James Wood, comp. Dictionary of Quotations. 1899.
Cattle go to Chi ha tempo
Cattle go blindfold to the common to crop the wholesome herbs, but man learns to distinguish what is wholesome (Heil) and what is poisonous (Gift) only by experience.Rückert.
Catus amat pisces, sed non vult tingere plantas—Puss likes fish, but does not care to wet her feet.Proverb.
Causa causans—The Cause of causes.
Causa latet, vis est notissima—The cause is hidden, but the effect is evident enough.Ovid.
Causa sine qua non—An indispensable condition.
Cause and effect are two sides of one fact.Emerson.
Cause and effect, means and end, seed and fruit, cannot be severed; for the effect already blooms in the cause, the end pre-exists in the means, the fruit in the seed.Emerson.
Cause célèbre—A celebrated trial or action at law.French.
Caute, non astute—Cautiously, not craftily.Maxim.
Caution is the parent of safety.Proverb.
Cautious age suspects the flattering form, and only credits what experience tells.Johnson.
Cautis pericla prodesse aliorum solent—Prudent people are ever ready to profit from the experiences of others.Phædrus.
Cautus enim metuit foveam lupus, accipiterque / Suspectos laqueos, et opertum miluus hamum—For the wary wolf dreads the pitfall, the hawk the suspected snare, and the fish the concealed hook.Horace.
Cavallo ingrassato tira calci—A horse that is grown fat kicks.Italian Proverb.
Cave ab homine unius libri—Beware of a man of one book.Proverb.
Caveat actor—Let the doer be on his guard.Law.
Caveat emptor—Let the buyer be on his guard.Law.
Cave canem—Beware of the dog.
Cavendo tutus—Safe by caution.Motto.
Cave paratus—Be on guard while prepared.Motto.
Caviare to the general.Hamlet, ii. 2.
Cease, every joy, to glimmer in my mind, / But leave,—oh! leave the light of hope behind! / What though my winged hours of bliss have been, / Like angel-visits, few and far between?Campbell.
Cease to lament for that thou canst not help, / And study help for that which thou lament’st.Two Gent. of Verona, iii. 1.
Cedant arma togæ—Let the military yield to the civil power (lit. to the gown).Cicero.
Cedant carminibus reges, regumque triumphi—Kings, and the triumphs of kings, must yield to the power of song.Ovid.
Cedat amor rebus; res age, tutus eris—Let love give way to business; give attention to business, and you will be safe.Ovid.
Cede Deo—Yield to God.Virgil.
Cede nullis—Yield to none.Motto.
Cede repugnanti; cedendo victor abibis—Yield to your opponent; by so doing you will come off victor in the end.Ovid.
Cedite, Romani scriptores; cedite, Graii—Give place, ye Roman writers; give place, ye Greeks (ironically applied to a pretentious author).Propertius.
Cedunt grammatici; vincuntur rhetores / Turba tacet—The grammarians give way; the rhetoricians are beaten off; all the assemblage is silent.Juvenal.
Cela fera comme un coup d’épée dans l’eau—It will be all lost labour (lit. like a sword-stroke in the water).French Proverb.
Cela m’échauffe la bile—That stirs up my bile.French.
Cela n’est pas de mon ressort—That is not in my department, or line of things.French.
Cela saute aux yeux—That is quite evident (lit. leaps to the eyes).French Proverb.
Cela va sans dire—That is a matter of course.French.
Cela viendra—That will come some day.French.
Celebrity is but the candle-light which will show what man, not in the least make him a better or other man.Carlyle.
Celebrity is the advantage of being known to people whom we don’t know, and who don’t know us.Chamfort.
Celebrity is the chastisement of merit and the punishment of talent.Chamfort.
Celer et audax—Swift and daring.Motto.
Celer et fidelis—Swift and faithful.Motto.
Celerity is never more admired / Than by the negligent.Ant. and Cleop., iii. 7.
Celsæ graviore casu / Decidunt turres—Lofty towers fall with no ordinary crash.Horace.
