James Wood, comp. Dictionary of Quotations. 1899.
Anxiety is the poison to A soul without reflection
Anxiety is the poison of human life.Blair.
Any nobleness begins at once to refine a man’s features; any meanness or sensuality to imbrute them.Thoreau.
Any port in a storm.Scotch Proverb.
Any road will lead you to the end of the world.Schiller.
Anything for a quiet life.Proverb.
“A pack of kinless loons.”Said of Cromwell’s judges by the Scotch.
Apage, Satana—Begone, Satan!
A patron is one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and when he has reached the land encumbers him with help.Johnson.
A peck of March dust is worth a king’s ransom.Proverb.
A pedant is a precocious old man.De Boufflers.
A penny hained (saved) is a penny gained.Scotch Proverb.
Aperçu—A sketch.French.
A perfect woman, nobly planned, / To warn, to comfort, and command.Wordsworth.
Aperit præcordia liber—Wine opens the seal of the heart.Horace.
A perte de vue—Beyond the range of vision.French.
Aperte mala cum est mulier, tum demum est bona—A woman when she is openly bad, is at least honest.
Aperto vivere voto—To live with every wish avowed.Persius.
A pet lamb makes a cross ram.Proverb.
Aphorisms are portable wisdom.W. R. Alger.
Apio opus est—There is need of parsley, i.e., to strew on the grave, meaning that one is dying.
A pity that the eagle should be mew’d, / While kites and buzzards prey at liberty.Richard III., i. 1.
A place for everything, and everything in its place.Proverb.
A plague of sighing and grief; it blows a man up like a bladder.1 Henry IV., i. 4.
A plant often removed cannot thrive.Proverb.
A pleasing figure is a perpetual letter of recommendation.Bacon.
A plomb—Perpendicularly; firmly.French.
A poem is the very image of life expressed in its eternal truth.Schelling.
A poet is a nightingale, who sits in the darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet sounds.Shelley.
A poet must be before his age, to be even with posterity.Lowell.
A poet must sing for his own people.Stedman.
A poet on canvas is exactly the same species of creature as a poet in song.Ruskin.
A poison which acts not at once is not therefore a less dangerous poison.Lessing.
A position of eminence makes a great man greater and a little man less.La Bruyère.
Apothegms are, in history, the same as the pearls in the sand or the gold in the mine.Erasmus.
[Greek]—Wise men learn many things from their enemies.Aristophanes.
A point—To a point exactly.French.
Apollo himself confessed it was ecstasy to be a man among men.Schiller.
A posse ad esse—From possibility to actuality.
A posteriori—From the effect to the cause; by induction.
Apothecaries would not sugar their pills unless they were bitter.Proverb.
A pound of care won’t pay an ounce of debt.Proverb.
Apparent rari nantes in gurgite vasto—A few are seen swimming here and there in the vast abyss.Virgil.
Appetitus rationi pareat—Let reason govern desire.Cicero.
Applause is the spur of noble minds, the aim and end of weak ones.Colton.
Après la mort le médecin—After death the doctor.French Proverb.
Après la pluie, le beau temps—After the rain, fair weather.French Proverb.
Après nous le déluge—After us the deluge!Mme. de Pompadour.
A primrose by a river’s brim / A yellow primrose was to him, / And it was nothing more.Wordsworth.
A prince can mak’ a belted knight, / A marquis, duke, and a’ that; / But an honest man’s aboon his might, / Gude faith, he maunna fa’ that.Burns.
A priori—From the cause to the effect; by deduction.
A progress of society on the one hand, a decline of souls on the other.Amiel.
A promise is a debt.Gaelic Proverb.
A propensity to hope and joy is real riches; one to fear and sorrow, real poverty.Hume.
A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house.Jesus.
A propos—To the point; seasonably; in due time.French.
A propos de bottes—By-the-bye.French.
A proverb is good sense brought to a point.John Morley.
