Reference > Quotations > C.N. Douglas, comp. > Forty Thousand Quotations > Category Index
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CONTENTS · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
C.N. Douglas, comp.  Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical.  1917.
 
Proverbs (Famous)
 
  A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
Cervantes.    
  1
  A baker’s dozen.
Rabelais.    
  2
  A cat may look at a king.
Title of a Pamphlet (published 1652).    
  3
  A carpenter’s known by his chips.
Swift.    
  4
  A dwarf on a giant’s shoulder sees farther of the two.
Herbert.    
  5
  A fair exterior is a silent recommendation.
Publius Syrus.    
  6
  A happy accident.
Mme. De Staël.    
  7
  A little more than kin, and less than kind.
Shakespeare.    
  8
  All that glisters is not gold.
Cervantes.    
  9
  All’s well that ends well.
Shakespeare.    
  10
  Although the last, not least.
Shakespeare.    
  11
        And all labor without any play, boys,
Makes Jack a dull boy in the end.
H. A. Page.    
  12
  An undutiful daughter will prove an unmanageable wife.
Benj. Franklin.    
  13
  A penny for your thought.
Swift.    
  14
  A rolling stone gathers no moss.
Publius Syrus.    
  15
  As busie as a bee.
Lyly.    
  16
  As sure as a gun.
Dryden.    
  17
  As you sow, y’ are like to reap.
Butler.    
  18
  At our wittes end.
Heywood.    
  19
  Bread is the staff of life.
Swift.    
  20
 
 
  As clear and as manifest as the nose in a man’s face.
Burton.    
  21
  Brevity is the soul of wit.
Shakespeare.    
  22
  Build castles in Spain.
Herbert.    
  23
  Build castles in the air.
Burton.    
  24
  But ne’er the rose without the thorn.
Herrick.    
  25
        But when the fox hath once got in his nose,
He’ll soon find means to make the body follow.
Shakespeare.    
  26
  Better late than never.
Dionysius.    
  27
  Better a bad excuse, than none at all.
Camden.    
  28
  Birds of a feather will gather together.
Burton.    
  29
  Better halfe a loafe than no bread.
Camden.    
  30
  Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay.
Tennyson.    
  31
  Be wisely worldly, but not worldly wise.
Quarles.    
  32
  Blood is thicker than water.
Scott.    
  33
  Better your room than your company.
Simon Forman.    
  34
  By hooke or crooke.
Heywood.    
  35
  Can one desire too much of a good thing?
Cervantes.    
  36
        Curses are like young chickens,
And still come home to roost!
Bulwer.    
  37
  Couldst thou both eat thy cake and have it?
Herbert.    
  38
  Cut and come again.
Crabbe.    
  39
  Delays have dangerous ends.
Shakespeare.    
  40
  Deceive not thy physician, confessor, nor lawyer.
Herbert.    
  41
  Comparisons are odious.
Burton.    
  42
  Dark as pitch.
Bunyan.    
  43
  Deeds, not words.
Beaumont and Fletcher.    
  44
  Diamonds cut diamonds.
John Ford.    
  45
        Don’t cross the bridge till you come to it,
Is a proverb old, and of excellent wit.
Longfellow.    
  46
  Enough is as good as a feast.
George Chapman.    
  47
  Eureka! Eureka!
Archimedes.    
  48
  Every man for himself, his own ends, the devil for all.
Burton.    
  49
  Every man is the architect of his own fortunes.
Pseudo Sallust.    
  50
  Facts are stubborn things.
Le Sage.    
  51
  Faint heart ne’er won fair lady.
Phineas Fletcher.    
  52
  Familiarity breeds contempt.
Publius Syrus.    
  53
  Fingers were made before forks and hands before knives.
Swift.    
  54
  Fools make feasts, and wise men eat them.
Benj. Franklin.    
  55
  Fat, fair, and forty.
Scott.    
  56
  Fortune befriends the bold.
Cicero.    
  57
  From the crown of our head to the sole of our foot.
Beaumont and Fletcher.    
  58
  God defend the right.
Shakespeare.    
  59
  Give an inch, he’ll take an ell.
Hobbes.    
  60
  God never sendeth mouth but he sendeth meat.
Heywood.    
  61
  Go West, young man! Go West.
John L. B. Soule.    
  62
  God’s mills grind slow but sure.
Herbert.    
  63
  Fitted him to a T.
Sam’l Johnson.    
  64
  Give the devil his due.
Dryden.    
  65
  Greatest happiness of the greatest number.
Hutcheson.    
  66
  Handsome is that handsome does.
Goldsmith.    
  67
  Half the world knows not how the other half lives.
Herbert.    
  68
  He always looked a given horse in the mouth.
Rabelais.    
  69
  Hail, fellow, well met.
Swift.    
  70
  Harp not on that string.
Shakespeare.    
  71
  Half as sober as a judge.
Charles Lamb.    
  72
  He jests at scars that never felt a wound.
Shakespeare.    
  73
  Have you summoned your wits from wool-gathering?