Celui est homme de bien qui est homme de biens—He is a good man who is a man of goods.French Proverb.
Celui-là est le mieux servi, qui n’a pas besoin de mettre les mains des autres au bout de ses bras—He is best served who has no need to put other people’s hands at the end of his arms.Rousseau.
Celui qui a grand sens sait beaucoup—A man of large intelligence knows a great deal.Vauvenargues.
Celui qui aime mieux ses trésors que ses amis, mérite de n’être aimé de personne—He who loves his wealth better than his friends does not deserve to be loved by any one.French Proverb.
Celui qui dévore la substance du pauvre, y trouve à la fin un os qui l’étrangle—He who devours the substance of the poor will in the end find a bone in it to choke him.French Proverb.
Celui qui est sur épaules d’un géant voit plus loin que celui qui le porte—He who is on the shoulders of a giant sees farther than he does who carries him.French Proverb.
Celui qui veut, celui-là peut—The man who wills is the man who can.French.
Ce ne sont pas les plus belles qui font les grandes passions—It is not the most beautiful women that inspire the greatest passion.French Proverb.
Ce n’est pas être bien aisé que de rire—Laughing is not always an index of a mind at ease.French.
Ce n’est que le premier pas qui coûte—It is only the first step that is difficult (lit. costs).French.
Censor morum—Censor of morals and public conduct.
Censure is the tax a man pays to the public for being eminent.Swift.
Cent ans n’est guère, mais jamais c’est beaucoup—A hundred years is not much, but “never” is along while.French Proverb.
Cento carri di pensieri, non pagaranno un’ oncia di debito—A hundred cartloads of care will not pay an ounce of debt.Italian Proverb.
Cent ’ore di malinconia non pagano un quattrino di’ debito—A hundred hours of vexation will not pay one farthing of debt.Italian Proverb.
Centum doctûm hominum consilia sola hæc devincit dea / Fortuna—This goddess, Fortune, single-handed, frustrates the plans of a hundred learned men.Plautus.
Ce que femme veut, Dieu le veut—What woman wills, God wills.French Proverb.
Ce qui fait qu’on n’est pas content de sa condition, c’est l’idée chimérique qu’on forme du bonheur d’autrui—What makes us discontented with our condition is the absurdly exaggerated idea we have of the happiness of others.French Proverb.
Ce qu’il nous faut pour vaincre, c’est de l’audace, encore de l’audace, toujours de l’audace!—In order to conquer, what we need is to dare, still to dare, and always to dare.Danton.
Ce qui manque aux orateurs en profondeur, / Ils vous le donnant en longueur—What orators want in depth, they make up to you in length.Montesquieu.
Ce qui ne vaut pas la peine d’être dit, on le chante—What is not worth the trouble of being said, may pass off very fairly when it is sung.Beaumarchais.
Ce qui suffit ne fut jamais peu—What is enough was never a small quantity.French Proverb.
Ce qui vient de la flûte, s’en retourne au tambour—What is earned by the fife goes back to the drum; easily gotten, easily gone.French Proverb.
Ce qu’on apprend au berceau dure jusqu’au tombeau—What is learned in the cradle lasts till the grave.French Proverb.
Ce qu’on fait maintenant, on le dit; et la cause en est bien excusable: on fait si peu de chose—Whatever we do now-a-days, we speak of; and the reason is this: it is so very little we do.French.
Cercato ho sempre solitaria vita / (Le rive il sanno, e le campagne e i boschi)—I have always sought a solitary life. (The river-banks and the open fields and the groves know it.)
Ceremonies are different in every country; but true politeness is everywhere the same.Goldsmith.
Ceremony is necessary as the outwork and defence of manners.Chesterfield.
Ceremony is the invention of wise men to keep fools at a distance.Steele.
Ceremony keeps up all things; ’tis like a penny glass to a rich spirit or some excellent water; without it the water were spilt, the spirit lost.Selden.
Ceremony leads her bigots forth, / Prepared to fight for shadows of no worth; / While truths, on which eternal things depend, / Find not, or hardly find, a single friend.Cowper.
