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Contention: Quotations from Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations
There is a jewel which no Indian mines can buy, No chymic art can counterfeit; It makes men rich in greatest poverty, Makes water wine; turns wooden cups to gold; The homely whistle to sweet music's strain, Seldom it comes; -to few from Heaven sent, That much in little, all in naught, Content.— JOHN WILBYE — Madrigales. There Is a
Jewel. A Man he seems of cheerful yesterdays And confident to-morrows.— WORDSWORTH — The Excursion. Bk. VII.
Lord of himself, though not of lands; And having nothing, yet hath all.— SIR HENRY WOTTON — The Character of
a Happy Life. Give me, indulgent gods! with mind serene, And guiltless heart, to range the sylvan scene; No splendid poverty, no smiling care, No well-bred hate, or servile grandeur, there.— YOUNG — Love of Fame. Satire I. L. 235.
Did thrust (as now) in others' corn his sickle.— DU BARTAS — Divine Weekes and
Workes. Second Week, Second Day. Pt. II. He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.— BURKE — Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. III. P. 195.
'Tis a hydra's head contention; the more they strive the more they may: and as Praxiteles did by his glass, when he saw a scurvy face in it, brake it in pieces; but for that one he saw many more as bad in a moment.— BURTON — Anat. of Mel. Pt. II. Sc. 3.
Mem. 7. Some say, compared to Bononcini, That Mynheer Handel's but a ninny; Others aver,-that he to Handel Is scarcely fit to hold a candle : Strange all this difference should be, 'Twixt tweedle-dum and tweedle-dee!— S. JOHN BYROM — Epigram on the Feuds
between Handel and Bononcini. Great contest follows, and much learned dust Involves the combatants; each claiming truth, And truth disclaiming both.— COWPER — Task. Bk. III. L. 161.
So when two dogs are fighting in the streets, When a third dog one of the two dogs meets: With angry teeth he bites him to the bone, And this dog smarts for what that dog has done.— HENRY FIELDING — Tom Thumb the Great. Act I. Sc. 5. L. 55.
Not hate, but glory, made these chiefs contend; And each brave foe was in his soul a friend.— HOMER — The Iliad. Bk. VII. L. 364.
Pope's trans. Contentions fierce, Ardent, and dire, spring from no petty cause. C.— SCOTT — Peveril of the Peak. Ch. XL.
It is an irrepressible conflict between opposing and enduring forces.— WILLIAM H. SEWARD — Speech. The
Irrepressible Conflict. Oct. 25, 1858. Thus when a barber and collier fight, The barber beats the luckless collier-white; The dusty collier heaves his ponderous sack, And, big with vengeance, beats the barberblack. In comes the brick-dust man, with grime o'erspread, And beats the collier and the barber-red; Black, red, and white, in various clouds are toss'd, And in the dust they raise the combatants are lost.— CHRISTOPHER SMART — Soliloquy of the
Princess Periwinkle in "A Trip to Cambridge." See "Campbell's Specimens of the British Poets." Vol. VI. P. 185. Birds in their little nests agree: And 'tis a shameful sight, When children of one family Fall out, and chide, and fight.— ISAAC WATTS — Divine Songs. XVII.
Quanto quisque sibi plura negaverit, A dis plura feret. Nil cupientium Nudus castra peto. The more a man denies himself, the more he shall receive from heaven. Naked, I seek the camp of those who covet nothing.— HORACE — Carmina. III. 16. 21.
Quod satis est cui contigit, nihil amplius optet. Let him who has enough ask for nothing more.— HORACE — Epistolæ. 1. 2. 46.
Sit mihi mensa tripes et Coucha salis puri et toga quæ defendere frigus Quamvis crassa queat. Let me have a three-legged table, a dish of salt, and a cloak which, altho' coarse, will keep off the cold.— HORACE — Satiræ. I. 3. 13.
Sit mihi quod nunc est, etiam minus et mihi vivam Quod superest ævi-si quid superesse volunt di, Let me possess what I now have, or even less, so that I may enjoy my remaining days, if Heaven grant any to remain.— HORACE — Epistolæ. I. 18. 107.
Qua positus fueris in statione, mane. Stay in that station in which you have been placed.— OVID — Fasti. II. 674.
Habeas ut nactus: nota mala res optima est. Keep what you have got; the known evil is best.— PLAUTUS — Trinummus. I. 2. 25.
Si animus est æquus tibi satis habes, qui bene vitam colas. If you are content, you have enough to live comfortably.— PLAUTUS — Aulularia. II. 2. 10.
Aliena nobis, nostra plus aliis placent. The circumstances of others seem good to us, while ours seem good to others.— SYRUS — Maxims.
Vivite felices, quibus est fortuna peracta Jam sua. Be happy ye, whose fortunes are already completed.— VIRGIL — Eneid. III. 493.
Ex magno certamine magnas excitari ferme iras. Great contests generally excite great animosities.— LIVY — Annales. III. 40.
Ducibus tantum de funere pugna est. The chiefs contend only for their place of burial.— LUCAN — Pharsalia. VI. 811.
Cadit statim simultas, ab altera parte deserta; nisi pariter, non pugnant. A quarrel is quickly settled when deserted by one party: there is no battle unless there be two.— SENECA — De Ira. II. 34.
Nimium altercando veritas amittitur. In excessive altercation, truth is lost.— SYRUS — Maxims.