James Wood, comp. Dictionary of Quotations. 1899.
A man must seek to An unimaginative person
A man must seek his happiness and inward peace from objects which cannot be taken away from him.W. von Humboldt.
A man must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion.Emerson.
A man must thank his defects, and stand in some terror of his talents.Emerson.
A man must verify or expel his doubts, and convert them into certainty of Yes or No.Carlyle.
A man must wait for the right moment.Schopenhauer.
A man never feels the want of what it never occurs to him to ask for.Schopenhauer.
A man never rises so high as when he knows not whither he is going.Oliver Cromwell.
A man of intellect without energy added to it is a failure.Chamfort.
A man of maxims only is like a Cyclops with one eye, and that eye in the back of his head.Coleridge.
A man of pleasure is a man of pains.Young.
A man often pays dear for a small frugality.Emerson.
A man of the world must seem to be what he wishes to be.La Bruyère.
A man of wit would often be much embarrassed without the company of fools.La Rochefoucauld.
A man only understands what is akin to some things already in his mind.Amiel.
A man places himself on a level with him whom he praises.Goethe.
A man protesting against error is on the way towards uniting himself with all men that believe in truth.Carlyle.
A man so various, that he seem’d to be, / Not one, but all mankind’s epitome.Dryden.
A man that is young in years may be old in hours, if he have lost no time.Bacon.
A man used to vicissitudes is not easily dejected.Johnson.
A man who cannot gird himself into harness will take no weight along these highways.Carlyle.
A man who claps his Pegasus into a harness, and urges on his muse with the whip, will have to pay to Nature the penalty of this trespass.Schopenhauer.
A man who does not know rigour cannot pity either.Carlyle.
A man who feels that his religion is a slavery has not begun to comprehend the real nature of it.J. G. Holland.
A man who has nothing to do is the devil’s playfellow.J. G. Holland.
A man who is ignorant of foreign languages is ignorant of his own.Goethe.
A man who reads much becomes arrogant and pedantic; one who sees much becomes wise, sociable, and helpful.Lichtenberg.
A man will love or hate solitude—that is, his own society—according as he is himself worthy or worthless.Schopenhauer.
A man will not be observed in doing that which he can do best.Emerson.
A man with half a volition goes backwards and forwards, and makes no way on the smoothest road.Carlyle.
A man with knowledge but without energy, is a house furnished but not inhabited; a man with energy but no knowledge, a house dwelt in but unfurnished.John Sterling.
A man’s a man for a’ that.Burns.
A man’s aye crousest in his ain cause.Scotch Proverb.
A man’s best fortune or his worst is his wife.Proverb.
A man’s best things are nearest him, / Lie close about his feet.Monckton Milnes.
A man’s fate is his own temper.Disraeli.
A man’s friends belong no more to him than he to them.Schopenhauer.
A man’s gift makes room for him.Proverb.
A man’s happiness consists infinitely more in admiration of the faculties of others than in confidence in his own.Ruskin.
A man’s house is his castle.Proverb.
A man’s power is hooped in by a necessity, which, by many experiments, he touches on every side until he learns its arc.Emerson.
A man’s task is always light if his heart is light.Lew Wallace.
A man’s virtue is to be measured not by his extraordinary efforts, but his everyday conduct.Pascal.
A man’s walking is a succession of falls.Proverb.
A man’s wife is his blessing or his bane.Gaelic Proverb.
Amantes, amentes—In love, in delirium.Terence.
Amantium iræ amoris redintegratio est—The quarrels of lovers bring about a renewal of love.Terence.
A man who cannot mind his own business is not to be trusted with the king’s.Saville.
A ma puissance—To my power.Maxim.
Amare et sapere vix deo conceditur—To be in love and act wisely is scarcely in the power of a god.Faber.
[Greek]—Proneness to sin cleaves fast to mortal men.Theognis.
Ambigendi locus—Reason for questioning or doubt.
