Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Novelty
There is nothing new except what is forgotten.
Mademoiselle Bertin (Milliner to Marie Antoinette.)
Spick and span new.
Cervantes—Don Quixote. Pt. II. Ch. LVIII. Thos. Middleton—The Family of Love. Act IV. Sc. 3.
There is no new thing under the sun.
Ecclesiastes. I. 9.
Is there anything whereof it may be said, See, this is new? It hath been already of old time, which was before us.
Ecclesiastes. I. 10.
Wie machen wir’s, dass alles frisch und neu
Und mit Bedeutung auch gefällig sei?
How shall we plan, that all be fresh and new—
Important matter yet attractive too?
Goethe—Faust. Vorspiel auf dem Theater. L. 15.
Dulcique animos novitate tenebo.
And I will capture your minds with sweet novelty.
Ovid—Metamorphoses. Bk. IV. 284.
Est natura hominum novitatis avida.
Human nature is fond of novelty.
Pliny the Elder—Historia Naturalis. XII. 5. 3.
Ex Africa semper aliquid novi.
Always something new out of Africa.
Pliny the Elder—Historia Naturalis. 8. 6.
Afrique est coustumiere toujours choses produire nouvelles et monstrueuses.
It is the custom of Africa always to produce new and monstrous things.
Rabelais—Pantagruel. Bk. V. Ch. III.
Sehen Sie, die beste Neuigkeit verliert, sobald sie Stadtmärchen wird.
Observe, the best of novelties palls when it becomes town talk.
Schiller—Fiesco. III. 10.
What is valuable is not new, and what is new is not valuable.
Daniel Webster. At Marshfield. Sept. 1, 1848. Criticism of the platform of the Free Soil party. Phrase used in Edinburgh Review by Lord Brougham in an article on the work of Dr. Thomas Young.