Familiar Quotations A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs Traced to Their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature

astronomy, "that it seemed a crank machine; that it was pity the Creator had not taken advice," is still remembered by mankind,--this and no other of his many sayings.

Give me a spirit that on this life's rough sea Loves t' have his sails fill'd with a lusty wind, Even till his sail-yards tremble, his masts crack, And his rapt ship run on her...

[495-4] A power which has dotted over the surface of the whole globe with her possessions and military posts, whose morning drum-beat, following the sun, and keeping company wit...

Equity is a roguish thing. For Law we have a measure, know what to trust to; Equity is according to the conscience of him that is Chancellor, and as that is larger or narrower,...

[418-2] Servi peregrini, ut primum Galliae fines penetraverint eodem momento liberi sunt (Foreign slaves, as soon as they come within the limits of Gaul, that moment they are fr...

[686-4] As early as 1691, Benjamin Harris, of Boston, advertised as in press the second impression of the New England Primer. The oldest copy known to be extant is 1737.

The mossy marbles rest On the lips that he has prest In their bloom; And the names he loved to hear Have been carved for many a year On the tomb.

Pygmies are pygmies still, though percht on Alps; And pyramids are pyramids in vales. Each man makes his own stature, builds himself. Virtue alone outbuilds the Pyramids; Her mo...

Here lies James Quinn. Deign, reader, to be taught, Whate'er thy strength of body, force of thought, In Nature's happiest mould however cast, To this complexion thou must come a...

This phrase, "No man is a hero to his valet," is commonly attributed to Madame de Sevigne, but on the authority of Madame Aisse (Letters, edited by Jules Ravenal, 1853) it reall...

I knew a very wise man that believed that if a man were permitted to make all the ballads, he need not care who should make the laws of a nation.

Live while you live, the epicure would say, And seize the pleasures of the present day; Live while you live, the sacred preacher cries, And give to God each moment as it flies....

[616-4] Sir Francis Drake entered the harbour of Cadiz, April 19, 1587, and destroyed shipping to the amount of ten thousand tons lading. To use his own expressive phrase, he ha...

My mind to me a kingdom is; Such present joys therein I find, That it excels all other bliss That earth affords or grows by kind: Though much I want which most would have, Yet s...

[173-5] These lines are introduced into _Macbeth, act iv. sc. 1._ According to Steevens, "the song was, in all probability, a traditional one." Collier says, "Doubtless it does...

He who goes to bed, and goes to bed sober, Falls as the leaves do, and dies in October; But he who goes to bed, and goes to bed mellow, Lives as he ought to do, and dies an hone...

[376-1] This is the composition of Johnson, founded on some note or statement of the actual speech. Johnson said, "That speech I wrote in a garret, in Exeter Street." BOSWELL: _...

[100-1] For men use, if they have an evil tourne, to write it in marble: and whoso doth us a good tourne we write it in duste.--SIR THOMAS MORE: _Richard III. and his miserable...

Let the world slide,[9-1] let the world go; A fig for care, and a fig for woe! If I can't pay, why I can owe, And death makes equal the high and low.

But Titus said, with his uncommon sense, When the Exclusion Bill was in suspense: "I hear a lion in the lobby roar; Say, Mr. Speaker, shall we shut the door And keep him there,...

[347-2] On the 14th of February, 1741, Macklin established his fame as an actor in the character of Shylock, in the "Merchant of Venice." . . . Macklin's performance of this cha...

[30-3] Rhyme nor reason.--_Pierre Patelin_, quoted by Tyndale in 1530. _Farce du Vendeur des Lieures_, sixteenth century. PEELE: _Edward I._ SHAKESPEARE: _As You Like It, act ii...

[11-9] This proverb occurs in Rabelais, book i. chap. xi.; in _Vulgaria Stambrigi, circa 1510_; in Butler, part i. canto i. line 490. Archbishop Trench says this proverb is cert...

[169-1] As in the little, so in the great world, reason will tell you that old age or antiquity is to be accounted by the farther distance from the beginning and the nearer appr...

I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother...

[269-4] Quos Deus vult perdere prius dementat (Whom God wishes to destroy he first deprives of reason). The author of this saying is unknown. Barnes erroneously ascribes it to E...

When one good line did much my wonder raise, In Br--st's works, I stood resolved to praise, And had, but that the modest author cries, "Praise undeserved is scandal in disguise."

I do perceive that the old proverbis be not alwaies trew, for I do finde that the absence of my Nath. doth breede in me the more continuall remembrance of him.--_Anne Lady Bacon...

[193-3] Saint Augustine was in the habit of dining upon Saturday as upon Sunday; but being puzzled with the different practices then prevailing (for they had begun to fast at Ro...

[16-2] In old receipt books we find it invariably advised that an inebriate should drink sparingly in the morning some of the same liquor which he had drunk to excess over-night.

[15-9] This phrase derives its origin from the custom of certain manors where tenants are authorized to take fire-bote _by hook or by crook_; that is, so much of the underwood a...