dots-menu
×

Home  »  Familiar Quotations  »  Page 186

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

Page 186

 
 
Robert Burton. (1577–1640) (continued)
 
2107
    It is most true, stylus virum arguit,—our style bewrays us. 1
          Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
2108
    I had not time to lick it into form, as a bear doth her young ones. 2
          Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
2109
    As that great captain, Ziska, would have a drum made of his skin when he was dead, because he thought the very noise of it would put his enemies to flight.
          Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
2110
    Like the watermen that row one way and look another. 3
          Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
2111
    Smile with an intent to do mischief, or cozen him whom he salutes. 4
          Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
2112
    Him that makes shoes go barefoot himself. 5
          Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
2113
    Rob Peter, and pay Paul. 6
          Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
2114
    Penny wise, pound foolish.
          Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
2115
    Women wear the breeches.
          Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
2116
    Like Æsop’s fox, when he had lost his tail, would have all his fellow foxes cut off theirs. 7
          Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
2117
    Our wrangling lawyers… are so litigious and busy here on earth, that I think they will plead their clients’ causes hereafter,—some of them in hell.
          Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
2118
    Hannibal, as he had mighty virtues, so had he many vices; he had two distinct persons in him. 8
          Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.
 
Note 1.
Le style est l’homme même (The style is the man himself).—Buffon: Discours de Réception (Recueil de l’Académie, 1750). [back]
Note 2.
Arts and sciences are not cast in a mould, but are formed and perfected by degrees, by often handling and polishing, as bears leisurely lick their cubs into form.—Montaigne: Apology for Raimond Sebond, book ii. chap. xii. [back]
Note 3.
Like watermen who look astern while they row the boat ahead.—Plutarch: Whether ’t was rightfully said, Live concealed.

Like rowers, who advance backward.—Montaigne: Of Profit and Honour, book iii. chap. i. [back]
Note 4.
See Shakespeare, Hamlet, Quotation 68. [back]
Note 5.
See Heywood, Quotation 77. [back]
Note 6.
See Heywood, Quotation 62. Francis Rabelais: book i. chap. xi. [back]
Note 7.
Æsop: Fables, book v. fable v. [back]
Note 8.
He left a corsair’s name to other times,
Link’d with one virtue and a thousand crimes.
Lord Byron: The Corsair, canto iii. stanza 24. [back]