A proverb is much matter decocted into few words.Fuller.
Apt alliteration’s artful aid.Churchill.
Apt to revolt, and willing to rebel, / And never are contented when they’re well.Daniel Defoe.
A puñadas entran las buenas hadas—Good luck pushes its way (lit. gets on) by elbowing.Spanish Proverb.
A purpose you impart is no longer your own.Goethe.
A quatre épingles—With four pins, i.e., done up like a dandy.French.
Aquel pierde venta que no tiene que venda—He who has nothing to sell loses his market.Spanish Proverb.
A quien tiene buena muger, ningun mal le puede venir, que no sea de sufrir—To him who has a good wife no evil can come which he cannot bear.Spanish Proverb.
Aquilæ senectus—The old age of the eagle.Terence.
Aquila non capit muscas—An eagle does not catch flies.Motto.
A qui veut rien n’est impossible—Nothing is impossible to one with a will.French Proverb.
A raconter ses maux, souvent on les soulage—Our misfortunes are often lightened by relating them.Corneille.
A ragged colt may make a good horse.Proverb.
Aranearum telas texere—To weave spiders’ webs, i.e., a tissue of sophistry.
Arbeit ist des Blutes Balsam: / Arbeit ist der Tugend Quell—Labour is balm to the blood: labour is the source of virtue.Herder.
Arbiter bibendi—The master of the feast (lit. the judge of the drinking).
Arbiter elegantiarum—The arbitrator of elegances; the master of the ceremonies.
Arbiter formæ—Judge of beauty.
Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness.Washington.
Arbore dejecta qui vult ligna colligit—When the tree is thrown down, any one that likes may gather the wood.Proverb.
Arbores serit diligens agricola, quarum aspiciet baccam ipse nunquam—The industrious husbandman plants trees, not one berry of which he will ever see.Cicero.
“Arcades ambo,” id est, blackguards both.Byron.
Arcana imperii—State, or government, secrets.
[Greek]—Office will prove the man.
Architecture is petrified music.Schelling, De Staël, Goethe.
Architecture is the work of nations.Ruskin.
[Greek]—No ruler can sin so long as he is a ruler.
Ardeat ipsa licet, tormentis gaudet amantis—Though she is aflame herself, she delights in the torments of her lover.Juvenal.
Ardentia verba—Glowing words.
Arde verde por seco, y pagan justos por pecadores—Green burns for dry, and just men smart (lit. pay) for transgressors.Spanish Proverb.
Ardua molimur: sed nulla nisi ardua virtus—I attempt an arduous task; but there is no worth that is not of difficult achievement.Ovid.
A really great talent finds its happiness in execution.Goethe.
A reasoning mule will neither lead nor drive.Mallett.
A rebours—Reversed.French.
A reconciled friend is a double enemy.Proverb.
A reculons—Backwards.French.
A re decedunt—They wander from the point.
A refusal is less than nothing.Platen.
Arena sine calce—Sand without cement, i.e., speech unconnected.Suetonius.
Arenæ mandas semina—You are sowing grain in the sand.Proverb.
A republic is properly a polity in which the state, with its all, is at every man’s service; and every man, with his all, is at the state’s service.Ruskin.
Ares, no ares, renta me pagues—Plough or not plough, you must pay rent all the same.Spanish Proverb.
A rez de chaussée—Even with the ground.French.
Argent comptant—Ready money.French.
Argent comptant porte medicine—Ready money works great cures.French Proverb.
Argentum accepi, dote imperium vendidi—I have received money, and sold my authority for her dowry.Plautus.
Argilla quidvis imitaberis uda—You may model any form you please out of damp clay.Horace.
Argument, as usually managed, is the worst sort of conversation; as it is generally in books the worst sort of reading.Swift.
Argument is like an arrow from a cross-bow, which has great force though shot by a child.Bacon.
Argumentum ad crumenam—An appeal to self-interest.
