Jump to content

Anonymous

From Wikiquote
(Redirected from Unknown Author)
Not to be confused with Anonymity or Anonymous (group).
Illegitimi non carborundum is a famous anonymous saying

Anonymous is the adjective form of anonymity derived from the Greek word ἀνωνυμία, anonymia, meaning "without a name" or "namelessness." It commonly refers to the state of an individual's personal identity, or personally identifiable information, being publicly unknown, intentionally or unintentionally. This article is for famous or notable quotes whose author is unknown.

Quotes by anonymous authors

Antiquity

  • He who saw the deep, the country's foundation, ...
    He came a far road, was weary, found peace,
    And set all his labours on a tablet of stone.
  • Who is there, my friend, can climb to the sky?
    Only the gods dwell forever in sunlight.
    As for man, his days are numbered,
    Whatever he may do, it is but wind.
    • Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet III of the Old-Babylonian version (tr. Andrew R. George)
  • There is no one who can return from there,
    To describe their nature, to describe their dissolution,
    That he may still our desires,
    Until we reach the place where they have gone.
    • The Song of the Harper, st. 5; tr. W. K. Simpson in The Literature of Ancient Egypt (1972)
  • Remember: it is not given to man to take his goods with him.
    • The Song of the Harper, st. 10
  • No one goes away and then comes back.
    • The Song of the Harper, st. 10
  • Provide for men, the cattle of God, for He made heaven and earth at their desire. He suppressed the greed of the waters, he gave the breath of life to their noses, for they are likenesses of Him which issued from His flesh.
  • Thy dawning is beautiful in the horizon of heaven,
    O living Aton, Beginning of life!
    When thou risest in the eastern horizon of heaven,
    Thou fillest every land with thy beauty;
    For thou art beautiful, great, glittering, high over the earth;
    Thy rays, they encompass the lands, even all thou hast made.
  • Γνῶθι σεαυτόν. / Know thyself.
  • Μηδὲν ἄγαν. / Nothing too much.
  • Come, come is the swallow,
    With fair spring to follow.
    She and the fair weather
    Are come along together.
    White is her breast,
    And black all the rest.
  • Τὁ ῥὀδον ἀκμἀζει βαιὀν χρονὁν’ ἢν δἑ παρἐλθυ,
    ζητῶν εὐρἠσεισ οὐ ῥὀδον, ἀλλἁ βἀτον.
    • Soon fades the rose; once past the fragrant hour,
      The loiterer finds a bramble for a flow’r.
    • Greek Anthology, bk. 11, no. 53; tr. Samuel Johnson, The Rambler, no. 71 (20 November 1750)
  • Εἴθ᾿ ἄπυρον καλὸν γενοίμην μέγα χρυσίον,
    καί με καλὴ γυνὴ φοροίη καθαρὸν θεμένη νόον.
  • Enos Lases iuuate (thrice).
    Neue lue rue Marmar sins incurrere in pleores. (thrice)
    Satur fu, fere Mars: limen sali, sta berber. (thrice)
    Enos Marmor iuuato. (thrice)
    Triumpe, triumpe, triumpe, triumpe, triumpe!
    • Help us, ye Lares.
      Let not blight and ruin, O Mars, haste upon the multitude.
      Be satiate, fierce Mars: leap the threshold, stay thy scourge
      Summon ye in turn all the gods of sowing.
      Help us, O Mars.
      Huzza! Huzza! Huzza! &c.
    • Carmen Arvale, preserved in an inscription of 218 AD and written in an archaic form of Old Latin likely not fully understood any more at the time the inscription was made. Tr. J. Wright Duff, A Literary History of Rome from the Origins to the Close of the Golden Age (1909) p. 78
  • Cume tonas, Leucesie, prae tet tremonti
    Quom tibei cunei, dextumum tonaront.
    • When thou thunderest, Light-god, before thee they tremble,
      Sith thy bolts have thundered on the right.
    • Carmen Saliare, fragment quoted in a corrupt form by Scaurus in his De orthographia. Bergk's conjectural restoration. Tr. J. Wright Duff (1909) p. 77
  • Listen to the Exhortation of the Dawn!
    Look to this Day!
    For it is Life, the very Life of Life.
    In its brief Course lie all the
    Varieties and Realities of your Existence:
    The Bliss of Growth,
    The Glory of Action,
    The Splendour of Beauty;
    For Yesterday is but a Dream
    And Tomorrow is only a Vision;
    But Today well lived makes
    Every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness,
    And every Tomorrow a Vision of Hope.
    Look well therefore to this Day!
    Such is the Salutation of the Dawn!
  • Cras amet qui nunquam amavit; quique amavit cras amet.
    • Pervigilium Veneris / 'The Vigil of Venus' (c. 4th century) refrain
      • Let those love now, who never lov'd before;
        Let those who always lov'd, now love the more.

