Wikiquote:Bartlett's 1919 Index/quotes-08

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Instructions

Check the existing pages of these authors. If the page already contains the quote, and it is sourced, delete it from this list. If the page already contains the quote, but it is unsourced, note that it may be sourced to Bartlett's with the following:

Reported in ''Bartlett's Familiar Quotations'', 10th ed. (1919).

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Authors

Epictetus. (A.D. c. 50–c. 138)

• The appearance of things to the mind is the standard of every action to man.
  • That we ought not to be angry with Mankind. Chap. xxviii.

• The essence of good and evil is a certain disposition of the will.
  • Of Courage. Chap. xxix.

• It is not reasonings that are wanted now; for there are books stuffed full of stoical reasonings.
  • Of Courage. Chap. xxix.

• For what constitutes a child?—Ignorance. What constitutes a child?—Want of instruction; for they are our equals so far as their degree of knowledge permits.
  • That Courage is not inconsistent with Caution, book ii. Chap. i.

• Appear to know only this,—never to fail nor fall.
  • That Courage is not inconsistent with Caution, book ii. Chap. i.

• The materials of action are variable, but the use we make of them should be constant.
  • How Nobleness of Mind may be consistent with Prudence. Chap. v.

• Dare to look up to God and say, "Make use of me for the future as Thou wilt. I am of the same mind; I am one with Thee. I refuse nothing which seems good to Thee. Lead me whither Thou wilt. Clothe me in whatever dress Thou wilt."
  • That we do not study to make Use of the established Principles concerning Good and Evil. Chap. xvi.

• Every habit and faculty is preserved and increased by correspondent actions,—as the habit of walking, by walking; of running, by running.
  • How the Semblances of Things are to be combated. Chap. xviii.

• Whatever you would make habitual, practise it; and if you would not make a thing habitual, do not practise it, but habituate yourself to something else.
  • How the Semblances of Things are to be combated. Chap. xviii.

• Reckon the days in which you have not been angry. I used to be angry every day; now every other day; then every third and fourth day; and if you miss it so long as thirty days, offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God.
  • How the Semblances of Things are to be combated. Chap. xviii.

• Things true and evident must of necessity be recognized by those who would contradict them.
  • Concerning the Epicureans. Chap. xx.

• There are some things which men confess with ease, and others with difficulty.
  • Of Inconsistency. Chap. xxi.

• Who is there whom bright and agreeable children do not attract to play and creep and prattle with them?
  • Concerning a Person whom he treated with Disregard. Chap. xxiv.

• Two rules we should always have ready,—that there is nothing good or evil save in the will; and that we are not to lead events, but to follow them.
  • In what Manner we ought to bear Sickness, book iii. Chap. x.

• In every affair consider what precedes and what follows, and then undertake it.
  • That Everything is to be undertaken with Circumspection. Chap. xv.

• There is a fine circumstance connected with the character of a Cynic,—that he must be beaten like an ass, and yet when beaten must love those who beat him, as the father, as the brother of all.
  • Of the Cynic Philosophy. Chap. xxii.

• First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.
  • Concerning such as read and dispute ostentatiously. Chap. xxiii.

• Let not another's disobedience to Nature become an ill to you; for you were not born to be depressed and unhappy with others, but to be happy with them. And if any is unhappy, remember that he is so for himself; for God made all men to enjoy felicity and peace.
  • That we ought not to be affected by Things not in our own Power. Chap. xxiv.

Euripides. (480 or 485–406 B.C.)

• Old men's prayers for death are lying prayers, in which they abuse old age and long extent of life. But when death draws near, not one is willing to die, and age no longer is a burden to them.
  • Alcestis. 669.

• The gifts of a bad man bring no good with them.
  • Medea. 618.

• Moderation, the noblest gift of Heaven.
  • Medea. 636.

• I know, indeed, the evil of that I purpose; but my inclination gets the better of my judgment.
  • Medea. 1078.

• There is in the worst of fortune the best of chances for a happy change.
  • Iphigenia in Tauris. 721.

• Slowly but surely withal moveth the might of the gods.
  • Bacchæ. 882.

• Thou didst bring me forth for all the Greeks in common, not for thyself alone.
  • Iphigenia in Aulis. 1386.

