James Wood, comp. Dictionary of Quotations. 1899.
El dar es honor to Equity judges
El dar es honor, y el pedir dolor—To give is honour; to lose, grief.Spanish Proverb.
El diablo saba mucho, porque es viejo—The devil knows a great deal, for he is old.Spanish Proverb.
El dia que te casas, ó te matas ó te sanas—The day you marry, it is either kill or cure.Spanish Proverb.
El Dorado—A region of unimagined wealth fabled at one time to exist in South America; a dreamland of wealth.Spanish.
Elegance is necessary to the fine gentleman, dignity is proper to noblemen, and majesty to kings.Hazlitt.
Elegit—He has chosen. A writ empowering a creditor to hold lands for payment of a debt.Law.
Elephants endors’d with towers.Milton.
Eléve le corbeau, il te crèvera les yeux—Bring up a raven, he will pick out your eyes.French Proverb.
Elige eum cujus tibi placuit et vita et oratio—Make choice of him who recommends himself to you by his life as well as address.Seneca.
Elk het zijne is niet te veel—Every one his own is not too much.Dutch Proverb.
Ell and tell is gude merchandise—i.e., ready money is.Scotch Proverb.
Elle a trop de vertus pour n’étre pas chrétienne—She has too many virtues not to be a Christian.Corneille.
Elle n’en fit point la petite bouche—She did not mince matters (lit. make a small mouth about it).French Proverb.
Elle riait du bout des dents—She gave a forced laugh (lit. laughed with the end of her teeth).French Proverb.
El malo siempre piensa engaño—The bad man always suspects some knavish intention.Spanish Proverb.
El mal que de tu boca sale, en tu seno se cae—The evil which issues from thy mouth falls into thy bosom.Spanish Proverb.
El mal que no tiene cura es locura—Folly is the one evil for which there is no remedy.Spanish Proverb.
Elocution is the adjustment of apt words and sentiments to the subject in debate.Cicero.
Eloignement—Estrangement.Proverb.
Eloquence, at its highest pitch, leaves little room for reason or reflection, but addresses itself entirely to the fancy or the affections, captivates the willing hearers, and subdues their understanding.Hume.
Eloquence is a pictorial representation of thought.Pascal.
Eloquence is in the assembly, not in the speaker.William Pitt.
Eloquence is like flame: it requires matter to feed on, motion to excite it, and it brightens as it burns.Tacitus.
Eloquence is the appropriate organ of the highest personal energy.Emerson.
Eloquence is the child of knowledge. When the mind is full, like a wholesome river, it is also clear.Disraeli.
Eloquence is the language of nature, and cannot be learned in the schools.Colton.
Eloquence is the painting of thought; and thus those who, after having painted it, still add to it, make a picture instead of a portrait.Pascal.
Eloquence is the poetry of prose.Bryant.
Eloquence is the power to translate a truth into language perfectly intelligible to the person to whom you speak.Emerson.
Eloquence is to the sublime as a whole to its part.La Bruyère.
Eloquence must be grounded on the plainest narrative.Emerson.
Eloquence shows the power and possibility of man.Emerson.
Eloquence the soul, song charms the sense.Milton.
Eloquence, to produce her full effect, should start from the head of the orator, as Pallas from the brain of Jove, completely armed and equipped.Colton.
El pan comido, la compañia deshecha—The bread eaten, the company dispersed.Spanish Proverb.
El pie del dueño estierco para la heredad—The foot of the owner is manure for the farm.Spanish Proverb.
El que trabaja, y madra, hila oro—He that labours and perseveres spins gold.Spanish Proverb.
El rey va hasta do poede, y no hasta do quiere—The king goes as far as he may, not as far as he would.Spanish Proverb.
El rey y la patria—For king and country.Spanish.
El rio pasado, el santo olvidádo—The river (danger) past, the saint (delivery) forgotten.Spanish Proverb.
El sabio muda consejo, el necio no—The wise man changes his mind, the fool never.Spanish Proverb.
El secreto á voces—An open secret.Calderón.
El tiempo cura el enfermo, que ne el ungnento—It is time and not medicine that cures the disease.Spanish Proverb.
