James Wood, comp. Dictionary of Quotations. 1899.
La décence to Laudant quod non
La décence est le teint naturel de la vertu, et le fard du vice—Decency is the natural complexion of virtue and the deceptive guise of vice.French Proverb.
La défense est un charme; on dit qu’elle assaisonne les plaisirs, et surtout ceux que l’amour nous donne—Prohibition acts as a charm; it is said to give a zest to pleasures, especially to those which love imparts.La Fontaine.
La diffidenza è la madre della sicurtà—Diffidence (caution) is the mother of safety.Italian Proverb.
La dissimulation la plus innocente n’est jamais sans inconvénient; criminel ou non, l’artifice est toujours dangereux, et presque inévitablement nuisible—Dissimulation, even the most innocent, is always embarrassing; whether with evil intent or not, artifice is always dangerous, and almost inevitably disgraceful.La Bruyère.
La docte antiquité est toujours vénérable, / Je ne la trouve pas cependant adorable—To the learning of antiquity I always pay due veneration, but I do not therefore adore it as sacred.Boileau.
La donna è mobile—Woman is inconstant.Italian.
La durée de nos passions ne dépend pas plus de nous que la durée de notre vie—The duration of our passions no more depends upon ourselves than the duration of our lives.La Rochefoucauld.
La faiblesse de l’ennemi fait notre propre force—The weakness of the enemy forms part of our own strength.Proverb.
La faim chasse le loup hors du bois—Hunger drives the wolf out of the wood.French Proverb.
La fama degli eroi spetta un quarto alla loro audacia, due quarti alla sorte e l’altro quarto ai loro delitti—Great men owe a fourth part of their fame to their daring, two-fourths to fortune, and the remaining fourth to their crimes.U. Foscolo.
La farina del Diavolo, va tutta in crusca—The devil’s meal turns all to chaff.Spanish.
La farine du diable s’en va moitié en son—The devil’s meal goes half to bran.French Proverb.
La faveur met l’homme au-dessus de ses égaux; et sa chute au-dessous—Favour exalts a man above his equals, and his fall or disgrace beneath them.La Bruyère.
La femme est l’élément le plus moral de l’humanité—Woman is the element in humanity that has the most moral power. (?)
La feuille tombe à terre, ainsi tombe la beauté—The leaf falls to earth, so also does beauty.
La finesse n’est ni une trop bonne ni une très mauvaise qualité: elle flotte entre le vice et la vertu; il n’y a point de rencontre où elle ne puisse, et peut-être où elle ne doive être suppléée par la prudence—Finesse is neither a very good nor yet a very bad quality. It hovers between vice and virtue, and there are few occasions in which it cannot be, and perhaps ought not to be superseded by common prudence.La Bruyère.
La fleur des pois—The tip-top of fashion.French.
La force, proprement dite, c’est-ce qui régit les actes, sans régler les volontés—Force, strictly speaking, is that which rules the actions without regulating the will. (?)
La fortune du pot—Pot-luck.French.
La fortune passe partout—The vicissitudes of fortune are felt everywhere.Motto.
La fortune vend ce qu’on croit qu’elle donne—Fortune sells what we think she gives.French Proverb.
La France est une monarchie absolue, tempérée par des chansons—France is an absolute monarchy tempered by epigrams.Quoted by Chamfort.
La France marche à la tête de la civilisation—France leads the van in the civilisation of the world.Guizot.
La garde meurt et ne se rend pas—The guard dies but does not surrender.Ascribed to Gen. Cambronne at Waterloo.
La générosité suit la belle naissance; / La pitié l’accompagne et la reconnaissance—Generosity follows in the train of high birth; pity and gratitude are attendants.Corneille.
La gola e’l sonno e l’oziose piume / Hanno del mondo ogni vertù sbandita—Lust, sleep, and idleness have banished every virtue out of the world.Petrarch.