Middle Ages

  • Bons fut li siecles al tens ancienor,
    Quer feit i ert e justise et amor,
    Si ert credance, dont or n'i at nul prot.
    Toz est mudez, perdude at sa color,
    Ja mais n'iert tels com fut als ancessors.
    • The world was good in the time of them of old, for in it was faith and justice and love, and there was belief, of which there is now no store. It [the world] is all changed, it has lost its colour; it will never be such as it was with them of old.
    • La Vie de Saint-Alexis (c. 1040) str. 1, in The Oldest Monuments of the French Language (1912) p. 28
  • Gaudeamus igitur,
    Iuvenes dum sumus!
    Post iucundam iuventutem
    Post molestam senectutem
    Nos habebit humus.
    • So let us rejoice
      While we are young!
      After a pleasant youth,
      After a troublesome old age,
      The earth will have us.
    • "So Let Us Rejoice", st. 1 (c. 1267; ed. C. W. Kindleben, 1781)
      • Let us rejoice while we are young; for after the pleasures of youth, after the troubles of old age, we all shall be laid beneath the earth.
        • In The Presbyterian, vol. 23, no. 51 (17 December 1853) p. 204
  • Ubi sunt, qui ante nos
    In mundo fuere.
    • Where are they who, before us,
      Were in the world?
    • "So Let Us Rejoice", st. 2
  • Vita nostra brevis est.
    • Our life is brief.
    • "So Let Us Rejoice", st. 3
  • Vivant omnes virgines
    Faciles, formosae
    Vivant et mulieres
    Tenerae, amabiles
    Bonae, laboriosae.
    • Long live all virgins,
      Easy, beautiful;
      Long live women too,
      Tender, lovable,
      Good, hard-working.
    • "So Let Us Rejoice", st. 5
  • Sumer is icumen in,
    Lhude sing cuccu!
    Groweth sed, and bloweth med,
    And springth the wude nu—
    Sing cuccu!
  • Foweles in the frith,
    The fisses in the flod,
    And I mon waxe wod;
    Mulch sorwe I walke with
    For best of bon and blod.
    • "Fowels in the Frith" (13th century), E. K. Chambers and F. Sidgwick (eds.) Early English Lyrics, Amorous, Divine, Moral and Trivial (1907) p. 5
  • ‘Say me, viit in the brom,
    Teche me wou I sule don
    That min hosebonde
    Me lovien wolde.’
    ‘Hold thine tunke stille
    And haw al thine wille.’
    • "Say Me, Wight in the Broom" (c. 1300), Carleton Brown (ed.) English Lyrics of the XIIIth Century (1932) no. 21, p. 32
  • Were beth they biforen us weren,
    Houndës ladden and hauekës beren,
    And hadden feld and wodë?
    The richë levedies in hoerë bour,
    That wereden gold in hoerë tressour,
    With hoerë brighttë rodë;
    Eten and drounken, and maden hem glad;
    Hoere lif was al with gamen i-lad,
    Men kneleden hem biforen;
    They beren hem wel swithë heyë;
    And in a twincling of an eyë
    Hoere soulës weren forloren.
    • "Ubi sunt qui ante nos fuerunt?" (c. 1300), Carl Horstmann and F. J. Furnivall (eds.) The Minor Poems of the Vernon MS. (1901) vol. 2, p. 761
  • Lever me were to lete mi liif,
    Than thus to lese the quen mi wiif!
    • Sir Orfeo (early 14th century) l. 177, Kenneth Sisam (ed.) Fourteenth Century Verse and Prose (1921) p. 19
  • Ich am of Irlaunde,
    Ant of the holy londe
      Of Irlande.
    Gode sire, pray ich the,
    For of saynte charité,
    Come ant daunce wyth me
      In Irlaunde.
  • Bothe lered and lewed, olde and yonge,
    Alle understonden English tonge.
  • Perle, pleasaunte to prynces paye
    To clanly clos in golde so clere,
    Oute of oryent, I hardyly saye,
    Ne proued I neuer her precios pere.
    • Pearl (late 14th century) opening lines
  • Le mort saisit le vif. Le roi est mort, vive le roi! / The dead seizes the living. The king is dead, long live the king!
    • Traditional proclamation made following the accession of a new monarch. First declared upon the accession to the French throne of Charles VII after the death of his father Charles VI in 1422
  • I wold not be in a folis paradyce. / I would not be in a fool's paradise.
  • O little booke, thou art so unconning,
    How darst thou put thy-self in prees for drede?
  • For, in my mind, of all mankind
       I love but you alone.
  • For I must to the green-wood go,
       Alone, a banished man.
    • "The Nut-Brown Maid" (15th century) st. 5
  • O Death, thou comest when I had thee least in mind.
    • Everyman (wr. c. 1490; pub. c. 1530) line 119 (Everyman)
  • Everyman, I will go with thee, and be thy guide,
    In thy most need to go by thy side.
    • Everyman, l. 522 (Knowledge)

