James Wood, comp. Dictionary of Quotations. 1899.
Utopia to Virtue is the queen
Utopia—An imaginary republic nowhere existing.
Utque alios industria, ita hunc ignavia ad famam protulerat—While other men have attained to fame by their industry, this man has by his indolence.Tacitus.
Utrum horum mavis accipe—Take which you prefer.
Utrumque vitium est, et omnibus credere et nulli—It is equally an error to confide in all and in none.Seneca.
Uttered out of time, or concealed in its season, good savoureth of evil.Tupper.
Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath, / That the rude sea grew civil at her song, / And certain stars shot madly from their spheres / To hear the sea-maid’s music.Mid. N.’s Dream, iii. 2.
Uxorem, Posthume, ducis? / Dic qua Tisiphone, quibus exagitare colubris—Are you marrying a wife, Posthumous? By what Fury, say, by what snakes are you driven mad?Juvenal.
Uxori nubere nolo meæ—I will not marry a wife to be my master.Martial.
Vache ne sait ce que vaut sa queue jusqu’à ce-qu’elle l’ait perdue—The cow doesn’t know the worth of her tail until she has lost it.Proverb.
Vacuus cantat coram latrone viator—The traveller with an empty purse sings in the face of the robber.Juvenal.
Vade in pace—Go in peace.
Vade mecum—Go with me; a constant companion; a manual.
Vade retro!—Avaunt!
Væ victis!—Woe (i.e., extermination) to the conquered!
Vaillant et veillant—Valiant and on the watch.Motto.
Vain for the rude craftsman to attempt the beautiful; only one diamond can polish another.Goethe.
Vain hope to make people happy by politics!Carlyle.
Vain is the help of man.Bible.
Vain man would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass’s colt.Bible.
Vain men delight in telling what honours have been done them, what great company they have kept, and the like; by which they plainly confess that these honours were more than their due.Swift.
Vain people are loquacious; and proud, taciturn.Schopenhauer.
Vain pomp and glory of this world, I hate ye.Henry VIII., iii. 2.
Vain to send the purblind or blind to the shore of a Pactolus never so golden: these find only gravel; the seer and finder alone picks up golden grains there.Carlyle.
Vain, very vain, my weary search to find / That bliss which only centres in the mind.Goldsmith.
Vainglory blossoms, but never bears.Proverb.
Val meglio piegarsi che rompersi—Better submit than be ruined.Italian Proverb.
Val più un asino vivo che un dottore morto—A living ass is better than a dead doctor.Italian Proverb.
Val più un’ oncia di discrezione che una libra di sapere—An ounce of discretion is worth more than a pound of knowledge.Italian Proverb.
Valeant mendacia vatum—Away with the fictions of poets!Ovid.
Valeat quantum valere potest—Let it pass for what it is worth.
Valeat res ludicra, si me / Palma negata macrum, donata reducit opimum—Farewell to the drama if the palm as it is granted or denied makes me happy or miserable.Horace.
Valet anchora virtus—Virtue is a sure anchor.Motto.
Valet ima summis / Mutare, et insignem attenuat Deus, / Obscura promens—The Deity has power to supplant the highest by the lowest, and he dims the lustre of the exalted by bringing forth to the light things obscure.Horace.
Validius est naturæ testimonium quam doctrinæ argumentum—The testimony of nature is weightier than the arguments of the learned.St. Ambrose.
Valour consists in the power of self-recovery.Emerson.
Valour in distress challenges respect, even from an enemy.Plutarch.
Valour is the fountain of Pity too;—of Truth, and all that is great and good in man.Carlyle.
Valour is worth little without discretion.Proverb.
Valour would cease to be a virtue if there were no injustice.Agesilaus.
Vana quoque ad veros accessit fama timores—Idle rumours were also added to well-founded apprehensions.Lucan.
Vanitas vanitatum, et omnia vanitas—Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.Vulgate.
Vanity and coarse pride give gold; friendship and love give flowers.Grillparzer.
Vanity Fair.Bunyan.
Vanity, however artfully concealed or openly displayed, always counteracts its own purposes.Arliss.
Vanity in an old man is charming. It is a proof of an open nature. Eighty winters have not frozen him up or taught him concealments. In a young person it is simply allowable; we do not expect him to be above it.Bovee.
Vanity is a blue-bottle, which buzzes in the window of the wise.Proverb.
Vanity is of a divisive, not a uniting nature.Carlyle.
Vanity is rather a mark of humility than pride.Swift.
Vanity is so anchored in the heart of man that the lowest drudge must boast and have his admirers; and the philosophers themselves desire the same.Pascal.
Vanity is the food of fools.Swift.
Vanity is the pride of Nature.Proverb.
Vanity is the vice of low minds; a man of spirit is too proud to be vain.Swift.
Vare, Vare, redde mihi legiones meas!—Varus, give me back my legions!Suetonius. Exclamation of Augustus Cæsar on hearing of the slaughter of his troops under Varus by Arminius.
Variæ lectiones—Various readings.
Varietas delectat—Variety is charming.Phædrus.
Variety alone gives joy; / The sweetest meats the soonest cloy.Prior.
Variety is the condition of harmony.J. F. Clarke.
Variety is the mother of enjoyment.Disraeli.
Variety is the principal ingredient in beauty; and simplicity is essential to grandeur.Shenstone.
Variety of mere nothings gives more pleasure than uniformity of somethings.Jean Paul.
Variety’s the very spice of life, / That gives it all its flavour.Cowper.
Variorum notæ—Notes of various authors.
Varium et mutabile semper / Fœmina—Woman is ever changeable and capricious.Virgil.
Vary and intermingle speech of the present occasion with arguments, tales with reasons, asking of questions with telling of opinions, and jest with earnest; for it is a dull thing to tire, and, as we say now, to jade anything too far.Bacon.
Vast chain of being! / From Nature’s chain whatever link you strike / Tenth or ten thousandth breaks the chain alike.Pope.
Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself, / And falls on the other.Macbeth, i. 7.
Vaux mieux avoir affaire à Dieu qu’à ses saints—Better to have dealings with God than his saints.French Proverb.
Vectigalia nervi sunt reipublicæ—Taxes are the sinews of the commonwealth.Cicero.
Vedentem thus et odores—Selling frankincense and perfumes.Horace, of worthless works fated to wrap up parcels.
Vedi Napoli, e pot muori—See Naples and then die.Italian Proverb.
Vehemens in utramque partem, aut largitate nimia aut parsimonia—Ready to rush to either extreme of lavish liberality or niggardly parsimony.Terence.
Veiosque habitante Camillo, / Illic Roma fuit—When Camillus dwelt at Veii, Rome was there.Lucan.
Vel cæco appareat—Even a blind man could perceive it.Proverb.
Vel capillus habet umbram suam—Even a hair has its shadow.Publius Syrus.
Veils et remis—With sails and oars.
Vellem nescire literas!—I wish I never knew how to read or write!Nero on signing a death-warrant.
Velocem tardus assequitur—The slow overtakes the swift.Proverb.
Velocius ac citius nos / Corrumpunt vitiorum exempla domestica, magnis / Cum subeant animos auctoribus—The examples of vice at home more easily and more quickly corrupt us than others, since they steal into our minds under the highest authority.Juvenal.
Velox consilium sequitur pœnitentia—Repentance generally follows hasty counsels.Publius Syrus.
Veluti in speculum—As if in a mirror.
Velvet paws hide sharp claws.Proverb.
Vendere fumos—To sell smoke, or make empty pledges.
Vendetta boccon di Dio—Revenge is a sweet morsel for a god.Italian Proverb.
Veneering oft outshines the solid wood.Burns.
Venerable to me is the hard hand—crooked, coarse—wherein, notwithstanding, lies a cunning virtue, indefeasibly royal, as of the sceptre of this planet. Venerable, too, is the rugged face, all weather-tanned, besoiled, with its rude intelligence; for it is the face of a man living manlike.Carlyle.
Vengeance belongeth unto me; I will recompense, saith the Lord.Bible.
Vengeance has no foresight.Napoleon.
Vengeance (Rache) has no limits, for sin has none.F. Hebbel.
Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.St. Paul.
Vengeance is wild justice.Proverb.
Vengeance taken will often tear the heart and torment the conscience.Schopenhauer.
Veni, Creator Spiritus—Come, Creator Spirit.
Veni, vidi, vici—I came, I saw, I conquered.Julius Cæsar’s despatch to a friend at Rome on his defeat of Pharnaces.
Venia necessitati datur—Pardon is conceded to necessity.Cicero.
Venient annis / Sæcula seris, quibus Oceanus / Vincula rerum laxet, et ingens / Pateat tellus, Tiphysque novos / Detegat orbes; nec sit terris / Ultima thule—In later years a time will come when Ocean shall relax his bars, and a vast territory shall appear, and Tiphys shall discover new worlds, and Thule shall be no longer the remotest spot on earth.Seneca predicting the discovery of America.
Venire facias—Cause to come. (Writ of a sheriff to summon a jury.)Law.
Venit summa dies et ineluctabile tempus / Dardaniæ—The last day and inevitable hour of Troy is come.Virgil.
Vent au visage rend un homme sage—Wind in the face (i.e., adversity) makes a man wise.Proverb.
Ventis secundis—With a fair wind.
Ventre à terre—At full speed; with all one’s might.French.
Ventre affamé n’a point d’oreilles—A hungry belly has no ears.French Proverb.
Ventum ad supremum est—A crisis has come; we are at our last shift.Virgil.
Ventum seminabant et turbinem metent—They were sowing the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.Vulgate.
Venus, if men at sea you save, / And rescue from the whirling wave, / Me too, a lover, I implore, / Save from worse shipwreck here on shore.Anonymous.
Venus is beautiful, no doubt; but the artist that created her is more beautiful still.James Wood.
Venus will not charm so much without her attendant Graces, as they will without her.Chesterfield.
Ver non semper viret—The spring does not always flourish.Motto.
Vera redit facies, dissimulata perit—Our natural countenance comes back, the assumed mask falls off.Petronius.
Verachtung ist der wahre Tod—The true death is being treated with contempt.Schiller.
Verba dat omnis amans—Every lover makes fair speeches.Ovid.
Verba facit mortuo—He talks to a dead man; he wastes words.Plautus.
Verba ligant homines, taurorum cornua funes—Words bind men, cords the horns of bulls.
Verba rebus aptare—To fit words to things, i.e., call a spade a spade.
Verba volant, scripta manent—What is spoken flies, what is written remains.
Verbaque provisam rem non invita sequentur—Words will not fail when the matter is well considered.Horace.
Verbatim et literatim—Word for word and letter for letter.
Verbi causa, or gratia—For example; for instance.
Verbo tenus—In name; as far as the words go.
Verborum paupertas, imo egestas—A poverty of words, or rather an utter want of them.Seneca.
Verbosa ac grandis epistola venit / A Capreis—A verbose and haughty epistle came from Capreæ (the Emperor Tiberius’s palace).Juvenal.
Verbum Dei manet in æternum—The command of God endures through eternity.Motto.
Verbum Domini manet in æternum—The word of the Lord endureth for ever.Vulgate.
Verbum sat sapienti—A word is enough to a wise man.Proverb.
Verbunden werden auch die Schwachen mächtig—Even the weak become strong when they are united.Schiller.
Vergebens dass ihr ringums wissenschaftlich schweift, / Ein jeder lernt nur was er lernen kann!—In vain that ye go ranging round about in your scientific, or learned, inquiries; each one learns only what he can.Mephistopheles to the scholar in Goethe’s “Faust.”
Vergieb soviel du kannst, und gieb soviel du hast—Forgive as much as thou canst, and give as much as thou hast.Rückert.
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and the spirit (of death, that is, and of life), he cannot enter the kingdom of God.Jesus.
Veritas, a quocunque dicitur, a Deo est—Truth, by whomsoever spoken, comes from God.
Veritas et virtus vincunt—Truth and virtue conquer.Motto.
Veritas nihil veretur nisi abscondi—Truth fears nothing but concealment.
Veritas non recipit magis ac minus—Truth admits not of greater and less.Wilkins.
Veritas odium parit—The truth begets hatred.
Veritas temporis filia—Truth is the daughter of Time.
Veritas vel mendacio corrumpitur vel silentio—Truth is violated by falsehood or by silence.Ammian.
Veritas victrix—Truth the conqueror.Motto.
Veritas vincit—Truth conquers.Motto.
Veritas visu et mora, falsa festinatione et incertis valescunt—Truth is established by inspection and delay; falsehood thrives by haste and uncertainty.Tacitus.
Veritatis simplex oratio est—The language of truth is simple, i.e., it needs not the ornament of many words.Seneca.
Vérité sans peur—Truth without fear.Motto.
Verletzen ist leicht, heilen schwer—To hurt is easy, to heal is hard.German Proverb.
Vermögren sucht Vermögen—Ability seeks ability.German Proverb.
Vernunft und Wissenschaft, Des Menschen allerhöchste Kraft!—Reason and knowledge, the highest might of man!Goethe.
Versate diu, quid ferre recusent, / Quid valeant humeri—Weigh well what your shoulders can and cannot bear.Horace.
Verschoben ist nicht aufgehoben—To put off is not to let off.German Proverb.
Verse itself is an absurdity except as an expression of some higher movement of the mind, or as an expedient to lift other minds to the same ideal level.Lowell.
Verstand ist mechanischer, Witz ist chemischer, Genie organischer Geist—Understanding is a mechanically, wit a chemically, and genius an organically, acting spirit.Fr. Schlegel.
Verstellung ist der offnen Seele fremd—Dissimulation is alien to the open soul.Schiller.
Verstellung, sagt man, sei ein grosses Laster, / Doch von Verstellung leben wir—Dissimulation they say is very wicked, yet we live by dissimulation.Goethe.
Vertere seria ludo—To turn from grave to gay.Horace.
Vertrauen erweckt Vertrauen—Confidence awakens confidence.Friedrich August II. von Sachsen.
Verum ubi plura nitent in carmine, non ego paucis / Offendar maculis—But where many beauties shine in a poem, I will not be offended at a few blots.Horace.
Verus amicus est is qui est tanquam alter idem—A true friend is he who is, as it were, a second self.Cicero.
Verwelkt, entblättert, zertreten sogar / Von rohen Schicksalsfüssen— / Mein Freund, das ist auf Erden las Los / Von allem Schönen und Süssen—To wither away, be disleaved, be trodden to dust even by the rude feet of Fate, that, friend, is the lot on earth of everything that is beautiful and sweet.Heine.
Very few enjoy money, because they can’t get enough.American Proverb.
Very few men acquire wealth in such a manner as to receive pleasure from it.Ward Beecher.
Very few men, properly speaking, live at present, but are providing to live another time.Swift.
Very few people are good economists of their fortune, and still fewer of their time.Chesterfield.
Very fine pagoda if ye could get any sort of god to put in it.Carlyle to Bunsen of Cologne Cathedral.
Very great benefactors to the rich, or those whom they call people at their ease, are your persons of no consequence.Steele.
Very learned women are to be met with, just as female warriors; but they are seldom or never inventors.Voltaire.
Very like a whale.Hamlet, iii. 2.
Verzeih dir nichts und den Andern viel—Forgive thyself nothing, others much.German Proverb.
Verzeihn ist leicht, allein vergessen schwer—To forgive is easy, but to forget hard.Schiller.
Verzeiht! Es ist ein gross Ergötzen / Sich in den Geist der Zeiten zu versetzen, / Zu schauen, wie vor uns ein weiser Mann gedacht, / Und wie wir’s dann zuletzt so herrlich weit gebracht—Pardon! It is a great pleasure to transport one’s self into the spirit of the times, to see now a wise man thought before us, and to what a glorious height we have at last carried it.Goethe, Wagner to Faust.
Vestibulum domus ornamentum est—The hall is the ornament of a house, i.e., first impressions have great weight.Proverb.
Vestigia morientis libertatis—The footprints of expiring liberty.Tacitus.
Vestigia nulla retrorsum—There is no stepping backward.
Vestigia torrent—The footprints frighten me.Horace.