La goutte de rosée à l’herbe suspendue, / y réfléchit un ciel aussi vaste, aussi pur, / Que l’immense océan dans ses plaines d’azur—The drop of dew which hangs suspended from the grass-blade reflects a heaven as vast and pure as the ocean does in its wide azure plains.Lamartine.
La grammaire, qui sait régenter jusqu’aux rois—Grammar, that knows how to lord it even over kings.Molière.
La grande nation—The great nation.Napoleon when General Bonaparte, of France.
La grande sagesse de l’homme consiste à connaître ses folies—It is in the knowledge of his follies that man shows his superior wisdom.French Proverb.
La guerre ou l’amour—War or love.Motto.
La jeunesse devrait être une caisse d’épargne—Youth ought to be a savings’ bank.Mme. Swetchine.
La jeunesse vit d’espérance, la vieillesse de souvenir—Youth lives on hope, old age on memory.French Proverb.
La justice de nos jugements et de nos actions n’est jamais que la rencontre heureuse de notre intérêt avec l’intérêt public—The justice of our judgment and actions is never anything but the happy coincidence of our private with the public interest.Helvetius.
La justice et la vérité sont deux pointes si subtiles, que nos instrumens sont trop émoussés pour y toucher exactement—Justice and truth are two points so fine that our instruments are too blunt to touch them exactly.Pascal.
La langue des femmes est leur épée, et elles ne la laissent pas rouiller—The tongue of a woman is her sword, which she seldom suffers to rust.French Proverb.
La légalité nous tue—Legality will be the death of us.M. Viennet.
La libéralité consiste moins à donner beaucoup, qu’à donner à-propos—Liberality consists less in giving a great deal than in giving seasonably.La Bruyère.
La libertad es la juventud eterna de las naciones—Liberty is the eternal youth of the nations.Gen. Foy.
La liberté, convive aimable, / Met les deux coudes sur la table—Liberty, an amiable guest, puts both her elbows upon the table, i.e., is free and at her ease.Voltaire.
La liberté est ancienne; c’est le despotisme qui est nouveau—Liberty is of ancient date; it is despotism that is new.French.
La lingua batte dove la dente duole—The tongue strikes where the tooth aches.Italian Proverb.
La loi ne saurait égaliser les hommes malgré la nature—The law cannot equalise men in spite of nature.Vauvenargues.
La maladie sans maladie.—The disease without disease, i.e., hypochondria.French.
La manière de former les idées est ce qui donne caractère à l’esprit humain—It is the way in which our ideas are formed that a character is imparted to our minds.Rousseau.
La marque d’un mérite extraordinaire est de voir que ceux qui l’envient le plus, sont contraints de le louer—The proof of superior merit is to see how those who envy it most are constrained to praise it.French.
La menzogna c’insegue anche sotterra—Falsehood follows us even into the grave.Giuseppe Nicolini.
La mode est un tyran dont rien nous délivre, / A son bizarre goût il faut s’accommoder—Fashion is a tyrant from which there is no deliverance; all must conform to its whimsical taste.French.
La modération des faibles est médiocrité—The moderation of the weak is mediocrity.Vauvenargues.
La moitié du monde prend plaisir à médire, et l’autre moitié à croire les médisances—One half of the world takes delight in slander, and the other half in believing it.French Proverb.
La moltiplicità delle leggi e dei medici in un paese sono egualmente segni di malore di quello—A multiplicity of laws and a multiplicity of physicians in any country are proofs alike of its bad state.Italian Proverb.
La montagne est passée, nous irons mieux—We are over the hill; we shall go better now.Frederick the Great’s last words.
La moquerie est souvent indigence d’esprit—Derision is often poverty of wit.La Bruyère.
La morale trop austère se fait moins aimer qu’elle ne se fait craindre; et qui veut qu’on profite de ses leçons donne envie de les entendre—Morality when too austere makes itself less loved than feared; and he who wishes others to profit from its lessons should awaken a desire to listen to them.French.