Thos. Middleton.    
  74
  Have yee him on the hip?
Heywood.    
  75
  He knew what is what.
Skelton.    
  76
  He must have a long spoon that must eat with the devil.
Shakespeare.    
  77
  Here is the devil-and-all to pay.
Cervantes.    
  78
  He must needes go that the dyvell dryveth.
Johan the Husbande.    
  79
  He went away with a flea in ’s ear.
Beaumont and Fletcher.    
  80
  He that is down can fall no lower.
Butler.    
  81
  He that has two strings t’ his bow.
Butler.    
  82
  He’s a sure card.
Dryden.    
  83
  He that runs may read.
Cowper.    
  84
  He will give the devil his due.
Shakespeare.    
  85
  I have other fish to fry.
Cervantes.    
  86
  Hit the nail on the head.
Beaumont and Fletcher.    
  87
  Hold their noses to the grindstone.
Thos. Middleton.    
  88
  How well I feathered my nest.
Rabelais.    
  89
  His bark is worse than his bite.
Herbert.    
  90
  Hide their diminished heads.
Milton.    
  91
  I am almost frightened out of my seven senses.
Cervantes.    
  92
  I am just going to leap into the dark.
Rabelais.    
  93
  If you would be loved, love and be lovable.
Benj. Franklin.    
  94
  Imitation is the sincerest of flattery.
C. C. Colton.    
  95
  I’ll make the fur fly ’bout the ears of the old cur.
Butler.    
  96
  I can tell where my own shoe pinches me.
Cervantes.    
  97
  Ill blows the wind that profits nobody.
Shakespeare.    
  98
  I find the medicine worse than the malady.
Beaumont and Fletcher.    
  99
  I have you on the hip.
Shakespeare.    
  100
  It is a wise father that knows his own child.
Shakespeare.    
  101
  It is a poor sport that is not worth the candle.
Herbert.    
  102
  I will dig in the last ditch.
William of Orange.    
  103
  I won’t quarrel with my bread and butter.
Swift.    
  104
  It is better to wear out than to rust out.
Bishop Cumberland.    
  105
  Let us do or die.
Burns.    
  106
  Laugh and be fat.
John Taylor.    
  107
  Leap out of the frying pan into the fire.
Cervantes.    
  108
  Let pride go afore, shame will follow after.
George Chapman.    
  109
  Lord, what fools these mortals be!
Shakespeare.    
  110
  Let the worst come to the worst.
Cervantes.    
  111
  Living from hand to mouth.
Du Bartas.    
  112
  Look before you ere you leap.
Butler.    
  113
  Life is short, yet sweet.
Euripides.    
  114
  Looked unutterable things.
Thomson.    
  115
  Men are but children of a larger growth.
Dryden.    
  116
  Make a virtue of necessity.
Burton.    
  117
  Man proposes, but God disposes.
Thos. à Kempis.    
  118
  Matches are made in heaven.
Burton.    
  119
  Mad as a March hare.
Halliwell.    
  120
  Moche Crye and no Wull.
Fortescue.    
  121
  Much of a muchness.
Vanbrugh.    
  122
  More knave than fool.
Cervantes.    
  123
  My man’s as true as steel.
Shakespeare.    
  124
  No man is a hero to his valet-de-chambre.
Attributed to Marshal Catinat.    
  125
  Never leave that till to-morrow which you can do to-day.
Benj. Franklin.    
  126
  No rule is so general, which admits not some exception.
Burton.    
  127
  No cross, no crown.
St. Paulinus.    
  128
  Neat, not gaudy.
Charles Lamb.    
  129
  Necessity knows no law except to conquer.
Publius Syrus.    
  130
  Needle in a bottle of hay.
Field.    
  131
  Not if I know myself at all.
Charles Lamb.    
  132
  Nothing is certain but death and taxes.
Benj. Franklin.    
  133
  Nought venter nought have.
Heywood.    
  134
  Not lost, but gone before.
Matthew Henry.    
  135
  On his last legs.
Thos. Middleton.    
  136
  Oft times many things fall out between the cup and the lip.
Greene.    
  137
  One foot in the grave.
Beaumont and Fletcher.    
  138
  One hour’s sleep before midnight is worth three after.
Herbert.    
  139
  Oil on troubled waters.
Bede.    
  140
  Of two evils I have chose the least.
Prior.    
  141
  Others set carts before the horses.
Rabelais.    
  142
  Ossa on Pelion.
Ovid.    
  143
  Rome was not built in one day.
Heywood.    
  144
  Penny wise, pound foolish.
Burton.    
  145
  Plain as a nose in a man’s face.
Rabelais.    
  146
  Put himself upon his good behavior.
Byron.    
  147
  Pity’s akin to love.
Thos. Southerne.    
  148
  Rise with the lark and with the lark to bed.
James Hurdis.    
  149
  Praise the bridge that carried you over.
Geo. Colman (the Younger).    
  150
  Out of syght, out of mynd.
Googe.    
  151
  Right as a trivet.
