Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Discontent
In such a strait the wisest may well be perplexed, and the boldest staggered.
Burke—Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents. Vol. I. P. 516.
Whoe’er was edified, themselves were not.
Cowper—Task. Bk. II. The Time Piece. L. 444.
The best things beyond their measure cloy.
Homer—Iliad. Bk. XIII. L. 795. Pope’s trans.
Qui fit, Mæcenas, ut nemo quam sibi sortem,
Seu ratio dederit, seu fors objecerit, illa
Contentus vivat? laudet diversa sequentes.
How does it happen, Mæcenas, that no one is content with that lot in life which he has chosen, or which chance has thrown in his way, but praises those who follow a different course?
Horace—Satires. I. 1. 1.
Æstuat infelix angusto limite mundi.
Unhappy man! He frets at the narrow limits of the world.
Juvenal—Satires. X. 168.
To sigh, yet feel no pain,
To weep, yet scarce know why;
To sport an hour with Beauty’s chain,
Then throw it idly by.
Moore—The Blue Stocking.
Past and to come seem best; things present worst.
Henry IV. Pt. II. Act I. Sc. 3. L. 108.
I see your brows are full of discontent,
Your hearts of sorrow and your eyes of tears.
Richard II. Act IV. Sc. I. L. 331.
I know a discontented gentleman,
Whose humble means match not his haughty mind.
Richard III. Act IV. Sc. 2. L. 36.
We love in others what we lack ourselves, and would be everything but what we are.
R. H. Stoddard—Arcadian Idyl. L. 30.
I was born to other things.
Tennyson—In Memoriam. CXX.
The thirst to know and understand,
A large and liberal discontent;
These are the goods in life’s rich hand,
The things that are more excellent.
William Watson—Things That Are More Excellent. St. 8.
And from the discontent of man
The world’s best progress springs.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox—Discontent.
Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation.
Oscar Wilde—Woman of No Importance. Act II.
Poor in abundance, famish’d at a feast.
Young—Night Thoughts. Night VII. L. 44.