La mort est plus aisée à supporter sans y penser, que la pensée de la mort sans péril—Death is more easy to bear when it comes without thought of it, than the thought of it without the risk of it.Pascal.
La mort ne surprend point le sage; / Il est toujours prêt à partir, / S’étant su lui-même avertir / Du temps où l’on se doit résoudre à ce passage—Death is no surprise to the wise man; he is always ready to depart, having learnt to anticipate the time when be must make up his mind to take this last journey.La Fontaine.
La musique seule est d’une noble inutilité, et c’est pour cela qu’elle nous émeut si profondément; plus elle est loin de tout but, plus elle se rapproche de cette source intime de nos pensées que l’application à un objet quelconque reserve dans son cours—Music alone is nobly non-utilitarian, and that is why it moves us so profoundly; the further it is removed from serving any purpose, the nearer it approaches that inner spring of our thoughts which the application to any object whatever hampers in its course.Madame de Staël.
La naissance n’est rien où la vertu n’est pas—Birth is nothing where virtue is not.Molière.
La nation en deuil—The nation in mourning.Montalembert on Poland.
La nation ne fait pas corps en France; elle réside toute entière dans la personne du roy—In France the nation is not a corporate body; it resides entirely in the person of the king.Louis XIV.
La nature a donné deux garants de la chastité des femmes, la pudeur et les remords; la confession les prive de l’un, et l’absolution de l’autre—Nature has given two safeguards for female chastity, modesty and remorse, but confession deprives them of the one and absolution of the other.French.
La nature aime les croisements—Nature is partial to cross-breedings.Fourier.
La nature est juste envers les hommes—Nature is just to men.Montesquieu.
La nature s’imite—Nature imitates herself.Pascal.
La nuit porte conseil—The night brings good counsel.French Proverb.
Là ou ailleurs—There or elsewhere.Motto.
Là où la chèvre est attachée, il faut qu’elle broute—The goat must browse where it is tethered.French Proverb.
La parfaite valeur est de faire sans témoins ce qu’on serait capable de faire devant tout le monde—Sterling worth shows itself in doing unseen what we would be capable of doing in the eye of the world.La Rochefoucauld.
La parole a été donnée à l’homme pour déguiser sa pensée—Speech has been given to man to conceal his thought.Voltaire.
La passion déprave, mais elle élève aussi—Passion depraves, but it also elevates.Lamartine.
La passion fait souvent un fou du plus habile homme, et rend souvent habiles les plus sots—Love often makes a fool of the cleverest man, and often gives cleverness to the most foolish.La Rochefoucauld.
La patience est amère, mais le fruit en est doux—Patience is bitter, but it yields sweet fruit.Rousseau.
La patience est l’art d’espérer—Patience is the art of hoping.Vauvenargues.
La patience est le remède le plus sûre contre les calomnies: le temps, tôt ou tard, découvre la vérité—Patience is the surest antidote against calumny; time, sooner or later, will disclose the truth.French.
La patrie veut être servie, et non pas dominée—Our country requires us to serve her, and not to lord it over her.French.
La pauvreté n’est pas un péché, / Mieux vaut cependant la cacher—Poverty is not a sin; but it is better to hide it.French Proverb.
La perfection marche lentement, il lui faut la main du temps—Perfection is attained by slow degrees; she requires the hand of time.Voltaire.
La peur est un grand inventeur—Fear is a great inventor.French Proverb.
La philosophie non seulement dissipe nos inquiétudes, mais elle nous arme contre tous les coups de la fortune—Philosophy not only dissipates our anxieties, but it arms us against the buffets of fortune.French.
La philosophie qui nous promet de nous rendre heureux, trompe—Philosophy, so far as she promises us happiness, deceives us.French.
La philosophie triomphe aisément des maux passés, et des maux à venir; mais les maux présents triomphent d’elle—Philosophy triumphs easily enough over misfortunes that are past and to come, but present misfortunes triumph over her.La Rochefoucauld.
