Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Nothing is more annoying than a tardy friend. [Lat., Tardo amico nihil est quidquam iniquius.]
If you have overcome your inclination and not been overcome by it, you have reason to rejoice.
No guest is so welcome in a friend's house that he will not become a nuisance after three days.
He who has in due season become rich, unless he saves in due season, will in due season starve.
It is a tiresome way of speaking, when you should despatch the business, to beat about the bush.
He whom the gods love dies young, while he is in health, has his senses and his judgments sound.
Poverty is a thorough instructress in all the arts. [Lat., Paupertas . . . omnes artes perdocet.]
When you fly from temptation, don't leave a forwarding address. Where there's smoke there's fire.
In wondrous ways do the gods make sport with men. [Lat., Miris modis Di ludos faciunt hominibus.]
To a well deserving person God will show favor. To an ill deserving person He will simply be just.
Keep what you have got; the known evil is best. [Lat., Habeas ut nactus; nota mala res optima est.]
What is thine is mine, and all mine is thine. [Lat., Quod tuum'st meum'st; omne meum est autem tuum.]
I count him lost, who is lost to shame. [Lat., Nam ego illum periisse duco, cui quidem periit pudor.]
It is a great plague to be too handsome a man. [Lat., Nimia est miseria nimis pulchrum esse hominem.]
Whatever disgrace we may have deserved, it is almost always in our power to re-establish our character.
He who would eat the kernel, must crack the shell. [Lat., Qui e nuce nucleum esse vult, frangat nucem.]
Consider the little mouse, how sagacious an animal it is which never entrusts its life to one hole only.
I have taken a wife, I have sold my sovereignty for a dowry. [Lat., Uxorem accepi, dote imperium vendidi.]
Give assistance, and receive thanks lighter than a feather: injure a man, and his wrath will be like lead.
The mind is hopeful; success is in God's hands. [Lat., Sperat quidem animus: quo eveniat, diis in manu est.]
The man who would be fully employed should procure a ship or a woman, for no two things produce more trouble.
Feast to-day makes fast to-morrow. [Lat., Festo die si quid prodegeris, Profesto egere liceat nisi peperceris.]
Fortune moulds and circumscribes human affairs as she pleases. [Lat., Fortuna humana fingit artatque ut lubet.]
A woman finds it much easier to do ill than well. [Lat., Mulieri nimio male facere melius est onus, quam bene.]
There can be no profit, if the outlay exceeds it. [Non enim potest quaestus consistere, si eum sumptus superat.]
You little know what a ticklish thing it is to go to law. [Lat., Nescis tu quam meticulosa res sit ire ad judicem.]
Know not what you know, and see not what you see. [Lat., Etiam illud quod scies nesciveris; Ne videris quod videris.]
There's no such thing, you know, as picking out the best woman: it's only a question of comparative badness, brother.
We are pouring our words into a sieve, and lose our labor. [Lat., In pertusum ingerimus dicta dolium, operam ludimus.]
Man's fortune is usually changed at once; life is changeable. [Lat., Actutum fortunae solent mutarier; varia vita est.]
He gains wisdom in a happy way, who gains it by another's experience. [Lat., Feliciter sapit qui alieno periculo sapit.]
For I know that many good things have happened to many, when least expected; and that many hopes have been disappointed.
Love has both its gall and honey in abundance: it has sweetness to the taste, but it presents bitterness also to satiety.
The gods give that man some profit to whom they are propitious. [Lat., Cui homini dii propitii sunt aliquid objiciunt lucri.]
There is indeed a God that hears and sees whate'er we do. [Lat., Est profecto deus, qui, quae nos gerimus, auditque et videt.]
I love truth and wish to have it always spoken to me: I hate a liar. [Lat., Ego verum amo, verum volo mihi dici; mendacem odi.]
I would rather be adorned by beauty of character than jewels. Jewels are the gift of fortune, while character comes from within.
I had much rather be adorned by beauty of character than by jewels. Jewels are the gift of fortune, character comes from within.
If you do anything well, gratitude is lighter than a feather; if you give offense in anything, people's wrath is as heavy as lead.
How bitter it is to reap a harvest of evil for good that you have done! [Lat., Ut acerbum est, pro benefactis quom mali messem metas!]
Out of many evils the evil which is least is the least of evils. [Lat., E malis multis, malum, quod minimum est, id minimum est malum.]
Courage is what preserves our liberty, safety, life, and our homes and parents, our country and children. Courage comprises all things.
Women have many faults, but the worst of them all is that they are too pleased with themselves and take too little pains to please the men.
Slander-mongers and those who listen to slander, if I had my way, would all be strung up, the talkers by the tongue, the listeners by the ears.
To ask that which is unjust at the hands of the just, is an injustice in itself; to expect that which is just from the unjust, is simple folly.
It is good to love in a moderate degree; to distraction, it is not good; but to love to entire distraction, is the thing that my master's doing.
Your tittle-tattlers, and those who listen to slander, by my good will should all be hanged - the former by their tongues, the latter by the ears.
He whom the gods love dies young, whilst he is full of health, perception, and judgment. [Lat., Quem dii diligunt, Adolescens moritur, dum valet, sentit, sapit.]
This is the great evil in wine, it first seizes the feet; it is a cunning wrestler. [Lat., Magnum hoc vitium vino est, Pedes captat primum; luctator dolosu est.]
For enemies carry about slander not in the form in which it took its rise . The scandal of men is everlasting; even then does it survive when you would suppose it to be dead.