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Comparisons: Quotations from Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations
Defining night by darkness, death by dust. S.— BAILEY — Festus. Sc. Water and Wood.
Tis light translateth night; 'tis inspiration Expounds experience; 'tis the west explains The east; 'tis time unfolds Eternity.— BAILEY — Festus. Sc. A Ruined Temple.
Glass antique! 'twixt thee and Nell Draw us here a parallel! She, like thee, was forced to bear All reflections, foul or fair. Thou art deep and bright within, Depths as bright belong'd to Gwynne; Thou art very frail as well, Frail as flesh is, -so was Nell.— L. BLANCHARD — Nell Gwynne's Looking Glass. St. 1.
It's wiser being good than bad; It's safer being meek than fierce: It's fitter being sane than mad. My own hope is, a sun will pierce The thickest cloud earth ever stretched; That, after Last, returns the First, Though a wide compass round be fetched; That what began best, can't end worst, Nor what God blessed once, prove accurst.— ROBERT BROWNING — Apparent Failure.
Everything is twice as large, measured on a three-year-old's three-foot scale as on a thirty-year-old's six-foot scale.— O. W. HOLMES — The Poet at the
Breakfast Table. I. Too great refinement is false delicacy, and true delicacy is solid refinement.— LA ROCHEFOUCAULD — Maxims and Moral Sentences. No. 131.
The country is lyric, the town dramatic. When mingled, they make the most perfect musical drama.— LONGFELLOW — Kavanagh. Ch. XIII.
And but two ways are offered to our will, Toil with rare triumph, ease with safe disgrace, The problem still for us and all of human race.— LOWELL — Under the Old Elm. Pt. VII. St. 3.
Comparisons do ofttime great grievance.— JOHN LYDGATE — Bochas. Bk. III. Ch. VIII.
And in the lowest deep a lower deep Still threatening to devour me opens wide; To which the hell I suffer seems a heaven.— MILTON — Paradise Lost. Bk. IV. L. 76.
A man must either imitate the vicious or hate them.— MONTAIGNE — Of Solitude.
The souls of emperors and cobblers are cast in the same mould: * * * The same reason that makes us wrangle with a neighbour causes a war betwixt princes. S.— MONTAIGNE — Apology for Raimond de Sebond. Bk. II. Ch. XII.
We are nearer neighbours to ourselves than whiteness to snow, or weight to stones.— MONTAIGNE — Essays. Bk. II. Ch. XII.
The magnificent and the ridiculous are so near neighbours that they touch each other.— EDWARD LORD OXFORD — Ms. Common
Place Book. Everye white will have its blacke, And everye sweet its soure.— THOS. PERCY — Reliques. Sir Curline.
Another yet the same.— POPE — The Dunciad. Bk. III. L. 90.
The rose and thorn, the treasure and dragon, joy and sorrow, all mingle into one.— SAADI — The Gulistan. Ch. VII.
Apologue 21. Ross' trans. As false As air, as water, wind, or sandy earth, As fox to lamb, as wolf to heifer's calf, Pard to the hind, or stepdame to her son.— Shakespeare — Troilus and Cressida. Act III. Sc. 2. Sc. 2. L. 198.
Crabbed age and youth cannot live together. Passionate Pilgrim. Pt. XII. Hyperion to a satyr.— Shakespeare — Hamlet. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 140.
Nature hath meal and bran, contempt and grace.— Shakespeare — Cymbeline. Act IV. Sc. 2. L. 27.
No more like my father Than I to Hercules.— Shakespeare — Hamlet. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 152.
O, the more angel she, And you the blacker devil!— Shakespeare — Othello. Act V. Sc. 2. L. 130.
Those that are good manners at the court are as ridiculous in the country as the behaviour of the country is most mockable at the court.— Shakespeare — As You Like It. Act III. Sc. 2. L. 46.
What, is the jay more precious than the lark, Because his feathers are more beautiful? Or is the adder better than the eel, Because his painted skin contents the eye?— Shakespeare — Taming of the Shrew. Act IV. Sc. 3. L. 177.
Here and there a cotter's babe is royal-born by right divine; Here and there my lord is lower than his oxen or his swine.— TENNYSON — Locksley Hall. Sixty Years After. St. 63.
The little may contrast with the great, in painting, but cannot be said to be contrary to it. Oppositions of colors contrast; but there are also colors contrary to each other, that is, which produce an ill effect because they shock the eye when brought very near it.— VOLTAIRE — A Philosophical Dictionary.
Essay. Contrast. The happy married man dies in good stile at home, surrounded by his weeping wife and children. The old bachelor don't die at allhe sort of rots away, like a pollywog's tail.— ARTEMUS WARD — The Draft in
Baldinsville. And homeless near a thousand homes I stood, And near a thousand tables pined and wanted food.— WORDSWORTH — Guilt and Sorrow. St. 41.
The time for Pen and Sword was when "My ladye fayre," for pity, Could tend her wounded knight, and then Grow tender at his ditty. Some ladies now make pretty songs, And some make pretty nurses: Some men are good for righting wrongs, And some for writing verses.— FREDERICK LOCKER — The Jester's Plea.
Hoc ego, tuque sumus: sed quod sum, non potes esse: Tu quod es, e populo quilibet esse potest. Such are thou and I: but what I am thou canst not be; what thou art any one of the multitude may be.— MARTIAL — Epigrammata. V. 13. 9.
Sunt bona, sunt quædam mediocria, sunt mala plura. Some are good, some are middling, the most are bad.— MARTIAL — Epigrammata. I. 17. 1.
Multos qui conflictari adversis videantur beatos; ac plerosque quamquam magnos per opes, miserrimos; si illi gravem fortunam constanter tolerant, hi prosperâ inconsulte utantur. Many who seem to be struggling with adversity are happy, whilst some in the midst of riches are miserable; this is the case when the former bear the pressure with constancy, and the latter employ their wealth thoughtlessly.— TACITUS — Annales. VI. 22.
Duo quum idem faciunt, sæpe ut possis dicere, Hoc licet impune facere huic, illi non licet: Non quod dissimilis res sit, sed quod is sit. When two persons do the self-same thing, it oftentimes falls out that in the one it is criminal, in the other it is not so; not that the thing itself is different, but he who does it.— TERENCE — Adelphi. V. III. 37.
Du même fonds dont on néglige un homme de mérite l'on sait encore admirer un sot. The same principle leads us to neglect a man of merit that induces us to admire a fool.— LA BRUYÈRE — Les Caractères. XII.
Il y a fagots et fagots. There are fagots and fagots.— MOLIÈRE — Le Médecin Malgré lui.
I. 6. Qui n'est que juste est dur, qui n'est que sage est triste. He who is not just is severe, he who is not wise is sad.— VOLTAIRE — Epître au Roi de Prusse.