La plupart des hommes, pour arriver à leurs fins, sont plus capables d’un grand effort que d’une longue persévérance—To attain their ends most people are more capable of a great effort than of continued perseverance.La Bruyère.
La plupart des peuples, ainsi que des hommes, ne sont dociles que dans leur jeunesse; ils deviennent incorrigibles en vieillisant—Most nations, as well as men, are impressible only in their youth; they become incorrigible as they grow old.Rousseau.
La plupart des troubles de ce monde sont grammairiens—The majority of the troubles in this world are the fault of the grammarian.Montaigne.
La plus belle victoire est de vaincre son cœur—The noblest victory is to conquer one’s own heart.La Fontaine.
La plus courte folie est toujours la meilleure—The short folly is always the best.French.
La plus part des hommes emploient la première partie de leur vie à rendre l’autre misérable—The generality of men expend the early part of their lives in contributing to render the latter part miserable.La Bruyère.
La plus part des hommes n’ont pas le courage de corriger les autres, parcequ’ils n’ont pas le courage de souffrir qu’on les corrige—The generality of mankind have not the courage to correct others, because they have not themselves the courage to bear correction.
La poesia non muore—Poetry does not die.B. Zendrini.
La politesse est l’art de rendre à chacun sans effort ce que lui est socialement dû—Politeness is the art of rendering spontaneously to every one that which is his due as a member of society.French.
La popularité c’est la gloire en gros sous—Popularity is glory in penny-pieces.Victor Hugo.
La prière est un cri d’espérance—Prayer is a cry of hope.A. de Musset.
La propriété c’est le vol—Property, that is theft.Proudhon.
La propriété exclusive est un vol dans la nature—Exclusive ownership is a theft in nature.French.
La prospérité fait peu d’amis—Prosperity makes few friends.Vauvenargues.
La raison du plus fort est toujours la meilleure—The argument of the strongest is always the best, i.e., has most weight.La Fontaine.
La raison émancipée n’a pas nui à la cause de Dieu; elle l’a servie—The emancipation of reason has not injured the cause of God; it has promoted it.V. Cousin.
La raison seule peut faire des lois obligatoires et durables—Reason alone can render laws binding and stable.Mirabeau.
La recherche de la paternité est interdite—Investigation of paternity is forbidden.Code Napoléon.
La recherche du vrai, et la pratique du bien, sont les deux objets les plus importants de la philosophie—The pursuit of what is true and the practice of what is good are the two most important objects of philosophy.Voltaire.
La reconnaissance est un fardeau, et tout fardeau est fait pour être secoué—Gratitude is a burden, and every burden is made to be shaken off.Diderot.
La réputation d’un homme est comme son ombre, qui tantôt le suit, et tantôt le précède; quelquefois elle est plus longue, et quelquefois plus courte que lui—A man’s reputation is like his shadow, which sometimes follows, sometimes precedes him, and which is occasionally longer, occasionally shorter than he is.French.
La roche Tarpéienne est près du Capitole—The Tarpeian rock is near the Capitol, i.e., the place of execution is near the scene of triumph.Jouy-Spontini.
La ruse est le talent des égoistes, et ne peut tromper que les sots que prennent la turbulence pour l’esprit, la gravité pour la prudence, effronterie pour le talent, l’orgueil pour la dignité?—Cunning is the accomplishment of the selfish, and can only impose upon silly people, who take bluster for sense, gravity for prudence, effrontery for talent, and pride for dignity.Mirabeau.
La sage conduite roule sur deux pivots, le passé et l’avenir—Prudent conduct turns on two pivots, the past and the future, i.e., on a faithful memory and forethought.La Bruyère.
La sauce vaut mieux que le poisson—The sauce is better than the fish.French Proverb.
La science du gouvernement n’est qu’une science de combinaisons, d’applications et d’exceptions, selon le temps, les lieux, les circonstances—The science of government is only a science of combinations, applications, and exceptions, according to time, place, and circumstance.Rousseau.
