James Wood, comp. Dictionary of Quotations. 1899.
Natur und Kunst to Nemesis is lame
Natur und Kunst, sie scheinen sich zu fliehen, / Und haben sich, eh’ man es denkt, gefunden—Nature and art seem to shun each other, and have met (lit. found each other) ere one is aware.Goethe.
Natura beatis / Omnibus esse dedit, si quis cognoverit uti—Nature has granted to all to be happy, if we but knew how to use her gifts.Claudian.
Natura il fece, e poi roppe la stampa—Nature fashioned him, and then broke the mould.Ariosto.
Natura ipsa valere, et mentis viribus excitari, et quasi quodam divino spiritu afflari—To be strong by nature, to be urged on by the native powers of the mind, and to be inspired by a divine spirit, as it were.Cicero.
Natura naturans—Nature formative.
Natura naturata—Nature passive; nature formed.
Natura nihil agit frustra—Nature does nothing in vain.
Natura non facit saltus—Nature makes no leaps.
Natura, quam te colimus inviti quoque—O Nature, now we bow to thee even against our will.Seneca.
Natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience.Bacon.
Natural abilities can almost make up for the want of every kind of cultivation, but no cultivation for want of natural abilities.Schopenhauer.
Natural knowledge is come at by the continuance and progress of learning and of liberty, and by particular persons attending to, comparing, and pursuing intimations scattered up and down it, which are overlooked and disregarded by the generality of the world.Bishop Butler.
Natural objects always did and do weaken, deaden, and obliterate imagination in me.William Blake.
Natural selection is the principle by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved.Darwin.
Naturalia non sunt turpia—Natural things are without shame.
Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque recurret—Drive Nature out with a pitchfork, she will every time come rushing back.Horace.
Nature abhors a vacuum.Proverb.
Nature admits no lie.Carlyle.
Nature acts towards us like an Oriental potentate with Mamelukes under him, whom he employs for some mysterious purpose, but to whom he never shows himself in person.Renan.
Nature alone is antique, and the oldest art a mushroom.Carlyle.
Nature alone is permanent.Longfellow.
Nature alone knows what she means.Goethe.
Nature always leaps to the surface, and manages to show what she is.Boileau.
Nature always speaks of spirit.Emerson.
Nature always wears the colours of the spirit. To a man labouring under calamity the heat of his own fire hath sadness in it.Emerson.
Nature and art are too grand to go forth in pursuit of aims; nor is it necessary that they should, for there are relations everywhere, and relations constitute life.Goethe.
Nature and books belong to the eyes that see them. It depends on the mood of the man whether he shall see the sunset or the fine poem.Emerson.
Nature and Heaven command you, at your peril, to discern worth from unworth in everything, and most of all in man.Ruskin.
Nature and love cannot be concealed.German Proverb.
Nature and Nature’s laws lay hid in night; / God said, “Let Newton be!” and all was light.Pope.
Nature and truth, though never so low or vulgar, are yet pleasing when openly and artlessly represented.Pope.
Nature builds upon a false bottom, seeks herself what she values in others, and is oftentimes deceived and disappointed. Grace reposes her whole hope and love in God, and is never mistaken, never deluded by false expectations.Thomas à Kempis.
Nature cannot be surprised in undress. Beauty breaks in everywhere.Emerson.
Nature cannot but always act rightly, quite unconcerned as to what may be the consequences.Goethe.
Nature counts nothing that she meets with base, / But lives and loves in every place.Tennyson.
Nature, crescent, does not grow alone / In thews and bulk; but, as this temple waxes, / The inward service of the mind and soul / Grows wide withal.Hamlet, i. 3.
Nature does more than supply materials; she also supplies powers.J. S. Mill.
Nature does not cocker us; we are children, not pets; she is not fond; everything is dealt to us without fear or favour, after severe, universal laws.Emerson.
Nature does not like to be observed, and likes that we should be her fools and playmates.Emerson.
Nature does not make all great men, more than all other men, in the self-same mould.Carlyle.
Nature draws with greater force than seven oxen.German Proverb.
Nature ever provides for her own exigencies.Seneca.
Nature fashions no creature without implanting in it the strength needful for its action and duration.Carlyle.
Nature forces on our heart a Creator; history, a Providence.Jean Paul.
Nature gives healthy children much; how much! Wise education is a wise unfolding of this; often it unfolds itself better of its own accord.Goethe.
Nature gives you the impression as if there were nothing contradictory in the world; and yet, when you return back to the dwelling-place of man, be it lofty or low, wide or narrow, there is ever somewhat to contend with, to battle with, to smooth and put to rights.Goethe.
Nature glories in death more than in life. The month of departure is more beautiful than the month of coming…. Every green thing loves to die in bright colours.Ward Beecher.
Nature goes her own way; and all that to us seems an exception, is really according to order.Goethe.
Nature had made occupation a necessity; society makes it a duty; habit may make it a pleasure.Capelle.
Nature has directly formed woman to be a mother, only indirectly to be a wife; man, on the contrary, is rather made to be a husband than a father.Jean Paul.
Nature has given to each one all that as a man he needs, which it is the business of education to develop, if, as most frequently happens, it does not develop better of itself.Goethe.
Nature has lent us tears—the cry of suffering when the man at last can bear it no longer.Goethe.