Argumentum ad hominem—An argument in refutation drawn from an opponent’s own principles (lit. an argument to the man).
Argumentum ad ignorantiam—An argument founded on the ignorance of an adversary.
Argumentum ad invidiam—An argument which appeals to low passions.
Argumentum ad judicium—An appeal to common sense.
Argumentum ad misericordiam—An appeal to the mercy of your adversary.
Argumentum ad populum—An appeal to popular prejudice.
Argumentum ad verecundiam—An appeal to respect for some authority.
Argumentum baculinum—Club argument, i.e., by physical force.
Argus at home, a mole abroad.Italian Proverb.
Argus-eyes—Eyes ever wakeful and watchful.
A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast, but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.Bible.
[Greek]—A mean or middle course is best.Cleobulus.
[Greek]—Water is best.Pindar.
Aristocracy has three successive ages—of superiorities, of privileges, and of vanities; having passed out of the first, it degenerates in the second, and dies away in the third.Chateaubriand.
Arma amens capio; nec sat rationis in armis—I madly take to arms; but have not wit enough to use them to any purpose.Virgil.
Arma cerealia—The arms of Ceres, i.e., implements connected with the preparation of corn and bread.
Arm am Beutel, krank am Herzen—Poor in purse, sick at heart.Goethe.
Arma pacis fulcra—Arms are the props of peace.Motto.
Arma tenenti omnia dat, qui justa negat—He who refuses what is just, gives up everything to an enemy in arms.Lucan.
Arma, viri, ferte arma; vocat lux ultima victos, / Nunquam omnes hodie moriemur inulti—Arms, ye men, bring me arms! their last day summons the vanquished. We shall never all die unavenged this day.Virgil.
Armé de foi hardi—Bold from being armed with faith.Motto.
Armes blanches—Side arms.French.
Arm in Arm mit dir. / So fordr’ ich mein Jahrhundert in die Schranken—Arm in arm with thee, I defy the century to gainsay me.Schiller.
Arms and the man I sing.Virgil.
Armuth des Geistes Gott erfreut, / Armuth, und nicht Armseligkeit—It is poverty of spirit that God delights in—poverty, and not beggarliness.Claudius.
Armuth ist der sechste Sinn—Poverty is the sixth sense.German Proverb.
Armuth ist die grösste Plage, / Reichtum ist das höchste Gut—Poverty is the greatest calamity, riches the highest good.Goethe.
Armuth ist listig, sie fängt auch einen Fuchs—Poverty is crafty; it outwits (lit. catches) even a fox.German Proverb.
Armuth und Hunger haben viel gelehrte Jünger—Poverty and hunger have many learned disciples.German Proverb.
A rogue is a roundabout fool.Coleridge.
A rolling stone gathers no moss.Proverb.
A Rome comment à Rome—At Rome do as Rome does.French Proverb.
A royal heart is often hid under a tattered coat.Danish Proverb.
Arrectis auribus adsto—I wait with listening ears.Virgil.
Arrière pensée—A mental reservation.French.
Arrogance is the obstruction of wisdom.Bion.
Ars artium omnium conservatrix—The art preservative of all others, viz., printing.
Ars est celare artem—It is the perfection of art to conceal art.Ovid.
Ars est sine arte, cujus principium est mentiri, medium laborare, et finis mendicare—It is an art without art, which has its beginning in falsehood, its middle in toil, and its end in poverty.Applied originally to the pursuits of the Alchemists.
Ars longa, vita brevis—Art is long, life is short.
Ars varia vulpis, ast una echino maxima—The fox has many tricks; the hedgehog only one, and that greatest of all.Proverb.
Art does not represent things falsely, but truly as they appear to mankind.Ruskin.
Arte magistra—By the aid of art.Virgil.
Art is a jealous mistress.Emerson.
Art is long and time is fleeting, / And our hearts, though stout and brave, / Still, like muffled drums, are beating / Funeral marches to the grave.Longfellow.
