Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Danger
Anguis sub viridi herba.
There’s a snake in the grass.
Bacon. Quoted in Essays. Of a King.
The wolf was sick, he vowed a monk to be;
But when he got well, a wolf once more was he.
In Walter Bower’s Scotichronicon. (15th cent.). Found in MS. Black Book of Paisley in British Museum. End.
I have not quailed to danger’s brow
When high and happy—need I now?
Byron—Giaour. L. 1,035.
In summo periculo timor misericordiam non recipit.
In extreme danger, fear turns a deaf ear to every feeling of pity.
Cæsar—Bellum Gallicum. VII. 26.
Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
I Corinthians. X. 12.
A daring pilot in extremity;
Pleas’d with the danger, when the waves went high
He sought the storms.
Dryden—Absalom and Achitophel. Pt. I. L. 159.
Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.
Ecclesiastes. XII. 6.
Quo tendis inertem
Rex periture, fugam? Nescis heu, perdite! nescis
Quem fugias; hostes incurris, dum fugis hostem.
Incidis in Scyllam cupiens vitare Charybdim.
Where, O king, destined to perish, are you directing your unavailing flight? Alas, lost one, you know not whom you flee; you are running upon enemies, whilst you flee from your foe. You fall upon the rock Scylla desiring to avoid the whirlpool Charybdis.
Phillippe Gaultier de Lille (“D. Chatillon”). Alexandriad. Bk. V. 298. Found in the Menagiana. Ed. by Bertrand de la Monnoie. (1715). Source said to be Quintus Curtius. See Andrews—Antient and Modern Anecdotes. P. 307. (Ed. 1790). (See also Homer—Odyssey. Bk. XII. L. 85. Merchant of Venice. III. 5.)
For all on a razor’s edge it stands.
Homer—Iliad. Bk. X. L. 173. Same use in Herodotus. VI. 11. Theocritus—Idyl. XXII. 6. Theogenes. 557.
Periculosæ plenum opus aleæ
Tractas, et incedis per ignes
Suppositos cineri doloso.
You are dealing with a work full of dangerous hazard, and you are venturing upon fires overlaid with treacherous ashes.
Horace—Odes. Bk. II. 1. 6. The following line (authorship unknown) is sometimes added: “Si morbum fugiens incidis in medicos.” [In fleeing disease you fall into the hands of the doctors.]
Quid quisque vitet nunquam homini satis
Cantum est in horas.
Man is never watchful enough against dangers that threaten him every hour.
Horace—Carmina. II. 13. 13.
Multos in summa pericula misit
Venturi timor ipse mali.
The mere apprehension of a coming evil has put many into a situation of the utmost danger.
Lucan—Pharsalia. VII. 104.
’Twas a dangerous cliff, as they freely confessed,
Though to walk near its crest was so pleasant,
But over its terrible edge there had slipped
A Duke and full many a peasant,
So the people said something would have to be done,
But their projects did not at all tally.
Some said: “Put a fence round the edge of the cliff.”
Some: “An ambulance down in the valley.”
Joseph Maunes—Fince or Ambulance. Appeared in the Virginia Health Bulletin with title Prevention and Cure.
What a sea
Of melting ice I walk on!
Massinger—Maid of Honor. Act III. Sc. 3.
Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for … the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
Psalms. XCI. 6.
Passato il pericolo (or punto) gabbato il santo.
When the danger’s past the saint is cheated.
Rabelais—Pantagruel. IV. 24. Quoted as a proverb.
Ægrotat Dæmon; monachus tunc esse volebat,
Dæmon convaluit; Dæmon ante fuit.
Mediæval Latin.
The devil was sick, the devil a monk would be;
The devil was well, the devil a monk was he.
As trans. by Urquhart and Motteux.
Sur un mince chrystal l’hyver conduit leurs pas,
Telle est de nos plaisirs la legere surface,
Glissez mortels; n’appuyez pas.
O’er the ice the rapid skater flies.
With sport above and death below,
Where mischief lurks in gay disguise
Thus lightly touch and quickly go.
Pierre Charles Roy. Lines under a picture of skaters, a print of a painting by Lancret. Trans. by Samuel Johnson. See Piozzi, Anecdotes.
Scit eum sine gloria vinci, qui sine periculo vincitur.
He knows that the man is overcome ingloriously, who is overcome without danger.
Seneca—De Providentia. III.
Contemptum periculorum assiduitas periclitandi dabit.
Constant exposure to dangers will breed contempt for them.
Seneca—De Providentia. IV.
Il n’y a personne qui ne soit dangereux pour quelqu’un.
There is no person who is not dangerous for some one.
Mme. de Sévigné—Lettres.
For though I am not splenitive and rash,
Yet have I something in me dangerous.
Hamlet. Act V. Sc. 1. L. 285.
Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.
Henry IV. Pt. I. Act II. Sc. 3.
We have scotched the snake, not killed it:
She’ll close and be herself, whilst our poor malice
Remains in danger of our former tooth.
Macbeth. Act III. Sc. 2. L. 13.
When I shun Scylla, your father, I fall into
Charybdis, your mother.
Merchant of Venice. Act III. Sc. 5. L. 18.
Some of us will smart for it.
Much Ado About Nothing. Act V. Sc. 1. L. 109.
Upon this hint I spake;
She loved me for the dangers I had passed
And I loved her that she did pity them.
Othello. Act I. Sc. 3. L. 166.
He is not worthy of the honeycomb
That shuns the hives because the bees have stings.
The Tragedy of Locrine. (1595) III. II. 39. Shakespeare Apocrypha.
It is no jesting with edge tools.
The True Tragedy of Richard III. (1594) Same in Beaumont and Fletcher—Little French Lawyer. Act IV. Sc. 7.
Caret periculo qui etiam tutus cavet.
He is safe from danger who is on his guard even when safe.
Syrus—Maxims.
Citius venit periculum, cum contemnitur.
Danger comes the sooner when it is despised.
Syrus—Maxims.
Si cadere necesse est, occurendum discrimini.
If we must fall, we should boldly meet the danger.
Tacitus—Annales. II. 1. 33.
Qui legitis flores et humi nascentia fraga,
Fridigus, O pueri, fugite hinc; latet anguis in herba.
O boys, who pluck the flowers and strawberries springing from the ground, flee hence; a cold snake lies hidden in the grass.
Vergil—Eclogues. III. 92.
Time flies, Death urges, knells call, Heaven invites,
Hell threatens.
Young—Night Thoughts. Night II. L. 291.