Ceremony was but devised at first / To set a gloss on faint deeds … / But where there is true friendship, there needs none.Timon of Athens, i. 2.
Cereus in vitium flecti, monitoribus asper—(Youth), pliable as wax to vice, obstinate under reproof.Horace.
Cernit omnia Dens vindex—God as avenger sees all things.Motto.
Certa amittimus dum incerta petimus—We lose things certain in pursuing things uncertain.Plautus.
Certain defects are necessary to the existence of the individual. It would be painful to us if our old friends laid aside certain peculiarities.Goethe.
Certain it is that there is no kind of affection so purely angelic as that of a father to a daughter. In love to our wives there is desire; to our sons, ambition; but to our daughters there is something which there are no words to express.Addison.
Certe ignoratio futurorum malorum utilius est quam scientia—It is more advantageous not to know than to know the evils that are coming upon us.Cicero.
Certiorari—To order the record from an inferior to a superior court.Law.
Certum est quia impossible est—I am sure of it because it is impossible.Tertullian.
Certum pete finem—Aim at a definite end.Motto.
Cervantes smiled Spain’s chivalry away.Byron.
Ces discours sont fort beaux dans un livre—All that would be very fine in a book, i.e., in theory, but not in practice.Boileau.
Ces malheureux rois / Dont on dit tant de mal, ont du bon quelquefois—Those unhappy kings, of whom so much evil is said, have their good qualities at times.Andrieux.
Ce sont les passions qui font et qui défont tout—It is the passions that do and that undo everything.Fontenelle.
Ce sont toujours les aventuriers qui font de grandes choses, et non pas les souverains des grandes empires—It is always adventurers who do great things, not the sovereigns of great empires.Montesquieu.
Cessante causa, cessat et effectus—When the cause is removed, the effect must cease also.Coke.
Cessio bonorum—A surrender of all one’s property to creditors.Scots Law.
C’est-à-dire—That is to say.French.
C’est dans les grands dangers qu’on volt les grands courages—It is amid great perils we see brave hearts.Regnard.
C’est double plaisir de tromper le trompeur—it is a double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.La Fontaine.
C’est fait de lui—It is all over with him.French.
C’est la grande formule moderne: Du travail, toujours du travail, et encore du travail—The grand maxim now-a-days is: To work, always to work, and still to work.Gambetta.
C’est là le diable—There’s the devil of it, i.e., there lies the difficulty.French.
C’est la prospérité qui donne des amis, c’est l’adversité qui les éprouve—It is prosperity that gives us friends, adversity that proves them.French.
C’est le chemin des passions qui m’a conduit à la philosophie—It is by my passions I have been led to philosophy.Rousseau.
C’est le commencement de la fin—It is the beginning of the end.Talleyrand on the Hundred Days.
C’est le crime qui fait honte, et non pas l’échafaud—It is the crime, not the scaffold, which is the disgrace.Corneille.
C’est le geai paré des plumes du paon—He is the jay decked with the peacock’s feathers.French.
C’est le ton qui fait la musique—In music everything depends on the tone.French Proverb.
C’est le valet du diable, il fait plus qu’on ne lui ordonne—He who does more than he is bid is the devil’s valet.French Proverb.
C’est l’imagination qui gouverne le genre humain—The human race is governed by its imagination.Napoleon.
C’est partout comme chez nous—It is everywhere the same as among ourselves.French Proverb.
C’est peu que de courir; il faut partir à point—It is not enough to run, one must set out in time.French Proverb.
C’est plus qu’un crime, c’est une faute—It is worse than a crime; it is a blunder.Fouché.
C’est posséder les biens que de savoir s’en passer—To know how to dispense with things is to possess them.Reynard.
C’est son cheval de bataille—That is his forte (lit. war-horse).French.
Cest trop aimer quand on en meurt—It is loving too much to die of loving.French Proverb.
C’est une autre chose—That’s another matter.French.
C’est une grande folie de vouloir être sage tout seul—It is a great folly to wish to be wise all alone.La Rochefoucauld.
