Showing 1–50 of 66 entries
"Man in sooth is a marvellous, vain, fickle, and unstable subject."
Book i. Chap. i. That Men by various Ways arrive at the same End.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"All passions that suffer themselves to be relished and digested are but moderate."
Book i. Chap. ii. Of Sorrow.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"It is not without good reason said, that he who has not a good memory should never take upon him the trade of lying."
Book i. Chap. ix. Of Liars.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"He who should teach men to die would at the same time teach them to live."
Book i. Chap. xviii. That Men are not to judge of our Happiness till after Death.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"The laws of conscience, which we pretend to be derived from nature, proceed from custom."
Book i. Chap. xxii. Of Custom.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"Accustom him to everything, that he may not be a Sir Paris, a carpet-knight, but a sinewy, hardy, and vigorous young man."
Book i. Chap. xxv. Of the Education of Children.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"We were halves throughout, and to that degree that methinks by outliving him I defraud him of his part."
Book i. Chap. xxvii. Of Friendship.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"There are some defeats more triumphant than victories."
Book i. Chap. xxx. Of Cannibals.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"Nothing is so firmly believed as what we least know."
Book i. Chap. xxxi. Of Divine Ordinances.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"A wise man never loses anything, if he has himself."
Book i. Chap. xxxviii. Of Solitude.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"Even opinion is of force enough to make itself to be espoused at the expense of life."
Book i. Chap. xl. Of Good and Evil.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"Plato says, "'T is to no purpose for a sober man to knock at the door of the Muses;" and Aristotle says "that no excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of folly.""
Book ii. Chap. ii. Of Drunkenness.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"For a desperate disease a desperate cure."
Book ii. Chap. iii. The Custom of the Isle of Cea.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"And not to serve for a table-talk."
Book ii. Chap. iii. The Custom of the Isle of Cea.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"To which we may add this other Aristotelian consideration, that he who confers a benefit on any one loves him better than he is beloved by him again."
Book ii. Chap. viii. Of the Affection of Fathers.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"The middle sort of historians (of which the most part are) spoil all; they will chew our meat for us."
Book ii. Chap. x. Of Books.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"The only good histories are those that have been written by the persons themselves who commanded in the affairs whereof they write."
Book ii. Chap. x. Of Books.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"She [virtue] requires a rough and stormy passage; she will have either outward difficulties to wrestle with, . . . or internal difficulties."
Book ii. Chap. xi. Of Cruelty.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"There is, nevertheless, a certain respect and a general duty of humanity that ties us, not only to beasts that have life and sense, but even to trees and plants."
Book ii. Chap. xi. Of Cruelty.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"Some impose upon the world that they believe that which they do not; others, more in number, make themselves believe that they believe, not being able to penetrate into what it is to believe."
Book ii. Chap. xii. Apology for Raimond Sebond.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"When I play with my cat, who knows whether I do not make her more sport than she makes me?"
Book ii. Chap. xii. Apology for Raimond Sebond.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"'T is one and the same Nature that rolls on her course, and whoever has sufficiently considered the present state of things might certainly conclude as to both the future and the past."
Book ii. Chap. xii. Apology for Raimond Sebond.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"The souls of emperors and cobblers are cast in the same mould. . . . The same reason that makes us wrangle with a neighbour causes a war betwixt princes."
Book ii. Chap. xii. Apology for Raimond Sebond.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a worm, and yet he will be making gods by dozens."
Book ii. Chap. xii. Apology for Raimond Sebond.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"Why may not a goose say thus: "All the parts of the universe I have an interest in: the earth serves me to walk upon, the sun to light me; the stars have their influence upon me; I have such an advantage by the winds and such by the waters; there is nothing that yon heavenly roof looks upon so favourably as me. I am the darling of Nature! Is it not man that keeps and serves me?""
Book ii. Chap. xii. Apology for Raimond Sebond.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"Arts and sciences are not cast in a mould, but are formed and perfected by degrees, by often handling and polishing, as bears leisurely lick their cubs into form."
Book ii. Chap. xii. Apology for Raimond Sebond.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"He that I am reading seems always to have the most force."
Book ii. Chap. xii. Apology for Raimond Sebond.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"Apollo said that every one's true worship was that which he found in use in the place where he chanced to be."
Book ii. Chap. xii. Apology for Raimond Sebond.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"How many worthy men have we seen survive their own reputation!"
Book ii. Chap. xvi. Of Glory.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"The mariner of old said to Neptune in a great tempest, "O God! thou mayest save me if thou wilt, and if thou wilt thou mayest destroy me; but whether or no, I will steer my rudder true.""
Book ii. Chap. xvi. Of Glory.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"One may be humble out of pride."
Book ii. Chap. xvii. Of Presumption.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"I find that the best virtue I have has in it some tincture of vice."
Book ii. Chap. xx. That we taste nothing pure.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"Saying is one thing, doing another."
Book ii. Chap. xxxi. Of Anger.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"Is it not a noble farce, wherein kings, republics, and emperors have for so many ages played their parts, and to which the whole vast universe serves for a theatre?"
Book ii. Chap. xxxvi. Of the most Excellent Men.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"Nature forms us for ourselves, not for others; to be, not to seem."
Book ii. Chap. xxxvii. Of the Resemblance of Children to their Brothers.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"There never was in the world two opinions alike, no more than two hairs or two grains; the most universal quality is diversity."
Book ii. Chap. xxxvii. Of the Resemblance of Children to their Fathers.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"The public weal requires that men should betray and lie and massacre."
Book iii. Chap. i. Of Profit and Honesty.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"Like rowers, who advance backward."
Book iii. Chap. i. Of Profit and Honesty.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"I speak truth, not so much as I would, but as much as I dare; and I dare a little the more as I grow older."
Book iii. Chap ii. Of Repentance.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"Few men have been admired by their own domestics."
Book iii. Chap. ii. Of Repentance.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"It happens as with cages: the birds without despair to get in, and those within despair of getting out."
Book iii. Chap. v. Upon some Verses of Virgil.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"And to bring in a new word by the head and shoulders, they leave out the old one."
Book iii. Chap. v. Upon some Verses of Virgil.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"All the world knows me in my book, and my book in me."
Book iii. Chap. v. Upon some Verses of Virgil.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"'T is so much to be a king, that he only is so by being so. The strange lustre that surrounds him conceals and shrouds him from us; our sight is there broken and dissipated, being stopped and filled by the prevailing light."
Book iii. Chap. vii. Of the Inconveniences of Greatness.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"We are born to inquire after truth; it belongs to a greater power to possess it. It is not, as Democritus said, hid in the bottom of the deeps, but rather elevated to an infinite height in the divine knowledge."
Book iii. Chap. viii. Of the Art of Conversation.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"I moreover affirm that our wisdom itself, and wisest consultations, for the most part commit themselves to the conduct of chance."
Book iii. Chap. viii. Of the Art of Conversation.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"What if he has borrowed the matter and spoiled the form, as it oft falls out?"
Book iii. Chap. viii. Of the Art of Conversation.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"The oldest and best known evil was ever more supportable than one that was new and untried."
Book iii. Chap. ix. Of Vanity.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"Not because Socrates said so, . . . I look upon all men as my compatriots."
Book iii. Chap. ix. Of Vanity.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain
"My appetite comes to me while eating."
Book iii. Chap. ix. Of Vanity.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain