John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.
Page 887
| Plautus. (c. 254–184 B.C.) (continued) |
| 8519 |
| You are seeking a knot in a bulrush. 1 |
| Menæchmi. Act ii. Sc. 1, 22. (247.) |
| 8520 |
| In the one hand he is carrying a stone, while he shows the bread in the other. 2 |
| Aulularia. Act ii. Sc. 2, 18. (195.) |
| 8521 |
| I had a regular battle with the dunghill-cock. |
| Aulularia. Act iii. Sc. 4, 13. (472.) |
| 8522 |
| It was not for nothing that the raven was just now croaking on my left hand. 3 |
| Aulularia. Act iv. Sc. 3, 1. (624.) |
| 8523 |
| There are occasions when it is undoubtedly better to incur loss than to make gain. |
| Captivi. Act ii. Sc. 2, 77. (327.) |
| 8524 |
| Patience is the best remedy for every trouble. 4 |
| Rudens. Act ii. Sc. 5, 71. |
| 8525 |
| If you are wise, be wise; keep what goods the gods provide you. |
| Rudens. Act iv. Sc. 7, 3. (1229.) |
| 8526 |
| Consider the little mouse, how sagacious an animal it is which never entrusts its life to one hole only. 5 |
| Truculentus. Act iv. Sc. 4, 15. (868.) |
| 8527 |
| Nothing is there more friendly to a man than a friend in need. 6 |
| Epidicus. Act iii. Sc. 3, 44. (425.) |
| 8528 |
| Things which you do not hope happen more frequently than things which you do hope. 7 |
| Mostellaria. Act i. Sc. 3, 40. (197.) |
| 8529 |
| To blow and swallow at the same moment is not easy. |
| Mostellaria. Act iii. Sc. 2, 104. (791.) |
| 8530 |
| Each man reaps on his own farm. |
| Mostellaria. Act iii. Sc. 2, 112. (799.) |
| Note 1. A proverbial expression implying a desire to create doubts and difficulties where there really were none. It occurs in Terence, the “Andria,” act v. sc. 4, 38; also in Ennius, “Saturæ,” 46. [back] |
| Note 2. What man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?—Matthew vii. 9. [back] |
| Note 3. See Gay, Quotation 21. [back] |
| Note 4. Patience is a remedy for every sorrow.—Publius Syrus: Maxim 170. [back] |
| Note 5. See Chaucer, Quotation 30. [back] |
| Note 6. A friend in need is a friend indeed.—Hazlitt: English Proverbs. [back] |
| Note 7. The unexpected always happens.—A common proverb. [back] |