Elucet maxime animi excellentia magnitudoque in despiciendis opibus—Excellence and greatness of soul are most conspicuously displayed in contempt of riches.
El villano en su tierra, y el hidalgo donde quiera—The clown in his own country, the gentleman where he pleases.Spanish Proverb.
Elysian beauty, melancholy grace, / Brought from a pensive through a happy place.Wordsworth.
E mala cosa esser cattivo, ma è peggiore esser conosciuto—It is a bad thing to be a knave, but worse to be found out.Italian Proverb.
Emas non quod opus est, sed quod necesse est: / Quod non opus est, asse carum est—Buy not what you want, but what you need; what you don’t want is dear at a cent.Cato.
Embarras de richesses—An encumbrance of wealth.D’Allainval.
Embonpoint—Plumpness or fulness of body.French.
E meglio aver oggi un uovo, che dimani una gallina—Better an egg to-day than a hen to-morrow.Italian Proverb.
E meglio cader dalla finestra che dal tetto—It is better to fall from the window than the roof.Italian Proverb.
E meglio dare che non aver a dare—Better give than not have to give.Italian Proverb.
E meglio domandar che errare—Better ask than lose your way.Italian Proverb.
E meglio esse fortunato che savio—’Tis better to be born fortunate than wise.Italian Proverb.
E meglio esser uccel di bosco che di gabbia—Better to be a bird in the wood than one in the cage.Italian Proverb.
E meglio il cuor felice che la borsa—Better the heart happy than the purse (full).Italian Proverb.
E meglio lasciare che mancare—Better leave than lack.Italian Proverb.
E meglio perder la sella che il cavallo—Better lose the saddle than the horse.Italian Proverb.
E meglio sdrucciolare col piè che con la lingua—Better slip with the foot than the tongue.Italian Proverb.
E meglio senza cibo restar che senz’ onore—Better be without food than without honour.Italian Proverb.
E meglio una volta che mai—Better once than never.Italian Proverb.
E meglio un buon amico che cento parente—One true friend is better than a hundred relations.Italian Proverb.
[Greek]—Wisdom never contemplates what wilt make a happy man.Aristotle.
Emere malo quam rogare—I had rather buy than beg.
Emerge from unnatural solitude, look abroad for wholesome sympathy, bestow and receive.Dickens.
Emeritus—One retired from active official duties.
Emerson tells us to hitch our waggon to a star; and the star is without doubt a good steed, when once fairly caught and harnessed, but it takes an astronomer to catch it.John Borroughs.
Emerson wants Emersonian epigrams from Carlyle, and Carlyle wants Carlylean thunder from Emerson. The thing which a man’s nature calls him to do, what else is so well worth his doing?John Borroughs.
Eminent positions are like the summits of rocks; only eagles and reptiles can get there.Mme. Necker.
Eminent stations make great men greater and little men less.La Bruyère.
Emori nolo, sed me esse mortuum nihil curo—I would not die, but care not to be dead.Cæsar.
Emotion is always new.Victor Hugo.
Emotion is the atmosphere in which thought is steeped, that which lends to thought its tone or temperature, that to which thought is often indebted for half its power.H. R. Haweis.
Emotion, not thought, is the sphere of music; and emotion quite as often precedes as follows thought.H. R. Haweis.
Emotion turning back on itself, and not leading on to thought or action, is the element of madness.John Sterling.
[Greek]—When I am dead the earth will be mingled with fire.Anonymous.
Empfindliche Ohren sind, bei Mädchen so gut als bei Pferden, gute Gesundheitszeichen—In maidens as well as in horses, sensitive ears are signs of good health.Jean Paul.
Empires and nations flourish and decay, / By turns command, and in their turns obey.Ovid.
Empires are only sandhills in the hour-glass of Time; they crumble spontaneously by the process of their own growth.Draper.
Empires flourish till they become commercial, and then they are scattered abroad to the four winds.William Blake.
Empirical sciences prosecuted simply for their own sake, and without a philosophic tendency, resemble a face without eyes.Schopenhauer.