• Slight not what 's near through aiming at what 's far.
  • Rhesus. 482.

• The company of just and righteous men is better than wealth and a rich estate.
  • Ægeus. Frag. 7.

• A bad beginning makes a bad ending.
  • Æolus. Frag. 32.

• Time will explain it all. He is a talker, and needs no questioning before he speaks.
  • Æolus. Frag. 38.

• Waste not fresh tears over old griefs.
  • Alexander. Frag. 44.

• The nobly born must nobly meet his fate.
  • Alcmene. Frag. 100.

• Woman is woman's natural ally.
  • Alope. Frag. 109.

• Man's best possession is a sympathetic wife.
  • Antigone. Frag 164.

• Ignorance of one's misfortunes is clear gain.
  • Antiope. Frag. 204.

• Try first thyself, and after call in God;
  For to the worker God himself lends aid.
  • Hippolytus. Frag. 435.

• Second thoughts are ever wiser.
  • Hippolytus. Frag. 436.

• Toil, says the proverb, is the sire of fame.
  • Licymnius. Frag. 477.

• Cowards do not count in battle; they are there, but not in it.
  • Meleager. Frag. 523.

• A woman should be good for everything at home, but abroad good for nothing.
  • Meleager. Frag. 525.

• Silver and gold are not the only coin; virtue too passes current all over the world.
  • Œdipus. Frag. 546.

• When good men die their goodness does not perish,
  But lives though they are gone. As for the bad,
  All that was theirs dies and is buried with them.
  • Temenidæ. Frag. 734.

• Every man is like the company he is wont to keep.
  • Phœoenix. Frag. 809.

• Who knows but life be that which men call death,
  And death what men call life?
  • Phrixus. Frag. 830.

• Whoso neglects learning in his youth, loses the past and is dead for the future.
  • Phrixus. Frag. 927.

• The gods visit the sins of the fathers upon the children.
  • Phrixus. Frag. 970.

François Marie Arouet de Voltaire. (1694–1778)

• The king [Frederic] has sent me some of his dirty linen to wash; I will wash yours another time.
  • Reply to General Manstein. Voltaire writes to his niece Dennis, July 24, 1752, "Voilà le roi qui m'envoie son linge à blanchir."

• The first who was king was a fortunate soldier:
  Who serves his country well has no need of ancestors.
  • Merope, Act i, scene 3. Borrowed from Lefranc de Pompignan's "Didon."

• The superfluous, a very necessary thing.
  • Le Mondain, line 21.

• It is said that God is always on the side of the heaviest battalions.
  • Letter to M. le Riche, Feb. 6, 1770. Bussy Rabutin: Lettres, iv. 91. Sévigne: Lettre à sa Fille, p. 202. Tacitus: Historia, iv. 17. Terence: Phormio, i. 4. 26.

François Rabelais. (c. 1490–1553)

• One inch of joy surmounts of grief a span,
  Because to laugh is proper to the man.
  • To the Reader.

Gargantua

Book II

• He did not care a button for it.
  • Chapter xvi.

• How well I feathered my nest.
  • Chapter xvii.

• So much is a man worth as he esteems himself.
  • Chapter xxix.

• A good crier of green sauce.
  • Chapter xxxi.

• Then I began to think that it is very true which is commonly said, that the one half of the world knoweth not how the other half liveth.
  • Chapter xxxii.

Book V

• Whose cockloft is unfurnished.
  • Prologue.

• Speak the truth and shame the Devil.
  • Prologue.

• Plain as a nose in a man's face.
  • Prologue.

• Like hearts of oak.
  • Prologue.

• You shall never want rope enough.
  • Prologue.

• Looking as like … as one pea does like another.
  • Chapter ii.

• Nothing is so dear and precious as time.
  • Chapter v.

• And thereby hangs a tale.
  • Chapter iv.

• It is meat, drink, and cloth to us.
  • Chapter vii.

• And so on to the end of the chapter.
  • Chapter x.

• What is got over the Devil's back is spent under the belly.
  • Chapter xi.

• We have here other fish to fry.
  • Chapter xii.

• What cannot be cured must be endured.
  • Chapter xv.

• Thought I to myself, we shall never come off scot-free.
  • Chapter xv.

