Did Horace say "He has half the deed done who has made a beginning"?

Q: Did Horace say "He has half the deed done who has made a beginning"?

Yes. Horace wrote this in his 'Epistles' (Book 1, Epistle 2, to Lollius, line 40, c. 20 BC): the Latin is "Dimidium facti, qui coepit, habet." This exact English wording is Christopher Smart's 1756 prose rendering (as revised by Theodore Alois Buckley in 1853) — and Horace's own sentence doesn't stop there: it drives on to "sapere aude, incipe" — "dare to be wise; begin!"

Who really said it

He has half the deed done who has made a beginning

Written by Horace 65 BC – 8 BC · Roman lyric poet of the Augustan age

Verified Free to reuse

Horace wrote this in his ‘Epistles’ (Book 1, Epistle 2, to Lollius, line 40, c. 20 BC): the Latin is “Dimidium facti, qui coepit, habet.” This exact English wording is Christopher Smart’s 1756 prose rendering (as revised by Theodore Alois Buckley in 1853) — and Horace’s own sentence doesn’t stop there: it drives on to “sapere aude, incipe” — “dare to be wise; begin!”

Last verified 8 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

Put it on a slide

Verified quote & credit

“He has half the deed done who has made a beginning” He has half the deed done, who has made a beginning. —Horace, Epistles 1.2.40 (trans. Christopher Smart, 1756)

Can you use it?

Free to use, including in commercial and paid presentations — no permission or licence needed.

Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool

In context

Evoking the world of Horace — Roman lyric poet, satirist & critic of the Augustan age. Theme: "He has half the deed done who has made a beginning". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "He has half the deed done who has made a beginning". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The source

Work: Epistles, Book 1, Epistle 2 (to Lollius), line 40
Original Latin: “Dimidium facti, qui coepit, habet; sapere aude, incipe.”
Translation: Christopher Smart (1756), rev. Theodore Alois Buckley (1853)
Composed: c. 20 BC

He who postpones the hour of living well, like the hind [in the fable], waits till [all the water in] the river be run off: whereas it flows, and will flow, ever rolling on. … He has half the deed done, who has made a beginning. Boldly undertake the study of true wisdom: begin it forthwith.

Smart/Buckley’s prose rendering of Epistles 1.2.40–41; the bracketed gloss is the translator’s. Horace’s Latin sentence pivots from “dimidium facti…” straight into “sapere aude, incipe” — the “dare to be wise” line Kant later made a motto of the Enlightenment.

Smart’s translation of Epistle 1.2 at Wikisource

How we traced it

Horace set the line in his ‘Epistles’ (Book 1, Epistle 2, line 40, c. 20 BC); the Latin reads “Dimidium facti, qui coepit, habet; sapere aude, incipe” (Latin text ↗).
The exact English wording is Christopher Smart’s prose translation (1756), as revised by Theodore Alois Buckley (1853): “He has half the deed done, who has made a beginning” (Smart translation ↗).
Reference collections pin this precise wording to the Smart/Buckley rendering among dozens of divergent English versions of the same line (translation variants ↗).

Public domain

The displayed English is Christopher Smart’s prose translation, first published 1756 and revised by Theodore Alois Buckley in 1853 — both well before 1931, so this rendering is in the public domain in the United States. (Horace’s underlying Latin has of course been public for two millennia.)

This reflects the original work, which is public domain. If your exact English wording comes from a specific modern translation, that translation may itself still be under copyright — check the edition you quote.

Fact-check

Genuinely Horace — but usually quoted only half-right

The attribution to Horace is sound: the thought and the Latin are his. What gets garbled is the wording and the context — the English is one translator’s choice among many, the line is habitually cut in half, and it is often blended with a different proverb.

Christopher Smart (translator), not Horace verbatim Translator’s phrasing

Horace wrote Latin; “He has half the deed done, who has made a beginning” is Christopher Smart’s 1756 English, revised by Buckley in 1853. It is one of at least eighteen recorded renderings — from Drant’s 1567 “The facte begun, to one halfe is done” to Kline’s 2015 “Who’s started has half finished” (variants ↗).

Half of Horace’s line goes missing Truncation

Horace’s sentence continues “sapere aude, incipe” — “dare to be wise; begin!” The “half the deed” clause is a springboard for that exhortation, which Immanuel Kant later adopted as the motto of the Enlightenment (Wikiquote ↗).

Plato (for ‘well begun is half done’) Different source

This line is frequently conflated with the proverb “well begun is half done,” which the Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs traces first to Plato’s ‘Laws’ 753e — “the beginning is the half of every task” — and only secondarily to Horace (ODP ↗).

The line really is Horace (Epistles 1.2.40); the familiar English is Christopher Smart’s 1756 translation, and Horace’s own sentence doesn’t end there — it presses on to “dare to be wise; begin!” (Smart translation ↗).

Context

Why it mattered

Epistle 1.2 is Horace’s verse letter to the young Lollius, arguing that Homer teaches ethics better than the philosophers and that the time to start living well is now, not later. His image just before this line is of the countryman who stands at the bank waiting for the river to run dry so he can cross — “whereas it flows, and will flow, ever rolling on.” The remedy is simply to begin: “he has half the deed done who has made a beginning.”

The line’s afterlife runs through its second half. “Sapere aude” — “dare to be wise” — was lifted from this same sentence by Immanuel Kant in his 1784 essay ‘What Is Enlightenment?’ and became a rallying cry of the age of reason, which is why the “half the deed” clause is so often quoted stripped of the very words that made it famous.

Dare to be wise; begin!

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Courage Work Success

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Latin text of Epistles 1.2thelatinlibrary.com

Horace’s original Latin, including “Dimidium facti, qui coepit, habet; sapere aude, incipe.”

Smart’s prose translationen.wikisource.org

The public-domain Smart/Buckley English containing the exact displayed wording.

The Works of Horace (Smart, rev. Buckley)gutenberg.org

Full Project Gutenberg edition; title page confirms translator and 1853 reviser.

Translation variants of the linewist.info

Eighteen dated English renderings side by side, pinning this wording to Smart/Buckley 1853.

Horace at Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

Sourced entry placing the line at Epistles I.ii.40–41 with the ‘sapere aude’ continuation.

‘Well begun is half done’ originproverbs_new.en-academic.com

Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs tracing the related proverb to Plato’s Laws 753e, separate from Horace.

The author

About Horace

Horace

65 BC – 8 BC · Roman lyric poet, satirist & critic of the Augustan age

Quintus Horatius Flaccus — “Horace” — was the leading Roman lyric poet under the emperor Augustus, celebrated for his Odes, Satires and Epistles. The Epistles are verse letters on ethics and the art of living well; Epistle 1.2 urges the young Lollius not to postpone the work of self-improvement. Horace is the source of many enduring tags, including carpe diem and sapere aude.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

Horace. “Epistles,” Book 1, Epistle 2 (to Lollius), line 40 (c. 20 BC). In ‘The Works of Horace’, translated by Christopher Smart (1756), revised by Theodore Alois Buckley (1853).

MLA (9th ed.)

Horace. “Epistles,” Book 1, Epistle 2, line 40. The Works of Horace, translated by Christopher Smart, revised by Theodore Alois Buckley, 1853.

APA (7th ed.)

Horace. (1853). The works of Horace (C. Smart, Trans.; T. A. Buckley, Rev.). (Original work published ca. 20 BCE)

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘He has half the deed done who has made a beginning’?” Last verified 8 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/he-has-half-the-deed-done-who-has-made-a-beginning