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C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. 1917.

Danger

Danger comes the sooner when it is despised.

Syrus.

That danger which is despised arrives the soonest.

Laberius.

  • For danger levels man and brute
  • And all are fellows in their need.
  • Dryden.

  • The absent danger greater still appears
  • Less fears he, who is near the thing he fears.
  • Daniel.

    Man is never watchful enough against dangers that threaten him every hour,

    Horace.

    In extreme danger, fear turns a deaf ear to every feeling of pity.

    Cæsar.

    Danger for danger’s sake is senseless.

    Leigh Hunt.

  • Our dangers and delights are near allies,
  • From the same stem the rose and prickle rise.
  • Aleyn.

  • Speak, speak, let terror strike slaves mute,
  • Much danger makes great hearts most resolute.
  • Marston.

    Nothing is strong that may not be endangered even by the weak.

    Quintus Curtius Rufus.

    If we must fall, we should boldly meet the danger.

    Tacitus.

    He is safe from danger who is on his guard even when safe.

    Syrus.

    He knows that the man is overcome ingloriously who is overcome without danger.

    Seneca.

    Thou dwarf dressed up in giant’s clothes, that showest far off still greater than thou art.

    Suckling.

    There is no person who is not dangerous for some one.

    Mme. de Sévigné.

  • Keep together here, lest, running thither,
  • We unawares run into danger’s mouth.
  • Milton.

    Constant exposure to dangers will breed contempt for them.

    Seneca.

    Let every eye negotiate for itself, and trust no agent.

    Shakespeare.

    Danger levels man and brute, and all are fellows in their need.

    Byron.

    It is the danger which is least expected that soonest comes to us.

    Voltaire.

    Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.

    Shakespeare.

  • We have scotch’d the snake, not kill’d it,
  • She’ll close, and be herself! whilst our poor malice
  • Remains in danger of her former tooth.
  • Shakespeare.

    A timid person is frightened before a danger, a coward during the time, and a courageous person afterwards.

    Richter.

    Fools and sensible men are equally innocuous. It is in the half fool and the half wise that the danger lies.

    Goethe.

  • Danger knows full well,
  • That Cæsar is more dangerous than he:
  • We are two lions litter’d in one day,
  • And I the elder and more terrible.
  • Shakespeare.

  • What is danger
  • More than the weakness of our apprehensions?
  • A poor cold part o’ th’ blood; who takes it hold of?
  • Cowards and wicked livers: valiant minds
  • Were made the masters of it.
  • Beaumont and Fletcher.

    A man’s opinion of danger varies at different times, in consequence of an irregular tide of animal spirits; and he is actuated by considerations which he dares not avow.

    Smollett.

    It is better to meet danger than to wait for it. He that is on a lee shore, and foresees a hurricane, stands out to sea and encounters a storm to avoid a shipwreck.

    Colton.

    Let the fear of a danger be a spur to prevent it; he that fears otherwise gives advantage to the danger; it is less folly not to endeavor the prevention of the evil thou fearest than to fear the evil which thy endeavor cannot prevent.

    Quarles.

  • Thou little know’st
  • What he can brave, who, born and nurst
  • In danger’s paths, has dared her worst!
  • Upon whose ear the signal-word
  • Of strife and death is hourly breaking;
  • Who sleeps with head upon the sword
  • His fever’d hand must grasp in waking.
  • Moore.

    Dangers are no more light if they once seem light, and more dangers have deceived men than forced them; nay, it were better to meet some dangers half-way, though they come nothing near, than to keep too long a watch upon their approaches; for if a man watch too long it is odds he will fall fast asleep.

    Bacon.

  • He led on; but thoughts
  • Seem’d gathering round which troubled him. The veins
  • Grew visible upon his swarthy brow,
  • And his proud lip was press’d as if with pain.
  • He trod less firmly; and his restless eye
  • Glanc’d forward frequently, as if some ill
  • He dared not meet were there.
  • Willis.

    We should never so entirely avoid danger as to appear irresolute and cowardly; but, at the same time, we should avoid unnecessarily exposing ourselves to danger, than which nothing can be more foolish.

    Cicero.