Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Care; Carefulness
O insensata cura dei mortali,
Quanto son defettivi sillogismi
Quei che ti fanno in basso batter l’ali!
O mortal cares insensate, what small worth,
In sooth, doth all those syllogisms fill,
Which make you stoop your pinions to the earth!
Dante—Paradiso. XI. 1.
For want of a nail the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe the horse was lost; and for want of a horse the rider was lost; being overtaken and slain by the enemy, all for want of care about a horse-shoe nail.
Franklin—Poor Richard’s Almanac.
For the want of a nail the shoe was lost,
For the want of a shoe the horse was lost,
For the want of a horse the rider was lost,
For the want of a rider the battle was lost,
For the want of a battle the kingdom was lost—
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
Another version of Franklin.
Every man shall bear his own burden.
Galatians. VI. 5.
Light burdens, long borne, grow heavy.
Herbert—Jacula Prudentum.
Be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.
James. I. 19.
Care that is entered once into the breast
Will have the whole possession ere it rest.
Ben Jonson—Tale of a Tub. Act I. Sc. 4.
Borne the burden and heat of the day.
Matthew. XX. 12.
And ever, against eating cares,
Lap me in soft Lydian airs.
Milton—L’Allegro. L. 135.
Begone, old Care, and I prithee begone from me;
For i’ faith, old Care, thee and I shall never agree.
Playford—Musical Companion. Catch 13.
Eat not thy heart; which forbids to afflict our souls, and waste them with vexatious cares.
Plutarch—Morals. Of the Training of Children.
Old Care has a mortgage on every estate,
And that’s what you pay for the wealth that you get.
J. G. Saxe—Gifts of the Gods.
For some must watch, while some must sleep:
So runs the world away.
Hamlet. Act III. Sc. 2. L. 284.
No, no, he cannot long hold out these pangs;
The incessant care and labour of his mind
Hath wrought the mure, that should confine it in,
So thin that life looks through and will break out.
Henry IV. Pt. II. Act IV. Sc. 4. L. 117.
O polished perturbation! golden care!
That keep’st the ports of slumber open wide
To many a watchful night!
Henry IV. Pt. II. Act IV. Sc. 5. L. 23.
Care is no cure, but rather a corrosive,
For things that are not to be remedied.
Henry VI. Pt. I. Act III. Sc. 3. L. 3.
Things past redress are now with me past care.
Richard II. Act II. Sc. 3. L. 171.
Care keeps his watch in every old man’s eye,
And where care lodges, sleep will never lie;
But where unbruised youth with unstuff’d brain.
Doth couch his limbs, there golden sleep doth reign.
Romeo and Juliet. Act II. Sc. 3. L. 34.
I am sure, care’s an enemy to life.
Twelfth Night. Act I. Sc. 3. L. 2.
I could lie down like a tired child,
And weep away the life of care
Which I have borne, and yet must bear.
Shelley—Stanzas written in Dejection, near Naples.
Care to our coffin adds a nail, no doubt;
And every Grin, so merry, draws one out.
John Wolcot—Expostulatory Odes. Ode 15.
And care, whom not the gayest can outbrave,
Pursues its feeble victim to the grave.
Henry Kirke White—Childhood. Pt. II. L. 17.