Ambiguas in vulgum spargere voces—To scatter ambiguous reports among the people.Virgil.
Ambition is not a vice of little people.Montaigne.
Ambition is the germ from which all growth in nobleness proceeds.T. D. English.
Ambos oder Hammer—One must be either anvil or hammer.German Proverb.
Ame damnée—Mere tool, underling.French.
Ame de boue—Base, mean soul.French.
Amende honorable—Satisfactory apology; reparation.French.
A mensâ et thoro—From bed and board; divorced.
A menteur, menteur à demi—To a liar, a liar and a half, i.e., one be a match for him.French.
Amentium, haud amantium—Of lunatics, not lovers.
A merchant shall hardly keep himself from doing wrong.Ecclesiasticus.
A merciful man is merciful to his beast.Bible.
A mere madness to live like a wretch and die rich.Burton.
A merry heart doeth good like a medicine; but a broken spirit drieth the bones.Bible.
A merveille—To a wonder.French.
Am Golde hängt doch Alles—On gold, after all, hangs everything.Margaret in “Faust.”
Amici, diem perdidi—Friends, I have lost a day. Titus (at the close of a day on which he had done good to no one).
Amici probantur rebus adversis—Friends are proved by adversity.Cicero.
Amici vitium ni feras, prodis tuum—Unless you bear with the faults of a friend, you betray your own.Publius Syrus.
Amico d’ognuno, amico di nessuno—Everybody’s friend is nobody’s friend.Italian Proverb.
Amicorum esse communia omnia—Friends’ goods are all common property.Proverb.
Amicum ita habeas posse ut fieri hunc inimicum scias—Be on such terms with your friend as if you knew he may one day become your enemy.Labertius.
Amicum perdere est damnorum maximum—To lose a friend is the greatest of losses.Publius Syrus.
Amicus animæ dimidium—A friend the half of life.
Amicus certus in re incerta cernitur—A true friend is seen when fortune wavers.Ennius.
Amicus curiæ—A friend to the court, i.e., an uninterested adviser in a case.
Amicus est unus animus in duobus corporibus—A friend is one soul in two bodies.Aristotle.
Amicus humani generis—A friend of the human race.
Amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas—Plato is my friend, but truth is my divinity (lit. more a friend).
Amicus usque ad aras—A friend to the very altar, i.e., to the death.
A mighty maze! but not without a plan.Pope.
A millstone and a man’s heart are kept constantly revolving; where they have nothing to grind, they grind and fray away their own substance.Logan.
A mirror is better than a whole gallery of ancestral portraits.Menzel.
A miser is as furious about a halfpenny as the man of ambition about the conquest of a kingdom.Adam Smith.
A miss is as good as a mile.Proverb.
“Am I to be saved? or am I to be lost?” Certain to be lost, so long as you put that question.Carlyle.
Amittit famam qui se indignis comparat—He loses repute who compares himself with unworthy people.Phædrus.
Amittit merito proprium, qui alienum appetit—He who covets what is another’s, deservedly loses what is his own. (Moral of the fable of the dog and the shadow).Phædrus.
Am meisten Unkraut trägt der fettste Boden—The fattest soil brings forth the most weeds.German Proverb.
A mob is a body voluntarily bereaving itself of reason and traversing its work.Emerson.
A modest confession of ignorance is the ripest and last attainment of philosophy.R. D. Hitchcock.
A moment’s insight is sometimes worth a life’s experience.Holmes.
A monarchy is apt to fall by tyranny; an aristocracy, by ambition; a democracy, by tumults.Quarles.
Among nations the head has always preceded the heart by centuries.Jean Paul.
Among the blind the one-eyed is a king.Proverb.
Amor al cor gentil ratto s’ apprende.—Love is quickly learned by a noble heart.Dante.
Amor a nullo amato amar perdona—Love spares no loved one from loving.Dante.