La seule vertu distingue les hommes, dès qu’ils sont morts—By their virtues alone are men distinguished after they are dead.L’ Abbé de Choisy.
La silence est la vertu de ceux qui ne sont pas sages—Silence is the virtue of the foolish.Bouhours.
La speranza è l’ultima ch’abbandona l’infelice—Hope is the last to abandon the unhappy.Italian Proverb.
La tempérance et le travail sont les deux vrais médicins de l’homme—Temperance and labour are the two real physicians of man.Rousseau.
La terre est couverte de gens qui ne méritent pas qu’on leur parle—The earth swarms with people who are not worth talking to.Voltaire.
La verdad es hlia de Dios—Truth is the daughter of God.Spanish Proverb.
La verdad es sempre verde—Truth is always green.Spanish Proverb.
La vérité est cachée au fond du puits—Truth is hidden at the bottom of a well.French Proverb.
La vérité ne fait pas autant de bien dans le monde que ses apparences y font de mal—Truth does not produce so much good in the world as the hypocritical profession of it does mischief.French.
La vertu a des appas qui nous portent au véritable bonheur—Virtue has attractions which lead us to true happiness.French.
La vertu dans l’indigence est comme un voyageur, que le vent et la pluie contraignent de s’envelopper de son manteau—Virtue in want is like a traveller who is compelled by the wind and rain to wrap himself up in his cloak.French Proverb.
La vertù è simile ai profume, che rendono più grato ordore quando triturati—Virtue is like certain perfumes, which yield a more agreeable odour from being rubbed.Italian.
La vertu est la seule noblesse—Virtue is the only true nobility.Motto.
La vertu est partout la même; c’est qu’elle vient de Dieu, et le reste est des hommes—Virtue is everywhere the same; the reason is it proceeds from God, and the rest is from men.Voltaire.
La vertu fut toujours en minorité sur la terre—Virtue has ever been in the minority on earth.Robespierre.
La vertu n’iroit pas si loin, si la vanité ne lui tenait compagnie—Virtue would not go so far if vanity did not bear her company.La Rochefoucauld.
La vicinanza de’ grandi sempre è pericolosa ai picoli; sono grandi come il fuoco, che brucia eziandio quei che vi gettano dell’ incenso se troppo vi si approsimino—The neighbourhood of the great is always dangerous to the little. The great are to them as a fire which scorches those who approach it too nearly.Italian.
La vida es corta y la esperanza larga, / El bien huye de mi y el mal se alarga—Life is short, yet hope endures; good flies off, but evil ever lurks about.Luis de Góngora.
La vie des héros a enrichi l’histoire, et l’histoire a embelli les actions des héros—The lives of heroes have enriched history, and history has embellished the exploits of heroes.La Bruyère.
La vieillesse nous attache plus de rides en l’esprit qu’en visage—Old age contracts more wrinkles on the mind than the countenance.Montaigne.
La ville est le séjour de profanes humains, les dieux habitent la campagne—Towns are the dwelling-places of profane mortals; the gods inhabit rural retreats.Rousseau.
La violence est juste où la douceur est vaine—Force is legitimate where gentleness avails not.Corneille.
La volontà è tutto—The will is everything.Italian Proverb.
La vraie science et le vrai étude de l’homme, c’est l’homme—The real science and the real study for man, is man himself.Charron.
Labitur et labetur in omne volubilis ævum—The stream flows, and will go on flowing for ever.Horace.
Labitur occulte, fallitque volubilis ætas—Time glides on stealthily, and eludes us as it steals past.Ovid.
Labor ipse voluptas—Labour itself is a pleasure.Motto.
Labor omnia vincit / Improbus, et duris urgens in rebus egestas—Persevering labour overcomes all difficulties, and want that urges us on in the pressure of things.Virgil.
Laborare est orare—Work is worship (lit. to labour is to pray).Monkish Proverb.
Labore—By labour.Motto.