16th century

  • Westron wynde when wyll thow blow
    The smalle rayne downe can rayne
    Cryst yf my love were in my armys
    And I yn my bed agayne.
    • O western wind, when wilt thou blow
         That the small rain down can rain?
      Christ, that my love were in my arms
         And I in my bed again!
    • "The Lover in Winter Plaineth for the Spring" (early 16th century); OBEV (ed. 1919)
  • King Stephen was a worthy peer;
       His breeches cost him but a crown.
    • "The Old Cloak", st. 7; OBEV (ed. 1919)
  • It's pride that puts this country down:
       Man, take thy old cloak about thee!
    • "The Old Cloak", st. 7
  • (I would topple with ye
    And) pluck a good crow.
    • The History of Jacob and Esau (c. 1558) act 2, sc. 2 (Ragan)
  • Love me little, love me long,
    Is the burden of my song.
    • "Love Me Little, Love Me Long" (1569–70) l. 1
  • Ground me no grounds.
    • The Marriage of Wit and Science (1569–70) act 2, sc. 1 (Will)
      Cf. John Redford, The Play of Wit and Science
  • Break her betimes, and bring her under by force,
    Or else the grey mare will be the better horse.
    • The Marriage of Wit and Science (1569–70) act 2, sc. 1 (Will)
  • But he that takes not such time, while he may,
    Shall leap at a whiting, when time is away.
    • The Marriage of Wit and Science (1569–70) act 4, sc. 1 (Will)
  • For he that leaps, before he look, good son,
    May leap in the mire, and miss what he hath done.
    • The Marriage of Wit and Science (1569–70) act 4, sc. 1 (Wit)
  • More haste than good speed makes many fare the worse.
    • The Marriage of Wit and Science (1569–70) act 4, sc. 1 (Wit)
  •              (They are) no more like,
    Than chalk is to cheese.
    • The Marriage of Wit and Science (1569–70) act 5, sc. 1 (Science)
  • Dóminus vobíscum.
    Et cum spíritu tuo.
  • Greensleeves was all my joy,
    Greensleeves was my delight:
    Greensleeves was my hart of gold,
    And who but Ladie Greensleeves.
    • "Greensleeves", refrain, in A Handful of Pleasant Delights (1584; ed. Edward Arber, 1878)
  • A right woman — either love like an angel,
    Or hate like a devil — in extremes to dwell.
    • The Rare Triumphs of Love and Fortune (1589) act 1 (Penulo)
  • Why, what is Love but Fortune’s tennis-ball?
    • Soliman and Perseda (1592–93) act 1 (Fortune)
  • The sound is honey, but the sense is gall.
    • Soliman and Perseda (1592–93) act 4 (Soliman)
  • He’s best at ease that meddleth least.
    • Fair Em (1590s) act 3, sc. 17, l. 1383 (Manville)
  •                    Love, that covers multitude of sins,
    Makes love in parents wink at children’s faults.
    • Fair Em (1590s) act 3, sc. 17, l. 1270 (Zeveno)
  • ’Tis an ill wind that blows no man to profit.
    • A Merry Knack to Know a Knave (ed. 1594) p. 32 (Coneycatcher)
  • A crafty knave needs no broker.
    • A Merry Knack to Know a Knave (ed. 1594) p. 33 (Honesty)
  • No burial these pretty babes
       Of any man receives
    Till Robin Redbreast painfully
       Did cover them with leaves.
  • April is in my mistress’ face,
    And July in her eyes hath place;
    Within her bosom is September,
    But in her heart a cold December.
    • "April Is in My Mistress' Face", in Thomas Morley, Madrigals to Four Voices (1594)
  • Kill then, and bliss me,
    But first come, kiss me.
    • "Dainty Fine Sweet Nymph Delightful", in Thomas Morley, The First Book of Ballets to Five Voices (1595)