Art is noble, but the sanctuary of the human soul is nobler still.W. Winter.
Art is not the bread indeed, but it is the wine of life.Jean Paul.
Art is simply a bringing into relief of the obscure thought of Nature.Amiel.
Art is the mediatrix of the unspeakable.Goethe.
Art is the path of the creator to his work.Emerson.
Art is the work of man under the guidance and inspiration of a mightier power.Hare.
Artists are of three classes: those who perceive and pursue the good, and leave the evil; those who perceive and pursue the good and evil together, the whole thing as it verily is; and those who perceive and pursue the evil, and leave the good.Ruskin.
Artium magister—Master of arts.
Art may err, but Nature cannot miss.Dryden.
Art may make a suit of clothes, but Nature must produce a man.Hume.
Art must anchor in nature, or it is the sport of every breath of folly.Hazlitt.
Art must not be a superficial talent, but must begin further back in man.Emerson.
Art, not less eloquently than literature, teaches her children to venerate the single eye.Willmott.
Art not thou a man?Bible.
Art rests on a kind of religious sense, on a deep, steadfast earnestness; and on this account it unites so readily with religion.Goethe.
Art thou afraid of death, and dost thou wish to live for ever? Live in the whole that remains when thou hast long been gone (wenn du lange dahin bist).Schiller.
A rude âne rude ânier—A stubborn driver to a stubborn ass.French Proverb.
A rusty nail, placed near the faithful compass, / Will sway it from the truth, and wreck the argosy.Scott.
A sage is the instructor of a hundred ages.Emerson.
A saint abroad, a devil at home.Proverb.
A saint in crape is twice a saint in lawn.Pope.
As all men have some access to primary truth, so all have some art or power of communication in the head, but only in the artist does it descend into the hand.Emerson.
As a man makes his bed, so must he lie.Gaelic Proverb.
As a priest, or interpreter of the holy, is the noblest and highest of all men; so is a sham priest the falsest and basest.Carlyle.
A satirical poet is the check of the layman on bad priests.Dryden.
As a tree falls, so shall it lie.Proverb.
A scalded cat dreads cauld water.Scotch Proverb.
As dear to me as are the ruddy drops / That visit my sad heart.Julius Cæsar, ii. 1.
A second Daniel.Mer. of Ven., iv. 1.
A secret is in my custody if I keep it; but if I blab it, it is I that am prisoner.Arabian Proverb.
A self-denial no less austere than the saint’s is demanded of the scholar.Emerson.
As ever in my great taskmaster’s eye.Milton.
As every great evil, so every excessive power wears itself out at last.Herder.
As falls the dew on quenchless sands, / Blood only serves to wash ambition’s hands.Byron.
As for discontentments, they are in the politic body like humours in the natural, which are apt to gather a preternatural heat and inflame.Bacon.
As formerly we suffered from wickedness, so now we suffer from the laws.Tacitus.
As for murmurs, mother, we grumble a little now and then, to be sure. But there’s no love lost between us.Goldsmith.
As for talkers and futile persons, they are commonly vain and credulous withal.Bacon.
As from the wing no scar the sky retains, / The parted wave no furrow from the keel; So dies in human hearts the thought of death.Young.
As good be out of the world as out of the fashion.Proverb.
As good almost kill a man as kill a good book; who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God’s image; but he who destroys a good book kills reason itself.Milton.
As guid fish i’ the sea as e’er came oot o’t.Scotch Proverb.
As guid may haud (hold) the stirrup as he that loups on.Scotch Proverb.
A’s guid that God sends.Scotch Proverb.
As he alone is a good father who at table serves his children first, so is he alone a good citizen who, before all other outlays, discharges what he owes to the state.Goethe.
As he who has health is young, so he who owes nothing is rich.Proverb.
A short cut is often a wrong cut.Danish Proverb.
A sicht (sight) o’ you is guid for sair een.Scotch Proverb.