C’est une grande misère que de n’avoir pas assez d’esprit pour bien parler, ni assez de jugement pour se taire—It is a great misfortune not to have enough of ability to speak well, nor sense enough to hold one’s tongue.La Bruyère.
C’est un zéro en chiffres—He is a mere cipher.French.
Cet animal est très méchant: / Quand on l’attaque, il se défend—That animal is very vicious; it defends itself if you attack it.French.
Ceteris paribus—Other things being equal.
Ceterum censeo—But my decided opinion is.Cato.
Cet homme va à bride abattue—That man goes at full speed (lit. with loose reins).French Proverb.
Ceux qui parlent beaucoup, ne disent jamais rien—Those who talk much never say anything worth listening to.Boileau.
Ceux qui s’appliquent trop aux petites choses deviennent ordinairement incapables des grandes—Those who occupy their minds too much with small matters generally become incapable of great.La Rochefoucauld.
Chacun à sa marotte—Every one to his hobby.French Proverb.
Chacun à son goût—Every one to his taste.French.
Chacun à son métier, et les vaches seront bien gardées—Let every one mind his own business, and the cows will be well cared for.French Proverb.
Chacun cherche son semblable—Like seeks like.French Proverb.
Chacun dit du bien de son cœur et personne n’en ose dire de son esprit—Every one speaks well of his heart, but no one dares boast of his wit.La Rochefoucauld.
Chacun doit balayer devant sa propre porte—Everybody ought to sweep before his own door.French Proverb.
Chacun en particulier peut tromper et être trompé; personne n’a trompé tout le monde, et tout le monde n’a trompé personne—Individuals may deceive and be deceived; no one has deceived every one, and every one has deceived no one.Bonhours.
Chacun n’est pas aise qui danse—Not every one who dances is happy.French Proverb.
Chacun porte sa croix—Every one bears his cross.French.
Chacun pour soi et Dieu pour tous—Every one for himself and God for all.French Proverb.
Chacun tire l’eau à son moulin—Every one draws the water to his own mill.French Proverb.
Chacun vaut son prix—Every man has his value.French Proverb.
[Greek]—What is excellent is difficult.
Chance corrects us of many faults that reason would not know how to correct.La Rochefoucauld.
Chance generally favours the prudent.Joubert.
Chance is but the pseudonym of God for those particular cases which He does not choose to subscribe openly with His own sign-manual.Coleridge.
Chance is the providence of adventurers.Napoleon.
Chance will not do the work: / Chance sends the breeze, / But if the pilot slumber at the helm, / The very wind that wafts us towards the port / May dash us on the shelves.Scott.
Chances, as they are now called, I regard as guidances, and even, if rightly understood, commands, which, as far as I have read history, the best and sincerest men think providential.Ruskin.
Change is inevitable in a progressive country—is constant.Disraeli.
Change of fashions is the tax which industry imposes on the vanity of the rich.Chamfort.
Changes are lightsome, an’ fules are fond o’ them.Scotch Proverb.
Change yourself, and your fortune will change too.Portuguese Proverb.
Chansons-à-boire—Drinking-songs.French.
Chapeau bas—Hats off.French.
Chapelle ardente—Place where a dead body lies in state.French.
Chapter of accidents.Chesterfield.
Chaque âge a ses plaisirs, son esprit, et ses mœurs—Every age has its pleasures, its style of wit, and its peculiar manners.Boileau.
Chaque branche de nos connaissances passe successivement par trois états théoretiques différents: l’état théologique, ou fictif; l’état métaphysique, ou abstrait; l’état scientifique, ou positif—Each department of knowledge passes in succession through three different theoretic stages: the theologic stage, or fictitious; the metaphysical, or abstract; the scientific, or positive.A. Comte.
Chaque demain apporte son pain—Every to-morrow supplies its own loaf.French Proverb.
Chaque instant de la vie est un pas vers la mort—Each moment of life is one step nearer death.Corneille.
Chaque médaille a son revers—Every medal has its reverse.French Proverb.