Employment and hardships prevent melancholy.Johnson.
Employment gives health, sobriety, and morals.Daniel Webster.
Employment is enjoyment.Proverb.
Employment is Nature’s physician, and is essential to human happiness.Galen.
Employ thy time well if thou meanest to gain leisure, and, since you are not sure of a minute, throw not away an hour.Ben. Franklin.
[Greek]—Fear hamper speech.Demades.
Empressement—Ardour; warmth.French.
Empta dolore docet experientia—Experience bought with pain teaches effectually.Proverb.
Empty vessels make the most noise.Proverb.
Emulation admires and strives to imitate great actions; envy is only moved to malice.Balzac.
Emulation, even in the brutes, is sensitively nervous; see the tremor of the thoroughbred racer before he starts.Bulwer Lytton.
E multis paleis paulum fructus collegi—Out of much chaff I have gathered little grain.Proverb.
Emunctæ naris—Of nice discernment (lit. scent).Horace.
[Greek].—One, but a lion.Æsop.
En ami—As a friend.French.
En amour comme en amitié, un tiers souvent nous embarrasse—A third person is often an annoyance to us in love as in friendship.Proverb.
En arriére—In the rear.French.
En attendant—In the meantime.French.
En avant—Forward; on.French.
En badinant—In jest.French.
En beau—In a favourable light.French.
En bloc—In a lump.French.
En boca cerrada no entra mosca—Flies don’t enter a shut mouth.Spanish Proverb.
En bon train—In a fair way.French.
En buste—Half-length.French.
En cada tierra su uso—Every country has its own custom.Spanish Proverb.
Encouragement after censure is as the sun after a shower.Goethe.
En cuéros—Naked.Spanish.
Endeavouring, by logical argument, to prove the existence of God, were like taking out a candle to look for the sun.Carlyle, after Kant.
Endeavour not to settle too many habits at once, lest by variety you confound them, and so perfect none.Locke.
En dernier ressort—As a last resource.French.
En déshabille—In an undress.French.
En Dieu est ma fiance—In God is my trust.Motto.
En Dieu est tout—All depends on God.Motto.
Endurance is nobler than strength, and patience than beauty.Ruskin.
Endurance is the crowning quality, and patience all the passion, of great hearts.Lowell.
En échelon—Like steps.French.
En effet—In fact; substantially.French.
Ene i Raad, ene i Sorg—Alone in counsel, alone in sorrow.Danish Proverb.
En el rio do no hay pezes por demas es echar redes—It is in vain to cast nets in a river where there are no fish.Spanish Proverb.
En émoi—In a flutter or ferment.French.
Energy may be turned to bad uses; but more good may always be made of an energetic nature than of an indolent and impassive one.J. S. Mill.
Energy will do anything that can be done in this world; no talents, no circumstances, no opportunities will make a two-legged animal a man without it.Goethe.
[Greek]—In great acts it is not our strength but our good fortune that has triumphed.Pindar.
En famille—In a domestic state.French.
Enfant gâté du monde qu’il gâtait—A child spoiled by the world which he spoiled.Said of Voltaire.
Enfants de famille—Children of the family.French.
Enfants perdus—The forlorn hope (lit. lost children).French.
Enfants terribles—Dreadful children; precocious youths who say and do rash things to the annoyance of their more conservative seniors.French.
Enfant trouvé—A foundling.French.
Enfermer le loup dans la bergerie—To shut up the wolf in the sheepfold; to patch up a wound or a disease.French Proverb.
En fin les renards se trouvent cher le pelletier—Foxes come to the furrier’s in the end.French Proverb.
Enflamed with the study of learning and the admiration of virtue; stirred up with high hopes of living to be brave men and worthy patriots, dear to God, and famous to all ages.Milton.
En foule—In a crowd.French.
England expects this day that every man shall do his duty.Nelson, his signal at Trafalgar.
England is a domestic country: here home is revered and the hearth sacred.Disraeli.
England is a paradise for women and a hell for horses; Italy a paradise for horses and a hell for women.Burton.
England is safe if true within itself.3 Henry VI., iv. 1.