• It is enough to fright you out of your seven senses.
  • Chapter xv.

• Necessity has no law.
  • Chapter xv.

• Panurge had no sooner heard this, but he was upon the high-rope.
  • Chapter xviii.

• We saw a knot of others, about a baker's dozen.
  • Chapter xxii.

• Others made a virtue of necessity.
  • Chapter xxii.

• Spare your breath to cool your porridge.
  • Chapter xxviii.

• I believe he would make three bites of a cherry.
  • Chapter xxviii.

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche. (1844–1900)

• I teach you the Overman. Man is something which shall be surpassed.
  • Thus Spake Zarathustra.

• The good generally displeases us when it is beyond our ken.
  • Maxims.

• Everyone who enjoys thinks that the principal thing to the tree is the fruit, but in point of fact the principal thing to it is the seed.—Herein lies the difference between them that create and them that enjoy.
  • Maxims.

• He that prefers the beautiful to the useful in life will, undoubtedly, like children who prefer sweetmeats to bread, destroy his digestion and acquire a very fretful outlook on the world.
  • Maxims.

• On the heights it is warmer than people in the valleys suppose, especially in winter. The thinker recognizes the full import of this simile.
  • Maxims.

• In the mountains of truth, you never climb in vain. Either you already reach a higher point today, or you exercise your strength in order to be able to climb higher tomorrow.
  • Maxims.

• The value of many men and books rests solely on their faculty for compelling all to speak out the most hidden and intimate things.
  • Maxims.

• Merchant and pirate were for a long period one and the same person. Even today mercantile morality is really nothing but a refinement of piratical morality.
  • Maxims.

• Many a man fails to become a thinker for the sole reason that his memory is too good.
  • Maxims.

Henri Frédéric Amiel. (1821–1881)

• There is no repose for the mind except in the absolute; for feeling, except in the infinite; for the soul, except in the divine.
  • Journal.

• Only one thing is necessary: to possess God—All the senses, all the forces of the soul and of the spirit, all the exterior resources are so many open outlets to the Divinity; so many ways of tasting and of adoring God. We should be able to detach ourselves from all that is perishable and cling absolutely to the eternal and the absolute and enjoy the all else as a loan, as a usufruct…. To worship, to comprehend, to receive, to feel, to give, to act: this our law, our duty, our happiness, our heaven.
  • Journal.

• Heroism is the brilliant triumph of the soul over the flesh, that is to say over fear: fear of poverty, of suffering, of calumny, of illness, of loneliness and of death. There is no real piety without heroism. Heroism is the dazzling and glorious concentration of courage.
  • Journal.

• Truth is the secret of eloquence and of virtue, the basis of moral authority; it is the highest summit of art and of life.
  • Journal.

• Life is the apprenticeship to progressive renunciation, to the steady diminution of our claims, of our hopes, of our powers, of our liberty.
  • Journal.

• Doing easily what others find difficult is talent; doing what is impossible for talent is genius.
  • Journal.

• A man without passion is only a latent force, only a possibility, like a stone waiting for the blow from the iron to give forth sparks.
  • Journal.

• The efficacy of religion lies precisely in what is not rational, philosophic or eternal; its efficacy lies in the unforeseen, the miraculous, the extraordinary. Thus religion attracts more devotion according as it demands more faith,—that is to say, as it becomes more incredible to the profane mind. The philosopher aspires to explain away all mysteries, to dissolve them into light. Mystery on the other hand is demanded and pursued by the religious instinct; mystery constitutes the essence of worship, the power of proselytism. When the "cross" became the "foolishness" of the cross, it took possession of the masses.
  • Journal.

• If ignorance and passion are the foes of popular morality, it must be confessed that moral indifference is the malady of the cultivated classes. The modern separation of enlightenment and virtue, of thought and conscience, of the intellectual aristocracy from the honest and common crowd is the greatest danger that can threaten liberty.
  • Journal.

Hesiod. (fl. 8th cent.? B.C.)

• We know to tell many fictions like to truths, and we know, when we will, to speak what is true.
  • The Theogony, line 27.

• On the tongue of such an one they shed a honeyed dew, and from his lips drop gentle words.
  • The Theogony, line 82.