Labore et honore—By labour and honour.Motto.
Labore vinces—By labour you will conquer.Motto.
Laborum dulce lenimen—The sweet soother of my toils.Horace, to his lyre.
Labour bestowed on nothing is fruitless.Hitopadesa.
Labour endears rest, and both together are absolutely necessary for the proper enjoyment of human existence.Burns.
Labour for labour’s sake is against nature.Locke.
Labour has a bitter root but a sweet taste.Danish Proverb.
Labour is exercise continued to fatigue; exercise is labour used only while it produces pleasure.Johnson.
Labour is life. From the inmost heart of the worker rises his God-given force—the sacred celestial life-essence breathed into him by Almighty God.Carlyle.
Labour is preferable to idleness, as brightness to rust.Plato.
Labour is the beginning, the middle, and the end of art.Anonymous.
Labour is the fabled magician’s wand, the philosopher’s stone, and the cap of Fortunatus.J. Johnson.
Labour is the instituted means for the methodical development of all our powers under the direction and control of the will.J. G. Holland.
Labour is the Lethe of both past and present.Jean Paul.
Labour is the ornament of the citizen; the reward of toil is when you confer blessings on others; his high dignity confers honour on the king; be ours the glory of our hands.Schiller.
Labour is the talisman that has raised man from the condition of the savage.M’Culloch.
Labour itself is but a sorrowful song, / The protest of the weak against the strong.Faber.
Labour, if it were not necessary for the existence, would be indispensable for the happiness, of man.Johnson.
Labour, like everything else that is good, is its own reward.Whipple.
Labour like this our want supplies, / And they must stoop who mean to rise.Cowper.
Labour of the hands, even when pursued to the verge of drudgery, is perhaps never the worst form of idleness (for the mind); it has a constant and imperishable moral.Thoreau.
Labour past is pleasant.Proverb.
Labour to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire—conscience.Washington.
Labour, wide as the earth, has its summit in heaven.Carlyle.
Labour with what zeal we will, / Something still remains undone, / Something uncompleted still / Waits the rising of the sun.Longfellow.
Lachen, Weinen, Lust und Schmerz / Sind Geschwister-Kinder—Laughing and weeping, pleasure and pain, are cousins german.Goethe.
Lacrymæque decoræ, / Gratior et pulchro veniens in corpore virtus—His tears, that so well become him, and a merit still more pleasing that shows itself in his fair form.Virgil.
Lactuca innatat acri / Post vinum stomacho—Lettuce after wine floats on the acrid stomach.Horace.
Lad’s love is lassie’s delight, / And if lads won’t love, lassies will flite (scold).Craven.
Lad’s love’s a busk of broom, hot awhile and soon done.Proverb.
Lade nicht alles in ein Schiff—Embark not your all in one venture.German Proverb.
Ladies like variegated tulips show; / ’Tis to their changes half their charms they owe.Pope.
Læso et invicto militi—For our wounded but unconquered soldiery.Inscription on the Berlin Invalidenhaus.
Lætus in præsens animus, quod ultra est / Oderit curare, et amara lento / Temperet risu. Nihil est ab omni / Parte beatum—The mind that is cheerfully contented with the present will shrink from caring about anything beyond, and will temper the bitters of life with an easy smile. There is nothing that is blessed in every respect.Horace.
Lætus sorte tua vives sapienter—You will live wisely if you live contented with your lot.Proverb.
Lætus sum laudari a laudato viro—I am pleased to be praised by a man who is so praised as you are.Cicero.
Laisser dire le monde, et toujours bien faire, c’est une maxime, qui étant bien observée assure notre repos, et établit enfin notre réputation—To let the world talk, and always to act correctly, is a maxim which, if well observed, will secure our repose, and in the end establish our reputation.French.
Laissez dire les sots, le savoir a son prix—Let ignorance talk, learning has its value.La Fontaine.
Laissez faire, laissez passer!—Let it be! Let it pass!Gournay, Quesnay.
