Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Climb
Ah! who can tell how hard it is to climb
The steep where Fame’s proud temple shines afar!
Beattie.—The Minstrel, Verse 1. Line 1.
Fain would I climb, but that I fear to fall.
[A line written by Sir Walter Raleigh, with a diamond ring, on the glass of a window in a pavilion of Queen Elizabeth, who, on being informed of it, wrote underneath it:]
“If thy mind fail thee, do not climb at all.”
Scott.—Kenilworth, Chap. XVII.
1.I am lost in thought.
2.Thought of the Queen, perhaps?
1.Why, if it were,
Heaven may be thought on, though too high to climb.
2.Oh! now I find where your ambition drives.
Dryden.—Spanish Friar, Act I. Scene 1.
He either fears his fate too much,
Or his deserts are small,
Who dares not put it to the touch,
To win or lose it all.
Scott.—Intro. to Chron. of the Canongate, Vol. XIX.
He that climbs the tall tree has won right to the fruit;
He that leaps the wide gulf should prevail in his suit.
Scott.—The Talisman, Chap. XXVI.
The lower still you crawl, you’ll climb the higher.
Smollett.—Advice, Line 64.
Downward to climb, and backward to advance.
Pope.—The Dunciad, Book II. Line 320.