• Night, having Sleep, the brother of Death.
  • The Theogony, line 754.

• From whose eyelids also as they gazed dropped love.
  • The Theogony, line 910.

• Both potter is jealous of potter and craftsman of craftsman; and poor man has a grudge against poor man, and poet against poet.
  • Works and Days, line 25.

• Fools! they know not how much half exceeds the whole.
  • Works and Days, line 40.

• For full indeed is earth of woes, and full the sea; and in the day as well as night diseases unbidden haunt mankind, silently bearing ills to men, for all-wise Zeus hath taken from them their voice. So utterly impossible is it to escape the will of Zeus.
  • Works and Days, line 101.

• They died, as if o'ercome by sleep.
  • Works and Days, line 116.

• Oft hath even a whole city reaped the evil fruit of a bad man.
  • Works and Days, line 240.

• For himself doth a man work evil in working evils for another.
  • Works and Days, line 265.

• Badness, look you, you may choose easily in a heap: level is the path, and right near it dwells. But before Virtue the immortal gods have put the sweat of man's brow; and long and steep is the way to it, and rugged at the first.
  • Works and Days, line 287.

• This man, I say, is most perfect who shall have understood everything for himself, after having devised what may be best afterward and unto the end.
  • Works and Days, line 293.

• Let it please thee to keep in order a moderate-sized farm, that so thy garners may be full of fruits in their season.
  • Works and Days, line 304.

• Invite the man that loves thee to a feast, but let alone thine enemy.
  • Works and Days, line 342.

• A bad neighbour is as great a misfortune as a good one is a great blessing.
  • Works and Days, line 346.

• Gain not base gains; base gains are the same as losses.
  • Works and Days, line 353.

• If thou shouldst lay up even a little upon a little, and shouldst do this often, soon would even this become great.
  • Works and Days, line 360.

• At the beginning of the cask and at the end take thy fill, but be saving in the middle; for at the bottom saving comes too late. Let the price fixed with a friend be sufficient, and even dealing with a brother call in witnesses, but laughingly.
  • Works and Days, line 366.

• Diligence increaseth the fruit of toil. A dilatory man wrestles with losses.
  • Works and Days, line 412.

• The morn, look you, furthers a man on his road, and furthers him too in his work.
  • Works and Days, line 579.

• Observe moderation. In all, the fitting season is best.
  • Works and Days, line 694.

• Neither make thy friend equal to a brother; but if thou shalt have made him so, be not the first to do him wrong.
  • Works and Days, line 707.

Jean Baptiste Poquelin Molière. (1622–1673)

• The world, dear Agnes, is a strange affair.
  • L'École des Femmes. Act ii, scene 6.

• There are fagots and fagots.
  • Le Médecin malgré lui. Act i, scene 6.

• We have changed all that.
  • Le Médecin malgré lui. Act ii, scene 6.

• Although I am a pious man, I am not the less a man.
  • Le Tartuffe. Act iii, scene 3.

• The real Amphitryon is the Amphitryon who gives dinners.
  • Amphitryon. Act iii, scene 5.

• Ah that I— You would have it so, you would have it so; George Dandin, you would have it so! This suits you very nicely, and you are served right; you have precisely what you deserve.
  • George Dandin. Act i, scene 19.

• Tell me to whom you are addressing yourself when you say that.
  I am addressing myself—I am addressing myself to my cap.
  • L'Avare. Act i, scene 3.

• The beautiful eyes of my cash-box.
  • L'Avare. Act v, scene 3.

• You are speaking before a man to whom all Naples is known.
  • L'Avare. Act v, scene 5.

• My fair one, let us swear an eternal friendship.
  • Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. Act iv, scene 1.

• I will maintain it before the whole world.
  • Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. Act iv, scene 5.

• What the devil did he want in that galley?
  • Les Forberies de Scapin. Act ii, scene 11.

• Grammar, which knows how to control even kings.
  • Les Femmes savantes. Act ii, scene 6. An apparent reference to Sigismund I, at the Council of Constance, 1414, said to a prelate who had objected to his Majesty's grammar, "Ego sum rex Romanus, et supra grammaticam" (I am the Roman emperor, and am above grammar).

• Ah, there are no longer any children!
  • Le Malade Imaginaire. Act ii, scene 11.