17th century

  • A heavy purse makes a light heart.
    • Wily Beguiled (c. 1602) l. 1
      Cf. Ben Jonson, The New Inn, act 1, sc. 1 (Host)
  • What poor astronomers are they,
       Take women’s eyes for stars!
    • "What Poor Astronomers Are They", in John Dowland, The Third Book of Songs or Airs (1603)
  • Virtue is the shoeing-horn of justice.
    • The Return from Parnassus: or, The Scourge of Simony (1606) act 4, sc. 3 (Kemp)
  • From the hag and hungry goblin
    That into rags would rend ye,
    The spirit that stands by the naked man
    In the Book of Moons defend ye.
  • Any food, any feeding,
    Feeding, drink, or clothing;
    Come dame or maid, be not afraid,
    Poor Tom will injure nothing.
    • "Tom o' Bedlam" (c. 1615) refrain
  • The moon's my constant mistress,
    And the lowly owl my marrow;
    The flaming drake and the night crow make
    Me music to my sorrow.
    • "Tom o' Bedlam" (c. 1615) st. 4
  • I know more than Apollo,
    For oft, when he lies sleeping
    I see the stars at bloody wars
    In the wounded welkin weeping.
    • "Tom o' Bedlam" (c. 1615) st. 6
  • The gypsies, Snap and Pedro,
    Are none of Tom's comradoes,
    The punk I scorn and the cutpurse sworn,
    And the roaring boy's bravadoes.
    The meek, the white, the gentle
    Me handle, touch, and spare not;
    But those that cross Tom Rynosseros
    Do what the panther dare not.
    • "Tom o' Bedlam" (c. 1615) st. 7
  • With a host of furious fancies
    Whereof I am commander,
    With a burning spear and a horse of air,
    To the wilderness I wander.
    By a knight of ghosts and shadows
    I summoned am to tourney
    Ten leagues beyond the wide world's end:
    Methinks it is no journey.
    • "Tom o' Bedlam" (c. 1615) st. 8
  • I had need of a long spoon, now I go to eat with the devil.
    • Grim, the Collier of Croydon (1662) act 5, sc. 1 (Grim)
  • And let all women strive to be
    As constant as Penelope.
    • A Looking-glass for Ladies, or A Mirrour for Married Women (c. 1674-79) st. 18, last lines
  • In the year 1690, the same in which Ichabod Paddock was sent for from Cape Cod, ... some persons were on a high hill, afterwards called Folly House Hill, observing the whales spouting and sporting with each other, when one observed "there," pointing to the sea, "is a green pasture where our children's grand-children will go for bread."
    • Obed Macy, The History of Nantucket (Boston: Hilliard, Gray, and Co., 1835) p. 33
  • Rebellion to tyrants [or resistance to tyranny] is obedience to God.