Chaque potier vante sa pot—Every potter cracks up his own vessel.French Proverb.
Char-à-bancs—A pleasure car.French.
Character gives splendour to youth, and awe to wrinkled skin and grey hairs.Emerson.
Character is a fact, and that is much in a world of pretence and concession.A. B. Alcott.
Character is a perfectly educated will.Novalis.
Character is a reserved force which acts directly by presence and without means.Emerson.
Character is a thing that will take care of itself.J. G. Holland.
Character is centrality, the impossibility of being displaced or overset.Emerson.
Character is higher than intellect. Thinking is the function; living is the functionary.Emerson.
Character is impulse reined down into steady continuance.C. H. Parkhurst.
Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principles.Hume.
Character is the spiritual body of the person, and represents the individualisation of vital experience, the conversion of unconscious things into self-conscious men.Whipple.
Character is victory organised.Napoleon.
Character is what Nature has engraven on us; can we then efface it?Voltaire.
Characters are developed, and never change.Disraeli.
Character teaches over our head, above our wills.Emerson.
Character wants room; must not be crowded on by persons, nor be judged of from glimpses got in the press of affairs or a few occasions.Emerson.
Charbonnier est maître chez soi—A coalheaver’s house is his castle.
Charge, Chester, charge! On, Stanley, on! / Were the last words of Marmion.Scott.
Chargé d’affaires—A subordinate diplomatist.French.
Charity begins at hame, but shouldna end there.Scotch Proverb.
Charity begins at home.Proverb.
Charity draws down a blessing on the charitable.Le Sage.
Charity gives itself rich; covetousness hoards itself poor.German Proverb.
Charity is the scope of all God’s commands.St. Chrysostom.
Charity is the temple of which justice is the foundation, but you can’t have the top without the bottom.Ruskin.
Charity shall cover the multitude of sins.St. Peter.
Charm’d with the foolish whistling of a name.Cowley.
Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.Pope.
Charms which, like flowers, lie on the surface and always glitter, easily produce vanity; whereas other excellences, which lie deep like gold and are discovered with difficulty, leave their possessors modest and proud.Jean Paul.
Charta non erubescit—A document does not blush.Proverb.
Chasse cousin—Bad wine, i.e., such as was given to poor relations to drive them off.French.
Chassez le naturel, il revient au galop—Drive out Nature, she is back on you in a trice.French, from Horace.
Chaste as the icicle / That’s curded by the frost from purest snow, / And hangs on Dian’s temple.Coriolanus, v. 3.
Chastise the good, and he will grow better; chastise the bad, and he will grow worse.Italian Proverb.
Chastity is like an icicle; if it once melts, that’s the last of it.Proverb.
Chastity is the band that holds together the sheaf of all holy affections and duties.Vinet.
Chastity, lost once, cannot be recalled; it goes only once.Ovid.
Châteaux en Espagne. Castles in the air (lit. castles in Spain).French.
Chat échaudé craint l’eau froide—A scalded cat dreads cold water.French Proverb.
Cheapest is the dearest.Proverb.
Che dorme coi cani, si leva colle pulci—Those who sleep with dogs will rise up with fleas.Italian Proverb.
Cheerfulness is health; the opposite, melancholy, is disease.Haliburton.
Cheerfulness is just as natural to the heart of a man in strong health as colour to his cheek.Ruskin.
Cheerfulness is the best promoter of health, and is as friendly to the mind as to the body.Addison.
Cheerfulness is the daughter of employment.Dr. Horne.
Cheerfulness is the heaven under which everything but poison thrives.Jean Paul.
Cheerfulness is the very flower of health.Schopenhauer.
Cheerfulness opens, like spring, all the blossoms of the inward man.Jean Paul.
Cheese is gold in the morning, silver at midday, and lead at night.German Proverb.
Chef de cuisine—A head-cook.French.
Chef-d’œuvre—A masterpiece.French.
Chemin de fer—The iron way, the railway.French.
Che ne può la gatta se la massaia è matta—How can the cat help it if the maid is fool (enough to leave things in her way)?Italian Proverb.
