ABSTRACT
The Roman poet Quintus Horatius Flaccus, known in English as Horace, seems to have been one of the earliest and longest lasting of Kierkegaard’s influences. As a boy, Kierkegaard was a gifted Latin scholar, and we know from multiple sources that he had read and written on Horace from an early age. Kierkegaard would go on to quote Horace in most of his published works. Often Kierkegaard simply borrows a nicely crafted phrase or image from Horace, but there are several interesting points, especially in Kierkegaard’s early authorship, where he turns to Horace for important insights on ethical or aesthetic matters.