R. H. Barham.    
  152
  Robbe Peter and pay Paule.
Heywood.    
  153
  Set the cart before the horse.
Heywood.    
  154
  She is no better than she should be.
Henry Fielding.    
  155
  So obliging that he ne’er oblig’d.
Pope.    
  156
  Seize time by the forelock.
Pittacus.    
  157
  Silence gives consent.
Fuller.    
  158
  She watches him as a cat would watch a mouse.
Swift.    
  159
  See and to be seen.
Ben Jonson.    
  160
  Set a beggar on horseback, and he will ride a gallop.
Burton.    
  161
  Speech is silver, silence is golden.
Carlyle.    
  162
  Snug as a bug in a rug.
The Stratford Jubilee.    
  163
  Spick and span new.
Cervantes.    
  164
  Smell a rat.
Cervantes.    
  165
  Strike the iron whilst it is hot.
Rabelais.    
  166
  Spare your breath to cool your porridge.
Cervantes.    
  167
  Smooth runs the water, where the brook is deep.
Shakespeare.    
  168
  Speak boldly, and speak truly, shame the devil.
Beaumont and Fletcher.    
  169
  The burnt child dreads the fire.
Ben Jonson.    
  170
  The coast was clear.
Michael Drayton.    
  171
  That which is everybody’s business is nobody’s business.
Izaak Walton.    
  172
  Tell tales out of schoole.
Heywood.    
  173
  Tall oaks from little acorns grow.
David Everett.    
  174
  The better day the better deed.
Sir John Holt.    
  175
  Take Time by the forelock.
Thales.    
  176
  The more haste, ever the worst speed.
Churchill.    
  177
  The more the merrier.
Heywood.    
  178
  The mill will never grind with the water that is past.
Sarah Dowdney.    
  179
  The game is up.
Shakespeare.    
  180
  The King is dead! Long live the King!
Pardoe.    
  181
  The end must justify the means.
Prior.    
  182
  The fat is in the fire.
Heywood.    
  183
  The eyes have one language everywhere.
Herbert.    
  184
  There’s luck in odd numbers.
Samuel Lover.    
  185
  There’s a time for all things.
Shakespeare.    
  186
  There can no great smoke arise, but there must be some fire.
Lyly.    
  187
  There are some remedies worse than the disease.
Publius Syrus.    
  188
  The remedy is worse than the disease.
Bacon.    
  189
  There is no jesting with edge tools.
Beaumont and Fletcher.    
  190
  The very pink of perfection.
Goldsmith.    
  191
  There, though last, not least.
Spenser.    
  192
  The time is out of joint.
Shakespeare.    
  193
  This peck of troubles.
Cervantes.    
  194
  The short and the long of it.
Shakespeare.    
  195
  The will for the deed.
Colley Cibber.    
  196
  They that touch pitch will be defiled.
Shakespeare.    
  197
        Though this may be play to you,
’Tis death to us.
Roger L’Estrange.    
  198
  Three may keep a secret if two of them are dead.
Benj. Franklin.    
  199
  Those that God loves, do not live long.
Herbert.    
  200
  ’Tis nothing when you are used to it.
Swift.    
  201
  Thy will for deed I do accept.
Du Bartas.    
  202
  ’Tis neither here nor there.
Shakespeare.    
  203
  Two of a trade can ne’er agree.
Gay.    
  204
  To make a mountain of a mole-hill.
Henry Ellis.    
  205
  Two heads are better than one.
Heywood.    
  206
  Turn over a new leaf.
Thomas Dekker.    
  207
  To make a virtue of necessity.
Shakespeare.    
  208
  To put a girdle round about the world.
Geo. Chapman.    
  209
  Unquiet meals make ill digestions.
Shakespeare.    
  210
  We’ll take the good-will for the deed.
Rabelais.    
  211
        What’s one man’s poison, signior,
Is another’s meat or drink.
Beaumont and Fletcher.    
  212
  We have here other fish to fry.
Rabelais.    
  213
  Time is money.
Bulwer-Lytton.    
  214
  Virtue is her own reward.
Dryden.    
  215
  We have scotch’d the snake, not killed it.
Shakespeare.    
  216
  What will Mrs. Grundy say?
Thos. Morton.    
  217
  Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well.
Earl of Chesterfield.    
  218
  What is sauce for the goose is sauce for a gander.
Tom Brown.    
  219
  What mare’s nest hast thou found?
Beaumont and Fletcher.    
  220
  Went in at the one eare and out at the other.
Heywood.    
  221
  When the lion’s skin cannot prevail, a little of the fox’s must be used.
Lysander.    
  222
  When the age is in, the wit is out.
Shakespeare.    
  223
  Where there’s marriage without love there will be love without marriage.
Benj. Franklin.    
  224
  Where God hath a temple, the devil will have a chapel.
Burton.    
  225
  Where the streame runneth smoothest, the water is deepest.
Lyly.    
  226
  Where the drink goes in, there the wit goes out.
Herbert.    
  227
  You must take the will for the deed.
Swift.    
  228
 
 
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