Che quegli è tra gli stolti bene abbasso, / Che senza distinzion afferma o niega, / Cosi nell’ un, come nell’ altro passo—He who without discrimination affirms or denies, ranks lowest among the foolish ones, and this in either case, i.e., in denying as well as affirming.Dante.
Chercher à connaître, c’est chercher à douter—To seek to know is to seek occasion to doubt.French.
Che sarà, sarà—What will be, will be.Motto.
Chevalier d’industrie—One who lives by persevering fraud (lit. a knight of industry).French.
Chevaux de frise—A defence of spikes against cavalry.French.
Chewing the food of sweet and bitter fancy.As You Like It, iv. 3.
Chew the cud of politics.Swift.
Chi altri giudica, sè condanna—Whoso judges others condemns himself.Italian Proverb.
Chi ama, crede—He who loves, believes.Italian Proverb.
Chi ama, qual chi muore / Non ha da gire al ciel dal mondo altr’ ale—He who loves, as well as he who dies, needs no other wing by which to soar from earth to heaven.Michael Angelo.
Chi ama, teme—He who loves, fears.Italian Proverb.
Chi asino è, e cervo esser si crede, al saltar del fosso se n’avvede—He who is an ass and thinks he is a stag, will find his error when he has to leap a ditch.Italian Proverb.
Chi compra ciò pagar non può, vende ciò che non vuole—He who buys what he cannot pay for, sells what he fain would not.Italian Proverb.
Chi compra ha bisogno di cent occhi—He who buys requires an hundred eyes.Italian Proverb.
Chi compra terra, compra guerra—Who buys land, buys war.Italian Proverb.
Chi con l’occhio vede, di cuor crede—Seeing is believing (lit. he who sees with the eye believes with the heart).Italian Proverb.
Chi da il suo inanzi morire s’apparecchia assai patire—He who gives of his wealth before dying, prepares himself to suffer much.Italian Proverb.
Chi dinanzi mi pinge, di dietro mi tinge—He who paints me before, blackens me behind.Italian Proverb.
Chi due padroni ha da servire, ad uno ha da mentire—Whoso serves two masters must lie to one of them.Italian Proverb.
Chi é causa del suo mal, pianga se stesso—He who is the cause of his own misfortunes may bewail them himself.Italian Proverb.
Chi edifica, sua borsa purifica—He who builds clears his purse.Italian Proverb.
Chien sur son fumier est hardi—A dog is bold on his own dunghill.French Proverb.
Chi erra nelle decine, erra nelle migliaja—He who errs in the tens, errs in the thousands.Italian Proverb.
Chiesa libera in libero stato—A free church in a free state.Cævour.
Chi fa il conto senza l’oste, gli convien farlo due volte—He who reckons without his host must reckon again.Italian Proverb.
Chi fa quel ch’ e’ pu
, non fa mai bene—He who does all he can do never does well.Italian Proverb.
Chi ha capo di cera non vada al sole—Let not him whose head is of wax walk in the sun.Italian Proverb.
Chi ha danari da buttar via, metta gli operaj, e non vi stia—He who has money to squander, let him employ workmen and not stand by them.Italian Proverb.
Chi ha denti, non ha pane; e chi ha pane, non ha denti—He who has teeth is without bread, and he who has bread is without teeth.Italian Proverb.
Chi ha, è—He who has, is.
Chi ha l’amor nel petto, ha lo sprone a’ fianchi—He who has love in his heart has spurs in his sides.Italian Proverb.
Chi ha lingua in bocca, può andar per tutto—He who has a tongue in his head can travel all the world over.Italian Proverb.
Chi ha paura del diavolo, non fa roba—He who has a dread of the devil does not grow rich.Italian Proverb.
Chi ha sanità è ricco, e non lo sa—He who has good health is rich, and does not know it.Italian Proverb.
Chi ha sospetto, di rado è in difetto—He who suspects is seldom at fault.Italian Proverb.
Chi ha tempo, non aspetti tempo—He who has time, let him not wait for time.