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Beginnings: Quotations from Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations

Ac primam scelerum matrem, quæ semper habendo Plus sitiens patulis rimatur faucibus aurum, Trudis Avaritiam. Expel avarice, the mother of all wickedness, who, always thirsty for more, opens wide her jaws for gold.— CLAUDIANUS — De Laudibus Stilichonis.

II. 111. Crescit amor nummi quantum ipsa pecunia crescit. The love of pelf increases with the pelf.— JUVENAL — Satiræ. XIV. 139.

Non propter vitam faciunt patrimonia quidam, Sed vitio cæci propter patrimonia vivunt. Some men make fortunes, but not to enjoy them; for, blinded by avarice, they live to make fortunes.— JUVENAL — Satira. XII. 50.

Desunt inopiæ multa, avaritiæ omnia. Poverty wants much; but avarice, everything.— SYRUS — Maxims.

Fortuna facies muta commendatio est. A pleasing countenance is a silent commendation.— SYRUS — Maxims.

Gratior ac pulchro veniens in corpore virtus. Even virtue is fairer when it appears in a beautiful person.— VIRGIL — Eneid. V. 344.

Nimium ne crede colori. Trust not too much to beauty.— VIRGIL — Eclogæ. II. 17.

Y Incipe; dimidium facti est cœpisse. Supersit Dimidium: rursum hoc incipe, et efficies. Begin; to begin is half the work. Let half still remain; again begin this, and thou wilt have finished. S.— AUSONIUS — Epigrammata. LXXXI. 1

Incipe quidquid agas: pro toto est prima operis pars. Begin whatever you have to do: the beginning of a work stands for the whole.— AUSONIUS — Idyllia. XII. Inconnexa.

Omnium rerum principia parva sunt. The beginnings of all things are small.— CICERO — De Finibus Bonorum et

Malorum. V. 21. Dimidium facti qui cœpit habet. What's well begun, is half done.— HORACE — Epistolæ. I. 2. 40.

Cujusque rei potissima pars principium est. The principal part of everything is the beginning. Law Maxim. Victuros agimus semper, nec vivimus unquam. We are always beginning to live, but are never living.— MANILIUS — Astronomica. IV. 899.

Cœpisti melius quam desinis. Ultima primis cedunt. Thou beginnest better than thou endest. The last is inferior to the first.— OVID — Heroides. IX. 23.

Principiis obsta: sero medicina paratur, Cum mala per longas convaluere moras. Resist beginnings: it is too late to employ medicine when the evil has grown strong by inveterate habit.— OVID — Remedia Amoris. XCI.

Deficit omne quod nascitur. Everything that has a beginning comes to an end.— QUINTILIAN — De Institutione Oratoria.

V. 10. Quidquid cœpit, et desinit. Whatever begins, also ends.— SENECA — De Consolatione ad Polybium. I.

C'est le commencement de la fin. It is the beginning of the end. Ascribed to TALLEYRAND in the Hundred Days. Also to GEN. AUGEREAU. 1814. La distance n'y fait rien; il n'y a que le premier pas qui coûte. The distance is nothing; it is only the first step that costs.— MME. DU DEFFAND — Letter to Horace

Walpole, June 6, 1767. Doch wisst ihr, in der Hitze des Verfolgens, Verliert man bald den Anfang aus den Augen. Still thou knowest that in the ardor of pursuit men lose sight of the goal from which they start.— SCHILLER — Piccolomini. III. 1. 62.