English speech, the sea that receives tributaries from every region under heaven.Emerson.
En grace affié—On grace depend.French.
En grande tenue—In full dress.French.
En habiles gens—Like able men.French.
Enjoying things which are pleasant, that is not the evil; it is the reducing of our moral self to slavery by them that is.Carlyle.
Enjoyment soon wearies both itself and us; effort, never.Jean Paul.
Enjoyment stops when indolence begins.Pollock.
Enjoy the blessings of this day, if God sends them, and the evils bear patiently and sweetly. For this day only is ours; we are dead to yesterday and we are not born to to-morrow.Jeremy Taylor.
Enjoy what God has given thee, and willingly dispense with what thou hast not. Every condition has its own joys and sorrows.Gellert.
Enjoy what thou hast inherited from thy sires if thou wouldst possess it; what we employ not is an oppressive burden; what the moment brings forth, that only can it profit by.Goethe.
Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must.Goethe.
Enjoy your little while the fool is seeking for more.Spanish Proverb.
Enjoy your own life without comparing it with that of another.Condorcet.
En la cour du roi chacun y est pour soi—In the court of the king it is every one for himself.French Proverb.
Enlarge not thy destiny; endeavour not to do more than is given thee in charge.Greek Oracle.
En la rose je fleuris—In the rose I flourish.Motto.
En mariage, comme ailleurs, contentement passe richesse—In marriage, as in other states, contentment is better than riches.Molière.
En masse—In a body.French.
En mauvaise odeur—In bad repute.French.
Ennemi ne s’endort—An enemy does not go to sleep.French Proverb.
Ennui has perhaps made more gamblers than avarice, more drunkards than thirst, and perhaps as many suicides as despair.Colton.
Ennui is a growth of English root, though nameless in our language.Byron.
Ennui is a word which the French invented, though of all nations in Europe they know the least of it.Bancroft.
Ennui is our greatest enemy.Justus Möser.
Ennui is the desire of activity without the fit means of gratifying the desire.Bancroft.
Ennui shortens life and bereaves the day of its light.Emerson.
Ennui, the parent of expensive and ruinous vices.Ninon de l’Enclos.
Enough is as good as a feast.Proverb.
Enough is better than too much.Proverb.
Enough is great riches.Danish Proverb.
Enough is the wild-goose-chase of most men’s lives.Brothers Mayhew.
Enough—no foreign foe could quell / Thy soul, till from itself it fell; / Yes, self-abasement paved the way / To villain bonds and despot sway.Byron.
Enough requires too much; too much craves more.Quarles.
En papillote.—In curl-papers.French.
En parole je vis—I live by the word.French.
En passant—By the way.French.
En pension—Board at a pension.French.
En petit champ croît bien bon blé—Very good corn grows in a little field.French Proverb.
En peu d’heure Dieu labeure—God works in moments, i.e., His work is soon done.French.
En plein jour—In open day.French.
En potence—In the form of a gallows.French.
En présence—In sight of each other.French.
En queue—Behind.
Enquire not what is in another man’s pot.Proverb.
En rapport—In relation; in connection.French.
En règle—According to rules.French.
En resumé—Upon the whole.French.
En revanche—In revenge; to return; to make amends.French.
En route—On the way.French.
En salvo está el que repica—He is in safe quarters who sounds the alarm.Spanish Proverb.
Ense et aratro—With sword and plough.Motto.
En suite—In company.French.
En suivant la vérité—In following the truth.French.
Entente cordiale—A good or cordial understanding.French.
Enthusiasm begets enthusiasm.Longfellow.
Enthusiasm flourishes in adversity, kindles in the hour of danger, and awakens to deeds of renown.Dr. Chalmers.
Enthusiasm gives life to what is invisible, and interest to what has no immediate action on our comfort in this world.Madame de Staël.
Enthusiasm imparts itself magnetically, and fuses all into one happy and harmonious unity of feeling and sentiment.A. B. Alcott.
Enthusiasm is grave, inward, self-controlled; mere excitement, outward, fantastical, hysterical, and passing in a moment from tears to laughter.John Sterling.