Vestis virum facit—The garment makes the man.Proverb.
Vetera extollimus, recentium incuriosi—We extol what is old, regardless of what is of modern date.Tacitus.
Vetustas pro lege semper habetur—Ancient custom is always held as law.Law.
Vi et armis—By force and arms; by main force.
Via crucis, via lucis—The way of the cross is the way of light.Motto.
Via media—A middle way or course; any middle course.Motto.
Via trita est tutissima—The beaten path is the safest.Coke.
Via trita, via tuta—The beaten path is the safe path.Law.
Viam qui nescit qua deveniat ad mare, / Eum oportet amnem quærere comitem sibi—He who knows not his way straight to the sea should choose the river for his guide.Plautus.
Viamque insiste domandi, / Dum faciles animi juvenum, dum mobilis ætas—Enter upon the way of training while the spirits in youth are still pliant, while they are at that period when the mind is docile.Virgil.
Vice—In place of.
Vice is a monster of such frightful mien, / As to be hated needs but to be seen; / Yet seen too often, familiar with her face, / We first endure, then pity, then embrace.Pope.
Vice is its own punishment.Proverb.
Vice is learned without a schoolmaster.Danish Proverb.
Vice itself lost half its evil by losing all its grossness.Burke.
Vice, like disease, floats in the atmosphere.Hazlitt.
Vice versa—The terms being reversed; in reverse order.
Vicissitudes of fortune, which spares neither man nor the proudest of his works, which buries empires and cities in a common grave.Gibbon.
Vicisti Galilæe!—Thou hast conquered, O Galilean!Julian the Apostate on his deathbed, apostrophising Christ.
Victoria concordia crescit—Victory is increased by concord.Motto.
Victoriæ gloria merces—Glory is the reward of victory.Motto.
Victory belongs to the most persevering.Napoleon.
Victory or Westminster Abbey.Nelson at Trafalgar.
Victrix causa Diis placuit, sed victa Catoni—The conquering cause pleased the gods, the conquered one Cato.Lucan.
Victrix fortunæ sapientia—Wisdom overcomes fortune.Juvenal.
Vide licet—Namely; you may see.
Vide ut supra—See preceding statement.
Video meliora proboque, / Deteriora sequor—I see and approve the better course, but I follow the worse.Ovid.
Viel Klagen hör’ ich oft erheben / Vom Hochmut, den der Grosse übt. / Der Grossen Hochmut wird sich geben, / Wenn unsre Kriecherei sich giebt—Much complaining I often hear raised against the proud bearing of the great. The pride of the great will disappear as soon as we cease our cringing.Körner.
Viel Rettungsmittel bietest du? Was heisst’ es? / Die beste Rettung, Gegenwart des Geistes—Many a remedy offerest thou? What is the worth of it? The best remedy (the sole deliverance) is the presence of the spirit.Goethe.
Viele Freunde und wenige Nothhelfer—Many friends and few helpers in distress.German Proverb.
Vieles wünscht sich der Mensch, und doch bedarf er nur wenig; / Denn die Tage sind kurz, und beschränkt der Sterblichen Schicksal—Much wishes man for himself, and yet needs he but little; for the days are short, and limited is the fate of mortals.Goethe.
Vigilantibus—To those that watch.Motto.
Vigilantibus, non dormientibus, subveniunt jura—The laws assist those who watch, not those who sleep.Law.
Vigor ætatis fluit ut flos veris—The vigour of manhood passes away like a spring flower.
Vile is the vengeance on the ashes cold, / And envy base to bark at sleeping fame.Spenser.
Vilius argentium est auro, virtutibus aurum—Silver is of less value than gold, gold than virtue.Horace.
Vincere scis, Hannibal, victoria uti nescis—You know how to conquer, Hannibal, but you know not how to profit by your victory.Maherbal in Livy.
Vincit amor patriæ—The love of our country outweighs all other considerations.Virgil.
Vincit omnia veritas—Truth conquers all things.Motto.
Vincit qui se vincit—He is a conqueror who conquers himself.Motto.
Vinegar given is better than honey bought.Arabian Proverb.