Laissez faire—the “let alone” principle, is, in all things which man has to do with, the principle of death. It is ruin to him, certain and total, if he lets his land alone—if he lets his fellow-men alone—if he lets his own soul alone.Ruskin.
Laissez-leur prendre un pied chez vous, / Ils en auront bientôt pris quatre—Let them take one foot in your house, and they will soon have taken four (give them an inch and they will take an ell).La Fontaine.
Lamenting becomes fools, and action wise folk.Sir P. Sidney.
Lampoons and satires, that are written with wit and spirit, are like poisoned darts, which not only inflict a wound, but make it incurable.Addison.
Land is the right basis of an aristocracy. No true aristocracy but must possess the land.Carlyle.
Land of lost gods and godlike men.Byron of Greece.
Land should be given to those who can use it, and tools to those who can use them.Ruskin.
Land was never lost for want of an heir.Proverb.
Lands intersected by a narrow firth / Abhor each other. Mountains interposed / Make enemies of nations, which had else, / Like kindred drops, been mingled into one.Cowper.
Lands mortgaged may return, and more esteemed; / But honesty once pawned is ne’er redeemed.Middleton.
Lang ill, soon weel.Scotch Proverb.
Lang syne, in Eden’s bonny yaird, / When youthfu’ lovers first were pair’d, / And all the soul of love they shared, / The raptured hour, / Sweet on the fragrant flowery swaird, / In shady bower, / Then you, ye auld sneck-drawing (latch-lifting) dog, / Ye cam’ to Paradise incog, / And play’d on man a cursèd brogue, / (Black be your fa’) / And gied the infant warld a shog (shake), / Maist ruin’d a’.Burns, To the Deil.
Langage des halles—Language of the fish-market.French.
Lange ist nicht ewig—Long is not for ever.German Proverb.
Lange Ueberlegungen zeigen gewöhnlich, dass man den Punkt nicht im Auge hat, von dem die Rede ist; übereilte Handlungen, dass man ihn gar nicht kennt—Long pondering on a matter usually indicates that one has not properly got his eye on the point at issue; and too hasty action that he does not know it at all.Goethe.
Langes Leben heisst viele überleben—To live long is to outlive many.Goethe.
Langeweile ist ein böses Kraut / Aber auch eine Würze, die viel verdaut—Ennui is an ill weed, but also a condiment which digests a good deal.Goethe.
Langh festjen is nin brae sperjen—A long fast saves no bread.Frisian Proverb.
Langsam nur im Menschengeiste / Reift das Saatkorn der Erkenntniss, / Doch die Blumen wachsen schnell—The seed-grain of knowledge ripens but slowly in the spirit of man, yet the flowers grow fast.Bodenstedt.
Language at its infancy is all poetry.Emerson.
Language is always wise.Emerson.
Language is fossil poetry.Trench.
Language is not only the vehicle of thought, it is a great and efficient instrument in thinking.Sir H. Davy.
Language is only clear when it is sympathetic.Ruskin.
Language is properly the servant of thought, but not unfrequently it becomes its master.W. B. Clulow.
Language is the armoury of the human mind, and at once contains the trophies of its past, and the weapons of its future, conquests.Coleridge.
Language is the dress of thought.Johnson.
Language is the memory of the human race. It is a thread of nerve of life running through all the ages, connecting them into one common, prolonged, and advancing existence.Wm. Smith.
Language most shows a man; speak that I may see thee.Ben Jonson.
Languages are more properly to be called vehicles of learning than learning itself…. True knowledge consists in knowing things, not words.Lady Montagu.
Languages are the barometers of national thought and character.Hare.
Languages are the pedigree of nations.Johnson.
Lapidary inscriptions should be historical rather than lyrical.Carlyle.
Lapis philosophorum—The philosopher’s stone.
Lapis qui volvitur algam non generat—A rolling stone gathers no moss.Proverb.
Lapsus memoriæ—A slip of the memory.