Enthusiasm is the genius of sincerity, and truth accomplishes no victories without it.Bulwer Lytton.
Enthusiasm is the height of man; it is the passing from the human to the divine.Emerson.
Enthusiasm is the leaping lightning, not to be measured by the horse-power of the understanding.Emerson.
Entienda primero, y habla postrero—Hear first and speak afterwards.Spanish Proverb.
Entire affection hateth nicer hands.Spenser.
Entire love is a worship and cannot be angry.Leigh Hunt.
[Greek]—The happiest life consists in knowing nothing.Sophocles.
Entourage—Surroundings.French.
En toute chose il faut considérer la fin—In everything we must consider the end.French.
Entre chien et loup—In the dusk (lit. between dog and wolf).French.
Entre deux vins—To be half-seas over; to be mellow.French.
Entre esprit et talent il y a la proportion du tout à sa partie—Wit is to talent as a whole to a part.La Bruyère.
Entre le bon sens et le bon goût il y a la différence de la cause à son effet—Between good sense and good taste, there is the same difference as that between cause and effect.La Bruyère.
Entre nos ennemis les plus à craindre sont souvent les plus petits—Of our enemies, the smallest are often the most to be dreaded.La Fontaine.
Entre nous—Between ourselves.French.
Entzwei und gebiete—Divide and rule.German Proverb.
Entzwei und gebiete! Tüchtig Wort: Verein’ und leite, Bessrer Hort—Divide and rule, an excellent motto: unite and lead, a better.
En vérité—In truth.
En vérité l’amour ne saurait être profond, s’il n’est pas pur—Love, in fact, can never be deep unless it is pure.
En vieillissant on devient plus fou et plus sage—As men grow old they become both foolisher and wiser.French Proverb.
En villig Hielper töver ei til man beder—One who is willing to help does not wait till he is asked.Danish Proverb.
Envy, among other ingredients, has a mixture of the love of justice in it. We are more angry at undeserved than at deserved good fortune.Hazlitt.
Envy does not enter an empty house.Danish Proverb.
Envy feels not its own happiness but by comparison with the misery of others.Johnson.
Envy, if surrounded on all sides by the brightness of another’s prosperity, like the scorpion confined with a circle of fire, will sting itself to death.Colton.
Envy is a passion so full of cowardice and shame, that nobody ever had the confidence to own it.Rochester.
Envy is ignorance.Emerson.
Envy is littleness of soul.Hazlitt.
Envy is more irreconcilable than hatred.La Rochefoucauld.
Envy is the antagonist of the fortunate.Epictetus.
Envy is the deformed and distorted offspring of egotism.Hazlitt.
Envy is the most acid fruit that grows on the stock of sin, a fluid so subtle that nothing but the fire of divine love can purge it from the soul.H. Ballou.
Envy, like the worm, never runs but to the fairest fruit; like a cunning bloodhound, it singles out the fattest deer in the flock.J. Beaumont.
Envy ne’er does a gude turn but when it means an ill ane.Scotch Proverb.
Envy will merit as its shade pursue, / But, like a shadow, proves the substance true.Pope.
Eodem collyrio mederi omnibus—To cure all by the same ointment.
Eo instanti—At that instant.
Eo magis præfulgebat quod non videbatur—He shone the brighter that he was not seen.Tacitus.
Epicuri de grege porcus—A pig of the flock of Epicurus.
[Greek]—In general men do wrong whenever circumstances enable them.Aristotle.
E pluribus unum—One of many.
“Eppur si muove”—Yet it moves.Galileo, after he had been forced to swear that the earth stood still.
Equality (Gleichheit) is always the firmest bond of love.Lessing.
Equality (i.e., in essential nature) is the sacred law of humanity.Schiller.
Eques ipso melior Bellerophonte—A letter horseman than Bellerophon himself.Horace.
Equi et poetæ alendi, non saginandi—Horses and poets should be fed, not pampered.Charles IX. of France.
Equity is a roguish thing; for law we have a measure … (but) equity is according to the conscience of him who is chancellor, and, as that is larger or narrower, so is equity.Selden.
Equity judges with lenity, laws with severity.Scott.