Vino dentro, senno fuora—When wine is in, wit is out.Italian Proverb.
Vino diffugiunt mordaces curæ—Corroding cares are dispelled by wine.After Horace.
Violence does ever justice unjustly.Carlyle.
Violence of sorrow is not at the first to be striven withal; being, like a mighty beast, sooner tamed with following than overthrown by withstanding.Sir P. Sidney.
Violent combativeness for particular sects, as Evangelical, Roman Catholic, High Church, Broad Church, or the like, is merely a form of party egoism, and a defiance of Christ, not a confession of Him.Ruskin.
Violent delights have violent ends, / And in their triumph die, like fire and powder, / Which, as they kiss, consume.Romeo and Juliet, ii. 6.
Violent fires soon burn out.Proverb.
Violent mirth is the foam, and deep sadness the subsidence, of a morbid fermentation.Johnson.
Violent passions are formed in solitude. In the bustle of the world no object has time to make a deep impression.Henry Home.
Violenta nemo imperia continuit din; / Moderata durant—No one ever held power long by violence; it lasts only when wielded with moderation.Seneca.
Vir bonus est quis? / Qui consulta patrum, qui leges juraque servat—What man is to be called good? He who obeys the decrees of the fathers, he who respects the laws and justice.Horace.
Vir sapiens forti melior—A wise man is better than a strong.
Vires acquirit eundo—She acquires strength as she advances.Virgil, of Fame.
Virescit vulnere virtus—Virtue flourishes from a wound.Motto.
Viret in æternum—It flourishes for ever.Motto.
Virgilium vidi tantum—Virgil I have only seen.Ovid.
Viribus unitis—With united strength.Motto of Joseph I.
Viris fortibus non opus est mœnibus—Brave men have no need of walls.
Virtue alone can procure that independence which is the end of human wishes.Petrarch.
Virtue alone has majesty in death.Young.
Virtue alone is not sufficient for the exercise of government; laws alone carry themselves into practice.Mencius.
Virtue alone outbuilds the pyramids; / Her monuments shall last when Egypt’s fall.Young.
Virtue and goodness tend to make men powerful in this world; but they who aim at the power have not the virtue.Newman.
Virtue does not consist in doing what will be presently paid; it will be paid some day; but the vital condition of it, as virtue, is that it shall be content in its own deed, and desirous rather that the pay of it, if any, should be for others.Ruskin.
Virtue, if it could only be beheld by our eyes, would excite a marvellous love for wisdom. (?)
Virtue is an absolute Amen, uttered with reference to the obscure ends that Providence pursues through us.Renan.
Virtue is an angel; but she is a blind one, and must ask of Knowledge to show her the pathway that leads to her goal. Mere knowledge, on the other hand, like a Swiss mercenary, is ready to combat either in the ranks of sin or under the banners of righteousness: ready to forge cannon-balls or to print New Testaments; to navigate a corsair’s vessel or a missionary ship.Horace Mann.
Virtue is beauty; but the beauteous-evil / Are empty trunks o’erflourished by the devil.Twelfth Night, iii. 4.
Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful.Meas. for Meas., iii. 1.
Virtue is choked with foul ambition.2 Henry VI., iii. 1.
Virtue is free-will to choose the good, not tool-usefulness to forge at the expedient.Carlyle.
Virtue is its own reward, and brings with it the truest and highest pleasures; but they who cultivate it for the pleasure’s sake are selfish, not religious, and will never have the pleasure, because they never can have the virtue.Newman.
Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set.Bacon.
Virtue is like precious odours, most fragrant where they are incensed or crushed.Bacon.
Virtue is necessary to a republic.Montesquieu.
Virtue is not a knowing, but a willing.Zachariae.
Virtue is safe only when it is inspired.C. H. Parkhurst.
Virtue is the adherence in action to the nature of things, and the nature of things makes it prevalent. It consists in a perpetual substitution of being for seeming, and with sublime propriety God is described as saying, I AM.Emerson.
Virtue is the fount whence honour springs.Marlowe.
Virtue is the health of the soul; it gives a flavour to the smallest leaves of life.Joubert.
Virtue is the queen of labourers.Proverb.