Amor bleibt ein Schalk, und wer ihm vertraut, ist betrogen—Cupid is ever a rogue, and whoever trusts him is deceived.Goethe.
Amore è di sospetti fabro—Love is a forger of suspicions.Italian Proverb.
Amore sitis uniti—Be ye united in love.
Amor et melle et felle est fecundissimus—Love is most fruitful both of honey and gall.Plautus.
Amor et obœdientia—Love and obedience.Motto.
Amor gignit amorem—Love begets love.
Amor omnibus idem—Love is the same in all.Virgil.
Amor patriæ—Love of one’s country.
Amor proximi—Love for one’s neighbour.
Amor tutti eguaglia—Love makes all equal.Italian Proverb.
Amoto quæramus seria ludo—Jesting aside, let us give attention to serious business.Horace.
Amour avec loyaulte—Love with loyalty.Motto.
Amour fait moult, argent fait tout—Love can do much, but money can do everything.French Proverb.
Amour propre—Vanity; self-love.French.
A mouse never trusts its life to one hole only.Plautus.
Amphora cœpit / Institui: currente rota cur urceus exit?—A vase was begun; why from the revolving wheel does it turn out a worthless pitcher?Horace.
Ampliat ætatis spatium sibi vir bonus; hoc est / Vivere bis vitâ posse priore frui—The good man extends the term of his life; it is to live twice, to be able to enjoy one’s former life.Martial.
Am Rhein, am Rhein, da wachsen uns’re Reben—On the Rhine, on the Rhine, there grow our vines!Claudius.
Am sausenden Webstuhl der Zeit—On the noisy loom of Time.Goethe.
Amt ohne Geld macht Diebe—Office without pay makes thieves.German Proverb.
A mucho hablar, mucho errar—Talk much, err much.Spanish Proverb.
A multitude of sparks yields but a sorry light.Amiel.
Anacharsis among the Scythians—A wise man among unwise.
An acre in Middlesex is better than a principality in Utopia.Macaulay.
An acre of performance is worth a whole world of promise.Howell.
Analysis is not the business of the poet. His office is to portray, not to dissect.Macaulay.
Analysis kills spontaneity, just as grain, once it is ground into flour, no longer springs and germinates.Amiel.
An ambassador is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the commonwealth.Sir H. Wotten.
An ambitious man is slave to everybody.Feijóo.
A name is no despicable matter. Napoleon, for the sake of a great name, broke in pieces almost half a world.Goethe.
An appeal to fear never finds an echo in German hearts.Bismarck.
An archer is known by his aim, not by his arrows.Proverb.
An arc in the movement of a large intellect does not differ sensibly from a straight line.Holmes.
An Argus at home, a mole abroad.Proverb.
An army, like a serpent, goes on its belly.Frederick the Great. (?)
A narrow faith has much more energy than an enlightened one.Amiel.
An artist is a person who has submitted to a law which it is painful to obey, that he may bestow a delight which it is gracious to bestow.Ruskin.
An artist is only then truly praised by us when we forget him in his work.Lessing.
An artist must have his measuring tools, not in the hand, but in the eye.Michael Angelo.
An artist should be fit for the best society, and should keep out of it.Ruskin.
An ass may bray a good while before he shakes the stars down.George Eliot.
A nation which labours, and takes care of the fruits of labour, would be rich and happy, though there were no gold in the universe.Ruskin.
[Greek]—The gods themselves do not fight against necessity.Greek Proverb.
Anche il mar, che è si grande, si pacifica—Even the sea, great though it be, grows calm.Italian Proverb.
Anch’ io sono pittore—I too am a painter.Correggio before a picture of Raphael’s.
Anche la rana morderebbe se avesse denti—Even the frog would bite if it had teeth.Italian Proverb.
Ancient art corporealises the spiritual; modern spiritualises the corporeal.Borne.
Ancient art is plastic; modern, pictorial.Schlegel.
And better had they ne’er been born / Who read to doubt, or read to scorn.Scott.
