James Wood, comp. Dictionary of Quotations. 1899.
L’Estrange
He that descends not to word it with a shrew does worse than beat her.
In saying aye or no, the very safety of our country and the sum of our well-being lies.
Intemperate wits will spare neither friend nor foe, and make themselves the common enemies of mankind.
It is downright madness to contend where we are sure to be worsted.
It is fancy, not the reason of things, that makes us so uneasy.
It is not advisable to reward where men have the tenderness not to punish.
Judgments that are made on the wrong side of the danger amount to no more than an affectation of skill, without either credit or effect.
One stumble is enough to deface the character of an honourable life.
Some people are all quality: you would think they were made up of nothing but title and genealogy. The stamp of dignity defaces in them the very character of humanity, and transports them to such a degree of haughtiness that they reckon it below themselves to exercise either good-nature or good manners.
Some read books only with a view to find fault, while others read only to be taught; the former are like venomous spiders, extracting a poisonous quality, where the latter, like the bees, sip out a sweet and profitable juice.
The devil helps his servants for a season; but when they come once to a pinch, he leaves ’em in the lurch.
The fox puts off all with a jest.
The greatest of all injustice is that which goes under the name of law.
The prisoner is troubled that he cannot go whither he would, and he that is at large is troubled that he does not know whither to go.
The timing of things is a main point in the dispatch of all affairs.
The wise man will commit no business of importance to a proxy when he may do it himself.
There is more danger in a reserved and silent friend than in a noisy babbling enemy.
There is not one grain in the universe, either too much or too little, nothing to be added, nothing to be spared; nor so much as any one particle of it, that mankind may not be either the better or the worse for, according as it is applied.
Those deserve to be doubly laughed at that are peevish and angry for nothing to no purpose.
Two pots stood by a river, one of brass, the other of clay; the water carried them away; the earthen vessel kept aloof from the other.
We are apt to pick quarrels with the world for every little foolery.
We are not to quarrel with the water for inundations and shipwrecks.
We’ll stand up for our properties, was the beggar’s song, that lived upon the alms-basket.