Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Blushes
An Arab, by his earnest gaze,
Has clothed a lovely maid with blushes;
A smile within his eyelids plays
And into words his longing gushes.
Wm. R. Alger—Oriental Poetry. Love Sowing and Reaping Roses.
Girls blush, sometimes, because they are alive,
Half wishing they were dead to save the shame.
The sudden blush devours them, neck and brow;
They have drawn too near the fire of life, like gnats,
And flare up bodily, wings and all.
E. B. Browning—Aurora Leigh. Bk. II. L. 732.
So sweet the blush of bashfulness,
E’en pity scarce can wish it less!
Byron—Bride of Abydos. Canto 1. St. 8.
Blushed like the waves of hell.
Byron—Detail’s Drive. St. 5.
’Tis not on youth’s smooth cheek the blush alone, which fades so fast,
But the tender bloom of heart is gone, ere youth itself be past.
Byron—Stanzas for Music.
Pure friendship’s well-feigned blush.
Byron—Stanzas to Her who can Best Understand Them. St. 12.
We griev’d, we sigh’d, we wept; we never blushed before.
Cowley—Discourse concerning the Government of Oliver Cromwell. Works. P. 60. (Ed. 1693). Quoted in house of Commons by Sir Robert Peel repelling an attack by William Cobbett.
I pity bashful men, who feel the pain
Of fancied scorn and undeserved disdain,
And bear the marks upon a blushing face,
Of needless shame, and self-impos’d disgrace.
Cowper—Conversation. L. 347.
Once he saw a youth blushing, and addressed him, “Courage, my boy; that is the complexion of virtue.”
Diogenes Laertius—Diogenes. VI.
A blush is no language: only a dubious flag-signal which may mean either of two contradictories.
George Eliot—Daniel Deronda. Bk. V. Ch. XXXV.
The rising blushes, which her cheek o’er-spread,
Are opening roses in the lily’s bed.
Gay—Dione. Act II. Sc. 3.
Bello è il rossore, ma è incommodo qualche volta.
The blush is beautiful, but it is sometimes inconvenient.
Goldoni—Pamela. I. 3.
Blushing is the colour of virtue.
Matthew Henry—Commentaries. Jeremiah III.
Such a blush
In the midst of brown was born,
Like red poppies grown with corn.
Hood—Ruth.
Les hommes rougissent moins de leur crimes que de leurs faiblesses et de leur vanité.
Men blush less for their crimes than for their weaknesses and vanity.
La Bruyère—Les Caractères. II.
L’innocence à rougir n’est point accoutumée.
Innocence is not accustomed to blush.
Molière—Don Garcie de Navarre. II. 5.
While mantling on the maiden’s cheek
Young roses kindled into thought.
Moore—Evenings in Greece. Evening II. Song.
From every blush that kindles in thy cheeks,
Ten thousand little loves and graces spring
To revel in the roses.
Nicholas Rowe—Tamerlane. Act I. Sc. 1.
I will go wash;
And when my face is fair, you shall perceive
Whether I blush or no.
Coriolanus. Act I. Sc. 9. L. 68.
Lay by all nicety and prolixious blushes,
That banish what they sue for.
Measure for Measure. Act II. Sc. 4. L. 162.
By noting of the lady I have mark’d
A thousand blushing apparitions
To start into her face, a thousand innocent shames.
In angel whiteness beat away those blushes.
Much Ado About Nothing. Act IV. Sc. 1. L. 160.
Yet will she blush, here be it said,
To hear her secrets so bewrayed.
Passionate Pilgrim. Pt. XIX. L. 351.
Where now I have no one to blush with me,
To cross their arms and hang their heads with mine.
Rape of Lucrece. L. 792.
Two red fires in both their faces blazed;
She thought he blush’d,***
And, blushing with him, wistly on him gazed.
Rape of Lucrece. Line 1, 353.
And bid the cheek be ready with a blush
Modest as morning when she coldly eyes
The youthful Phœbus.
Troilus and Cressida. Act I. Sc. 3. L. 228.
Come, quench your blushes and present yourself
That which you are, mistress o’ the feast.
Winter’s Tale. Act IV. Sc. 4. L. 67.
Erubuit: salva res est.
He blushes: all is safe.
Terence—Adelphi. IV. 5. 9.
The man that blushes is not quite a brute.
Young—Night Thoughts. Night VII. L. 496.