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John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.

286 John Lyly 1554?-1606 John Bartlett

 
NUMBER:286
AUTHOR:John Lyly (1554?–1606)
QUOTATION:The soft droppes of rain perce the hard marble; 1 many strokes overthrow the tallest oaks. 2
ATTRIBUTION:Euphues, 1579 (Arber’s reprint), page 81.
 
Note 1.
Water continually dropping will wear hard rocks hollow.—Plutarch: Of the Training of Children.

Stillicidi casus lapidem cavat (Continual dropping wears away a stone). Lucretius: i. 314. [back]
Note 2.
Many strokes, though with a little axe,
Hew down and fell the hardest-timber’d oak.
William Shakespeare: 3 Henry VI. act ii. sc. 1. [back]