Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Moderation
This only grant me, that my means may lie
Too low for envy, for contempt too high.
Cowley—Essays in Prose and Verse. Of Myself. (Trans. of Horace.)
Moderation is the silken string running through the pearl-chain of all virtues.
Fuller—Holy and Profane States. Bk. III. Of Moderation. See also Bishop Hall—Christian Moderation. Introduction.
Aus Mässigkeit entspringt ein reines Glück.
True happiness springs from moderation.
Goethe—Die Naturliche Tochter. II. 5. 79.
Auream quisquis mediocritatem deligit tutus caret obsoleti sordibus tecti, caret invidenda sobrius aula.
Who loves the golden mean is safe from the poverty of a tenement, is free from the envy of a palace.
Horace—Carmina. II. 10. 5.
Est modus in rebus, sunt certi denique fines
Quos ultra citraque nequit consistere rectum.
There is a mean in all things; and, moreover, certain limits on either side of which right cannot be found.
Horace—Satires. I. 1. 106.
The moderation of fortunate people comes from the calm which good fortune gives to their tempers.
La Rochefoucauld—Maxims. No. 18.
Le juste milieu.
The proper mean.
Phrase used by Louis Philippe in an address to the deputies of Gaillac. First occurs in a letter of Voltaire’s to Count d’Argental, Nov. 29, 1765. Also in Pascal—Pensées.
Medio tutissimus ibis.
Safety lies in the middle course.
Ovid—Metamorphoses. Bk. II. L. 136.
Take this at least, this last advice, my son:
Keep a stiff rein, and move but gently on:
The coursers of themselves will run too fast,
Your art must be to moderate their haste.
Ovid—Metamorphoses. Story of Phaeton. Bk. II. L. 147. Addison’s trans.
Modus omnibus in rebus, soror, optimum est habitu;
Nimia omnia nimium exhibent negotium hominibus ex se.
In everything the middle course is best: all things in excess bring trouble to men.
Plautus—Pænulus. I. 2. 29.
He knows to live who keeps the middle state,
And neither leans on this side nor on that.
Pope—Bk. II. Satire II. L. 61.
Give me neither poverty nor riches.
Proverbs. XXX. 8.
Souhaitez donc mediocrité.
Wish then for mediocrity.
Rabelais—Pantagruel. Bk. IV. Prologue.
Modica voluptas laxat animos et temperat.
Moderate pleasure relaxes the spirit, and moderates it.
Seneca—De Ira. II. 20.
Be moderate, be moderate.
Why tell you me of moderation?
The grief is fine, full, perfect, that I taste,
And violenteth in a sense as strong
As that which causeth it: how can I moderate it?
Troilus and Cressida. Act IV. Sc. 4. L. 1.
Bonarum rerum consuetudo pessima est.
The too constant use even of good things is hurtful.
Syrus—Maxims.
Id arbitror
Adprime in vita esse utile, Ut ne quid minis.
Excess in nothing,—this I regard as a principle of the highest value in life.
Terence—Andria. I. 1. 33.
There is a limit to enjoyment, though the sources of wealth be boundless,
And the choicest pleasures of life lie within the ring of moderation.
Tupper—Proverbial Philosophy. Of Compensation. L. 15.
Give us enough but with a sparing hand.
Waller—Reflections.