And can eternity belong to me, / Poor pensioner on the bounties of an hour?Young.
And earthly power doth then show likest God’s, / When mercy seasons justice.Mer. of Ven., iv. 1.
And e’en his failings lean’d to virtue’s side.Goldsmith.
And found no end, in wand’ring mazes lost.Milton.
And he is oft the wisest man / Who is not wise at all.Wordsworth.
“And is this all?” cried Cæsar at his height, disgusted.Young.
An dives sit omnes quærunt, nemo an bonus—Every one inquires if he is rich; no one asks if he is good.
And Mammon wins his way where seraphs might despair.Byron.
And much it grieved my heart to think / What man has made of man.Wordsworth.
And, often times, excusing of a fault / Doth make the fault worse by the excuse.King John, iv. 2.
And so, from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe, / And then, from hour to hour, we rot and rot, / And thereby hangs a tale.As You Like it, ii. 7.
And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew, / That one small head could carry all he knew.Goldsmith.
And this our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.As You Like It, ii. 1.
A needle’s eye is wide enough for two friends; the whole world is too narrow for two foes.Persian Proverb.
[Greek]—Bear and forbear.Epictetus.
A nemico che fugge, fa un ponte d’oro—Make a bridge of gold for an enemy who is flying from you.Italian Proverb.
An empty purse fills the face with wrinkles.Proverb.
An epigram often flashes light into regions where reason shines but dimly.Whipple.
[Greek]—The man who runs away will fight again.
An error is the more dangerous in proportion to the degree of truth which it contains.Amiel.
An evening red and morning grey, is a sure sign of a fair day.Proverb.
A new broom sweeps clean.Proverb.
A new life begins when a man once sees with his own eyes all that before he has but partially read or heard of.Goethe.
A new principle is an inexhaustible source of new views.Vauvenargues.
An eye like Mars, to threaten or command.Hamlet, iii. 4.
Anfang heiss, Mittel lau, Ende kalt—The beginning hot, the middle lukewarm, the end cold.German Proverb.
Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell.Macbeth, iv. 3.
Angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone.George Eliot.
Anger is like / A full-hot horse; who, being allow’d his way, / Self-mettle tires him.Henry VIII., i. 2.
Anger is one of the sinews of the soul.Fuller.
Anger resteth in the bosom of fools.Bible.
Anger, when it is long in coming, is the stronger when it comes, and the longer kept.Quarles.
Anglicè—In English.
Angling is somewhat like poetry; men are to be born so.Isaak Walton.
Anguis in herbâ—A snake in the grass.
An honest citizen who maintains himself industriously has everywhere as much freedom as he wants.Goethe.
An honest man’s the noblest work of God.Pope.
An honest tale speeds best, being plainly told.Richard III., iv. 4.
An idle brain is the devil’s workshop.Proverb.
An idler is a watch that wants both hands; / As useless if it goes as if it stands.Cowper.
An ill-willie (ill-natured) cow should have short horns.Scotch Proverb.
An ill wind that blows nobody good.Proverb.
An ill workman quarrels with his tools.Proverb.
Animal implume bipes—A two-legged animal without feathers.Plato’s definition of man.
Animals can enjoy, but only men can be cheerful.Jean Paul.
Anima mundi—The soul of the world.
Animo ægrotanti medicus est oratio—Kind words are as a physician to an afflicted spirit.Proverb.
Animo et fide—By courage and faith.Maxim.
Animo, non astutia—By courage, not by craft.Maxim.
Animum pictura pascit inani—He feeds his soul on the unreal picture.Virgil.
Animum rege, qui nisi paret imperat—Rule your spirit well, for if it is not subject to you, it will lord it over you.Horace.
Animus æquus optimum est ærumnæ condimentum—A patient mind is the best remedy for trouble.Plautus.
Animus furandi—The intention of stealing.Law.