18th century

Praise undeserv'd is satire in disguise. —Mr. Br----
  • Praise undeserv'd is satire in disguise.
    • "Epigram on a Certain Line of Mr. Br----, Author of a Copy of Verses, Call'd the British Beauties", in Lewis Theobald (ed.) The Grove; or, A Collection of Original Poems, Translations, &c (1721), p. 294 [1] [2]
  • Xerxes did die,
    And so must I.
    • The New England Primer (ed. 1777)
  • Send him victorious,
    Happy and glorious,
    Long to reign over us,
    God save the king.
  • Some talk of Alexander, and some of Hercules;
    Of Hector and Lysander, and such great names as these.
    But of all the world's brave heroes, there's none that can compare,
    With a tow, row row, row row, row row, to the British grenadier.
  • Adeste fideles læti triumphantes,
    Venite, venite in Bethlehem.
    Natum videte
    Regem angelorum:
    Venite adoremus
    Dominum.
    • "O Come, All Ye Faithful", st. 1 (ed. Wade, 1751)
      • O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant!
        O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem;
        Come and behold Him
        Born the King of Angels:
        O come, let us adore Him,
        Christ the Lord.
        • Frederick Oakeley (1841) and revised in Francis H. Murray's A Hymnal, for Use in the English Church (1852) p. 26 (Oakeley's 1841 version first began 'Ye faithful, approach ye, joyfully triumphant')
  • Au clair de la lune,
    Mon ami Pierrot,
    Prête-moi ta plume
    Pour écrire un mot.
    • By the light of the moon,
      My friend Pierrot,
      Lend me your quill
      To write a word.
    • "Au clair de la lune", st. 1, in Henri Plon (ed.) Chants et Chansons populaires de la France (1858) pp. 16–17
  • The law locks up the man or woman
    Who steals the goose from off the common;
    But leaves the greater villain loose
    Who steals the common from the goose.
  • O Paddy dear, an’ did ye hear the news that’s goin’ round?
    The shamrock is by law forbid to grow on Irish ground;
    St. Patrick’s Day no more we’ll keep, his colour can’t be seen,
    For there’s a cruel law agin the wearin’ o’ the Green.

19th century

  • Tho' lost to sight, to memory dear.
    • Inscription on a civic arch, for the procession of Lafayette through Lynn, MA, August 1824. A Sketch of the Tour of General Lafayette, on his Late Visit to the United States (Portland, ME, 1824) p. 120
  • The 'Almighty Dollar' is the only object of worship.
    • In the Philadelphia Public Ledger (2 December 1836); cited in Notes and Queries, ser. 11, vol. 3 (11 February 1911) p. 109
  • There are 'quips and quillets' which seem actual conundrums, but yet are none. Of such is this: 'Why does a chicken cross the street?' Are you 'out of town?' Do you 'give it up?' Well, then: 'Because it wants to get on the other side!'
  • Remember, remember!
    The fifth of November,
    The Gunpowder treason and plot;
    I know of no reason
    Why the Gunpowder treason
    Should ever be forgot!
  • Whatever you have to say, my friend,
    Whether witty or grave or gay,
    Condense as much as ever you can,
    And say it the readiest way;
    And whether you write of rural affairs
    Or of matter and things in town,
    Just take a word of friendly advice—
    Boil it down.
  • Ni Dieu ni maître. / No gods, no masters.
    • Anarchist slogan. A similar phrase appeared in an 1870 pamphlet by a disciple of Auguste Blanqui. The exact phrase appeared as the title of Blanqui's 1880 newspaper before it spread throughout the anarchist movement, appearing in Kropotkin's Words of a Rebel (1885)
  • Faster horses, older whiskey, younger women, and more money.
    • Boast of the American West, attributed to railroad men who came to Texas in search of oil (late 19th or early 20th century); in Sally Helgesen, Wildcatters: A Story of Texans, Oil, and Money (1981) p. 29. Cf. Tom T. Hall
  • A lie is an abomination unto the Lord, but a very present help in time of trouble.

20th century

  • Love starts when you sink in his arms and ends with your arms in his sink.
    • In The Shepherd College Picket, vol. 47 (November 9, 1943), p. 4
  • If you can't do the time, don't do the crime.
    • Quoted among the Extension of Remarks of Charles B. Rangel before the U.S. House of Representatives, 25 October 1973, in the Congressional Record (26 October 1973) p. 35189; also in Paul du Feu, Let's Hear It for the Long-Legged Women (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1973) p. 65. Variant ("you shouldn't" instead of "don't") quoted by Leo Aikman, "You're Never Out of Reach", in The Atlanta Constitution (28 May 1957) p. 2
  • Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned.

See also

  • Proverbs, which are often passed down through the generations anonymously
  • Bible — much of its material is of disputed authorship and is not believed to have been written by its purported authors
  • Laozi — likely mythical founder of Taoism, most sayings attributed to him were probably written anonymously
  • Nursery rhymes
  • Border ballads
  • Beowulf
  • Junius
Wikisource
Wikisource
Wikisource has original works on the topic:
Retrieved from "https://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Anonymous&oldid=3874687"