A sick man’s sacrifice is but a lame oblation.Sir Thomas Browne.
As idle as a painted ship / Upon a painted ocean.Coleridge.
A sight to dream of, not to tell.Coleridge.
A silent man’s words are not brought into court.Danish Proverb.
A sillerless (moneyless) man gangs fast through the market.Scotch Proverb.
A silver key can open an iron lock.Proverb.
A simple child, / That lightly draws its breath, / And feels its life in every limb, / What should it know of death?Wordsworth.
A simple maiden in her flower, / Is worth a hundred coats of arms.Tennyson.
A simple, manly character need never make an apology.Emerson.
As in a theatre, the eyes of men, / After a well-graced actor leaves the stage, / Are idly bent on him that enters next, / Thinking his prattle to be tedious.Richard II., v. 2.
A single grateful thought turned heavenwards is the most perfect prayer.Lessing.
A single moment may transform everything.Wieland.
A single word is often a concentrated poem, a little grain of pure gold, capable of being beaten out into a broad extent of gold-leaf.Trench.
Asinum sub fræno currere docere—To teach an ass to obey the rein, i.e., to labour in vain.Proverb.
Asinus ad lyram—An ass at the lyre, i.e., one unsusceptible of music.
Asinus asino, et sus sui pulcher—An ass is beautiful to an ass, and a pig to a pig.Proverb.
Asinus in tegulis—An ass on the house-tiles.
Asinus inter simias—An ass among apes, i.e., a fool among people who make a fool of him.Proverb.
Asinus in unguento—An ass among perfumes, i.e., things he cannot appreciate.
As is the garden, such is the gardener.Hebrew Proverb.
As is the man, so is his God.Rückert, Goethe.
A sip is the most that mortals are permitted from any goblet of delight.A. B. Alcott.
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you.Jesus.
Ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein.Bible.
Ask me no questions, and I’ll tell you no fibs.Goldsmith.
Ask why God made the gem so small, / And why so huge the granite? / Because God meant mankind should set / The higher value on it.Burns.
As long as any man exists, there is some need of him.Emerson.
As long lives a merry heart as a sad.Proverb.
As love without esteem is capricious and volatile, esteem without love is languid and cold.Swift.
A slow fire makes sweet malt.Proverb.
A small man, if he stands too near a great, may see single portions well, and, if he will survey the whole, must stand too far off, where his eyes do not reach the details.Goethe.
A small sorrow distracts us, a great one makes us collected.Jean Paul.
A small unkindness is a great offence.Hannah More.
As man, perhaps, the moment of his breath, / Receives the lurking principle of death; / The young disease, that must subdue at length, / Grows with his growth, and strengthens with his strength.Pope.
As many suffer from too much as too little.Bovee.
A smart coat is a good letter of introduction.Dutch Proverb.
As merry as the day is long.Much Ado, ii. 1.
A smile abroad is oft a scowl at home.Tennyson.
A smile re-cures the wounding of a frown.Shakespeare.
As much love, so much mind, or heart.Latin Proverb.
As much virtue as there is, so much appears; as much goodness as there is, so much reverence it commands.Emerson.
A snapper up of unconsidered trifles.Winter’s Tale, iv. 2.
A society of people will cursorily represent a certain culture, though there is not a gentleman or a lady in the group.Emerson.
A soldier, / Seeking the bubble reputation / Even in the cannon’s mouth.As You Like It, ii. 7.
A solis ortu usque ad occasum—From where the sun rises to where it sets.
A song will outlive all sermons in the memory.Henry Giles.
A sorrow’s crown of sorrow is remembering happier things.Tennyson.
A sorrow shared is but half a trouble, / But a joy that’s shared is a joy made double.Proverb.
A’ sottili cascano le brache—The cloak sometimes falls off a cunning man.Italian Proverb.
A soul without reflection, like a pile / Without inhabitant, to ruin runs.Young.