Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Obedience
Obedience is the mother of success, the wife of safety.
Æschylus—Septem. Duces. 224.
The fear of some divine and supreme powers keeps men in obedience.
Burton—Anatomy of Melancholy. Pt. III. Sec. 4. Memb. 1. Subsec. 2.
Qui modeste paret, videtur qui aliquando imperet dignus esse.
He who obeys with modesty appears worthy of being some day a commander.
Cicero—De Legibus. III. 2.
’Tis the same, with common natures,
Use ’em kindly, they rebel,
But, be rough as nutmeg graters,
And the rogues obey you well.
Aaron Hill—Verses written on a Window in a Journey to Scotland.
All arts his own, the hungry Greekling counts;
And bid him mount the skies, the skies he mounts.
Juvenal—Third Satire. Trans. by Gifford.
All sciences a fasting Monsieur knows;
And bid him go to hell—to hell he goes.
Juvenal—Third Satire. Paraphrased by Johnson—London.
No nice extreme a true Italian knows;
But bid him go to hell, to hell he goes.
Juvenal—Third Satire. Paraphrased by Phillips, in a letter to the king in reference to the Italian witnesses at the trial of Queen Caroline.
Obedience is the key to every door.
George MacDonald—The Marquis of Lossie. Ch. LIII.
I find the doing of the will of God, leaves me no time for disputing about His plans.
George MacDonald—The Marquis of Lossie. Ch. LXXII.
Son of Heav’n and Earth,
Attend! That thou art happy, owe to God;
That thou continuest such, owe to thyself,
That is, to thy obedience; therein stand.
Milton—Paradise Lost. Bk. V. L. 519.
Ascend, I follow thee, safe guide, the path
Thou lead’st me, and to the hand of heav’n submit.
Milton—Paradise Lost. Bk. XI. L. 371.
Though a god I have learned to obey the times.
Palladas—Epigram. In Palatine Anthology. IX. 441.
Through obedience learn to command.
Founded on a passage in Plato—Leges. 762 E. Same idea in Pliny—Letters. VIII. 14. 5.
The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.
Proverbs. XXX. 17.
Obedience decks the Christian most.
Schiller—Fight with the Dragon. Bowring’s trans.
Let them obey that know not how to rule.
Henry VI. Pt. II. Act V. Sc. 1. L. 6.
It fits thee not to ask the reason why,
Because we bid it.
Pericles. Act I. Sc. 1. L. 157.
One so small
Who knowing nothing knows but to obey.
Tennyson—Idylls of the King. Guinevere. L. 183.