest to the gods.""Let your literary compositions be kept from the public eye for nine years at least.""Life grants nothing to us mortals without hard work.""Life is largely a matter of expectation.""Make a good use of the present.""Mix a little foolishness with your serious plans. It is lovely to be silly at the right moment.""Money is a handmaiden, if thou knowest how to use it; a mistress, if thou knowest not.""Mountains will go into labour, and a silly little mouse will be born.""No poems can please for long or live that are written by water drinkers.""No verse can give pleasure for long, nor last, that is written by drinkers of water.""Nothing's beautiful from every point of view.""O imitators, you slavish herd!""Once a word has been allowed to escape, it cannot be recalled.""One wanders to the left, another to the right. Both are equally in error, but, are seduced by different delusions.""Only a stomach that rarely feels hungry scorns common things.""Pale Death beats equally at the poor man's gate and at the palaces of kings.""Pale death, with impartial step, knocks at the hut of the poor and the towers of kings.""Poets wish to profit or to please.""Refrain from asking what going to happen tomorrow, and everyday that fortune grants you, count as gain.""Remember when life's path is steep to keep your mind even.""Sad people dislike the happy, and the happy the sad; the quick thinking the sedate, and the careless the busy and industrious.""Seize the day, and put the least possible trust in tomorrow.""Subdue your passion or it will subdue you.""Suffering is but another name for the teaching of experience, which is the parent of instruction and the schoolmaster of life.""The disgrace of others often keeps tender minds from vice.""The envious man grows lean at the success of his neighbor.""The foolish are like ripples on water, For whatsoever they do is quickly effaced; But the righteous are like carvings upon stone, For their smallest act is durable.""The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes.""The lofty pine is oftenest shaken by the winds; High towers fall with a heavier crash; And the lightning strikes the highest mountain.""The man is either mad, or he is making verses.""The one who cannot restrain their anger will wish undone, what their temper and irritation prompted them to do.""The pen is the tongue of the mind.""The power of daring anything their fancy suggest, as always been conceded to the painter and the poet.""This is a fault common to all singers, that among their friends they will never sing when they are asked; unasked, they will never desist.""Time will bring to light whatever is hidden; it will cover up and conceal what is now shining in splendor.""To have a great man for a friend seems pleasant to those who have never tried it; those who have, fear it.""Undeservedly you will atone for the sins of your fathers.""Usually the modest person passes for someone reserved, the silent for a sullen person.""We are free to yield to truth.""We are just statistics, born to consume resources.""We are often deterred from crime by the disgrace of others.""We rarely find anyone who can say he has lived a happy life, and who, content with his life, can retire from the world like a satisfied guest.""What we learn only through the ears makes less impression upon our minds than what is presented to the trustworthy eye.""Whatever advice you give, be short.""When things are steep, remember to stay level-headed.""While fools shun one set of faults they run into the opposite one.""Who then is free? The wise man who can command himself.""Whoever cultivates the golden mean avoids both the poverty of a hovel and the envy of a palace.""Why do you hasten to remove anything which hurts your eye, while if something affects your soul you postpone the cure until next year?""Why harass with eternal purposes a mind to weak to grasp them?""Wisdom is not wisdom when it is derived from books alone.""Words will not fail when the matter is well considered.""You may drive out nature with a pitchfork, yet she'll be constantly running back.""You must avoid sloth, that wicked siren.""You traverse the world in search of happiness, which is within the reach of every man. A contented mind confers it on all.""Your own safety is at stake when your neighbor's wall is ablaze."
Born in the small town of Venusia in the border region between Apulia and Lucania (Basilicata), Horace was the son of a freed slave, who owned a small farm in Venusia, and later moved to Rome to work as a
coactor (a middleman between buyers and sellers at auctions, receiving 1% of the purchase price from each for his services). The elder Horace was able to spend considerable money on his son's education, accompanying him first to Rome for his primary education, and then sending him to Athens to study Greek and philosophy. The poet later expressed his gratitude in a tribute to his father:
If my character is flawed by a few minor faults, but is otherwise decent and moral, if you can point out only a few scattered blemishes on an otherwise immaculate surface, if no one can accuse me of greed, or of prurience, or of profligacy, if I live a virtuous life, free of defilement (pardon, for a moment, my self-praise), and if I am to my friends a good friend, my father deserves all the credit... As it is now, he deserves from me unstinting gratitude and praise. I could never be ashamed of such a father, nor do I feel any need, as many people do, to apologize for being a freedman's son. Satires 1.6.65—92
After the assassination of Julius Caesar, Horace joined the army, serving under the generalship of Brutus. He fought as a staff officer (
tribunus militum) in the Battle of Philippi. Alluding to famous literary models, he later claimed that he saved himself by throwing away his shield and fleeing. When an amnesty was declared for those who had fought against the victorious Octavian (later Augustus), Horace returned to Italy, only to find his estate confiscated; his father likely having died by then. Horace claims that he was reduced to poverty. Nevertheless, he had the means to gain a profitable lifetime appointment as a
scriba quaestorius, an official of the Treasury, which allowed him to practice his poetic art.
Horace was a member of a literary circle that included Virgil and Lucius Varius Rufus, who introduced him to Maecenas, friend and confidant of Augustus. Maecenas became his patron and close friend and presented Horace with an estate near Tibur in the Sabine Hills (contemporary Tivoli). Horace died in Rome a few months after the death of Maecenas at age 57. Upon his death bed, having no heirs, Horace relinquished his farm to his friend, the emperor Augustus, for imperial needs and it stands today as a spot of pilgrimage for his admirers.
Horace is generally considered to stand alongside Virgil and Ovid as one of the greatest poets of the Augustan Age. Several of his poetry's main themes, such as the beatus ille (an appraisal of simple life) and carpe diem (literally "pluck the day", more commonly rendered into English as "seize the day", but perhaps closer to "enjoy the day") were recovered during the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, influencing poets such as Petrarch and Dante. However, those themes were not truly retaken till the 16th century, when the Renaissance culture and its admiration of Roman and Greek antiquity was solidly established. In that sense, the influence of Horace can be traced in the works of poets such as Garcilaso de la Vega, Juan Boscán, Torquato Tasso, Pierre de Ronsard and especially in Fray Luis de León. The latter wrote some of the most remarkable "Odes" dealing with the beatus ille precepts. Besides, several latter poets such as Shakespeare and Quevedo were heavily influenced by Horace's poetry. Moreover, his work Ars Poetica remained as a canonical guide for composing poetry till the end of romanticism, and it was known and studied by most writers; even though its precepts were not always thoroughly followed, it held an unimpaired prestige when it came to deal with the form, wording and setting of any poem, play or prose work, and its influence can be traced well into the works of playwrights and writers such as Lope de Vega, Michel de Montaigne, Henry Fielding, Calderón de la Barca, Pierre Corneille, Samuel Johnson, Goethe, Voltaire or Diderot.
Apart from carpe diem, Horace is also known for having coined many other Latin phrases that remain in use today, whether in Latin or translation, including Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori (It is sweet and fitting to die for one's country), Nunc est bibendum (Now we must drink), and aurea mediocritas ("golden mean").
Horace also forms the basis for the character Quintus Horatius Flaccus in the Oxford Latin Course, a Latin textbook for secondary students; the books loosely follow his life.