Animus homini, quicquid sibi imperat, obtinet—The mind of man can accomplish whatever it resolves on.
Animus hominis semper appetit agere aliquid—The mind of man is always longing to do something.Cicero.
Animus non deficit æquus—Equanimity does not fail us.Motto.
Animus quod perdidit optat / Atque in præteritâ se totus imagine versat—The mind yearns after what is gone, and loses itself in dreaming of the past.Petronius.
An indifferent agreement is better than a good verdict.Proverb.
An individual helps not; only he who unites with many at the proper time.Goethe.
An individual man is a fruit which it cost all the foregoing ages to form and ripen.Emerson.
An infant crying in the night, / An infant crying for the light; / And with no language but a cry.Tennyson.
An infinitude of tenderness is the chief gift and inheritance of all truly great men.Ruskin.
An innocent man needs no eloquence; his innocence is instead of it.Ben Jonson.
An iron hand in a velvet glove.Charles V., said of a gentle compulsion.
An irreverent knowledge is no knowledge; it may be a development of the logical or other handicraft faculty, but is no culture of the soul of a man.Carlyle.
An nescis longas regibus esse manus?—Do you not know that kings have long, i.e., far-grasping, hands?Ovid.
An nescis, quantilla prudentia mundus regatur (or regatur orbis)?—Do you not know with how very little wisdom the world is governed?Axel Oxenstjerna to his son.
An nichts Geliebtes muszt du dein Gemüt / Also verpfänden, dass dich sein Verlust / Untröstbar machte—Never so set your heart on what you love that its loss may render you inconsolable.Herder.
Anno domini—In the year of our Lord.
Anno mundi—In the year of the world.
Annus mirabilis—The year of wonders.
A noble heart will frankly capitulate to reason.Schiller.
A noble man cannot be indebted for his culture to a narrow circle. The world and his native land must act on him.Goethe.
An obstinate man does not hold opinions, but they hold him.Pope.
A nod for a wise man, and a rod for a fool.Hebrew Proverb.
An old bird is not to be caught with chaff.Proverb.
An old knave is no babe.Proverb.
An old man in a house is a good sign in a house.Hebrew Proverb.
An old warrior is never in haste to strike the blow.Metastasio.
An open confession is good for the soul.Proverb.
An open door may tempt a saint.Proverb.
Another such victory and we are done.Pyrrhus after his second victory over the Romans.
An ounce of a man’s own wit is worth a pound of other peoples’.Sterne.
An ounce of cheerfulness is worth a pound of sadness to serve God with.Fuller.
An ounce of discretion is worth a pound of wit.Proverb.
An ounce o’ mother-wit is worth a pound o’ clergy.Scotch Proverb.
An ounce of practice is worth a pound of preaching.Proverb.
An quidquid stultius, quam quos singulos contemnas, eos aliquid putare esse universos?—Can there be any greater folly than the respect you pay to men collectively when you despise them individually?Cicero.
[Greek]—Being a man, know and remember always that thou art one.Philemon Comicus.
[Greek]—Man is by nature an animal meant for civic life.Aristotle.
Ante lucem—Before daybreak.
Ante meridiem—Before noon.
Ante omnia—Before everything else.
Antequam incipias, consulto; et ubi consulueris, facto opus est—Before you begin, consider well; and when you have considered, act.Sallust.
Ante senectutem curavi, ut bene viverem; in senectute, ut bene moriar—Before old age, it was my chief care to live well; in old age, it is to die well.Seneca.
Ante tubam tremor occupat artus—We tremble all over before the bugle sounds.Virgil.
Ante victoriam ne canas triumphum—Don’t celebrate your triumph before you have conquered.
Anticipation forward points the view.Burns.
Antiquâ homo virtute ac fide—A man of antique valour and fidelity.Maxim.
Antiquitas sæculi juventus mundi—The ancient time of the world was the youth of the world.Bacon.
An unimaginative person can neither be reverent nor kind.Ruskin.