Lares et penates—Household gods.
Large bodies are far more likely to err than individuals. The passions are inflamed by sympathy; the fear of punishment and the sense of shame are diminished by partition. Every day we see men do for their faction what they would die rather than do for themselves.Macaulay.
Large charity doth never soil, but only whiten, soft white hands.Lowell.
Large fortunes are all founded either on occupation of land, or usury, or taxation of labour.Ruskin.
Large fortunes cannot be made by the work of any one man’s hands or head.Ruskin.
Large masses of mankind, in every society of our Europe, are no longer capable of living at all by the things which have been.Carlyle.
Largitio fundum non habet—Giving has no bottom.Proverb.
Las manos blancas no ofenden—White hands cannot harm one.Spanish Proverb.
Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch’entrate—Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.Dante.
Lascivi soboles gregis—The offspring of a wanton herd.Horace.
Lass das Vergangne vergangen sein—Let what is past be past.Goethe, Faust to Margaret in the end.
Lass deine Zunge nie das Amt des Schwertes führen—Never let thy tongue do the work of the sword. (?)
Lass dich nicht verblüffen—Don’t let yourself be disconcerted.Herder.
Lass die Leute reden und die Hunde bellen—Let the people talk and the dogs bark.German Proverb.
Lass die schwerste Pflicht dir die allerheiligste Pflicht sein—Let the most arduous duty be the most sacred of all to thee.Lavater.
Lass die Winde stürmen auf des Lebens Bahn, / Ob sie Wogen türmen gegen deinen Kahn / Schiffe ruhig weiter, wenn der Mast auch bricht, / Gott ist dein Begleiter, er vergisst dich nicht—Let winds storm on life’s course, even though they swell over and threaten thy skiff. Sail quietly on, even if the mast gives way. God is thy convoy; He forgets thee not.Tiedge.
Lass diesen Handedruck dir sagen / Was unaussprechlich ist—Let this pressure of the hand reveal to thee what is unutterable.Goethe, Faust to Margarite.
Lass ruhn, lass ruhn die Toten, / Du weckst sie mit Klagen nicht auf—Let them rest, let thy dead ones rest, thou awakest them not with thy wailing.Chamisso.
Lasses and glasses are brittle wares.Scotch Proverb.
Lasst fahren hin das allzu Flüchtige! / Ihr sucht bei ihm vergebens Rat! / In dem Vergangnen lebt das Tüchtige / Verewigt sich in schöner That—Let the too transient pass by; ye seek counsel in vain of it. Yet what will avail you lives in the past, and lies immortalised in what has been nobly done.Goethe.
Lasst uns hell denken, so werden wir feurig lieben—Let us think clearly, we shall love ardently.Schiller.
Last come, worst served.
Last in bed, best heard.Proverb.
Last, not least.Julius Cæsar, iii. 1. King Lear, i. 1.
Last scene of all,… / Is second childishness and mere oblivion; / Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.As You Like It, ii. 7.
Late children are early orphans.Spanish Proverb.
Late fruit keeps well.German Proverb.
Lateat scintillula forsan—A small spark may perhaps lurk unseen.Motto.
Laterem laves—You may as well wash a clay brick white.Terence.
Latet anguis in herba—There is a snake in the grass.Virgil.
[Greek]—Remain hidden in life.Epicurus.
Latitat—He lurks; a writ of summons.Law.
Latius regnes, avidum domando / Spiritum, quam si Libyam remotis / Gadibus jungas, et uterque Pœnus / Serviat uni—By subduing an avaricious spirit you will rule a wider empire than if you united Lybia to the far-off Gades, and the Carthaginian on both shores should be subject to you alone.Horace.
Latrante uno, latrat statim et alter canis—When one dog barks, another straightway begins to bark too.Proverb.
Latrantem curatne alta Diana canem?—Does the high-stepping Diana care for the dog that bays her?Proverb.
Laudant quod non intelligunt—They praise what they don’t understand.