Nature has made man’s breast no windows / To publish what he does within doors, / Nor what dark secrets there inhabit, / Unless his own rash folly blab it.Butler.
Nature has made provision for all her children; the meanest is not hindered in its existence even by that of the most excellent.Goethe.
Nature has no feeling; the sun gives his light to good and bad alike, and moon and stars shine out for the worst of men as for the best.Goethe.
Nature has no moods; they belong to man alone.Auerbach.
Nature has planted passions in the heart of man for the wisest purposes both of religion and life.Fox.
Nature has sometimes made a fool, but a coxcomb is always of man’s own making.Addison.
Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time. / Some that will evermore peep through their eyes / And laugh like parrots at a bagpiper; / And other of such vinegar aspect / That they’ll not show their teeth in way of smile, / Though Nestor swear the jest be laughable.Mer. of Ven., i. 1.
Nature hath made nothing so base but can / Read some instruction to the wisest man.Aleyn.
Nature here shows art, / That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart.Mid. N.’s Dream, ii. 8.
Nature holds an immense uncollected debt over every man’s head.Ward Beecher.
Nature in women is so nearly allied to art.Goethe.
Nature in you stands on the very verge / Of her confine.King Lear, ii. 4.
Nature is a friend to truth.Young.
Nature is a frugal mother, and never gives without measure.Emerson.
Nature is a mutable cloud, which is always and never the same.Emerson.
Nature is a Sibyl, who testifies beforehand to what has been determined from all eternity, and was not to be realised till late in time.Goethe.
Nature is a vast trope, and all particular natures are tropes.Emerson.
Nature is always kind enough to give even her clouds a humorous lining.Lowell.
Nature is always lavish, even prodigal.Goethe.
Nature is always like herself.Linnæus.
Nature is always mysterious.Ward.
Nature is always right, and most profoundly so (am gründlichsten) just there where we least comprehend her.Goethe.
Nature is an Æolian harp, a musical instrument whose tones are the re-echo of higher strings within us.Novalis.
Nature is avariciously frugal; in matter it allows no atom to elude her grasp; in mind no thought or feeling to perish. It gathers up the fragments that nothing be lost.Dr. Thomas.
Nature is beyond all teaching.Proverb.
Nature is but a name for an effect whose cause is God.Cowper.
Nature is commanded by obeying her.Bacon.
Nature is content with little, grace with less, but lust with nothing.Matthew Henry.
Nature is despotic, and will not be fooled or abated of any jot of her authority by the pertest of her sons.Emerson.
Nature is full of freaks, and now puts an old head on young shoulders, and then a young heart beating under fourscore winters.Emerson.
Nature is good, but intellect is better, as the lawgiver is before the law-receiver.Emerson.
Nature is good, but she is not the best.Carlyle.
Nature is indeed adequate to Fear, but to Reverence not adequate.Goethe.
Nature is just towards men. It recompenses them for their sufferings; it renders them laborious, because to the greatest toils it attaches the greatest rewards.Montesquieu.
Nature is no spendthrift, but takes the shortest way to her ends.Emerson.
Nature is not an Aggregate but a Whole.Carlyle.
Nature is not fixed, but fluid; spirit alters, moulds, makes it.Emerson.
Nature is rich; those two eggs you ate to breakfast this morning might, if hatched, have peopled the world with poultry.Carlyle.
Nature is sometimes subdued, but seldom extinguished.Bacon.
Nature is still the grand agent in making poets.Carlyle.
Nature is the art of God.Sir Thomas Browne.
Nature is the best posture-master.Emerson.
Nature is the immense shadow of man.Emerson.
Nature is the living, visible garment of God.Goethe.
Nature is the only book that teems with meaning on every page.Goethe.
Nature knows how to convert evil to good; Nature utilises misers, fanatics, showmen, egotists to accomplish her ends; but we must not think better of the foible for that.Emerson.
Nature knows no equality; her sovereign law is subordination and dependence.Vauvenargues.
Nature knows no pause in progress and development, and attaches her curse on all inaction.Goethe.
Nature listening stood whilst Shakespeare play’d, / And wonder’d at the work herself had made.Churchill.
Nature made every fop to plague his brother, / Just as one beauty mortifies another.Pope.
Nature makes us vagabonds, the world makes us respectable.Alexander Smith.
Nature meant to make woman her masterpiece, but committed a mistake in the choice of the clay; she took it too fine.Lessing.
Nature must obey necessity.Julius Cæsar, iv. 3.
Nature, mysterious even under the light of day, is not to be robbed of her veil; and what she does not choose to reveal, you will not extort from her with levers and screws.Goethe.
Nature needs little, fancy (Wahn) much.Greek Proverb.
Nature never did betray / The heart that loved her.Wordsworth.
Nature never hurries; atom by atom, little by little, she achieves her work.Emerson.
Nature never made an unkind creature; ill-usage and bad habits have deformed a fair and lovely creation.Sterne.
Nature never sends a great man into the planet without confiding the secret to another soul.Emerson.
Nature owns no man who is not a martyr withal.Carlyle.
Nature passes nurture.Proverb.
Nature respects race and not hybrids.Knox.
Nature sent women into the world that they might be mothers and love children, to whom sacrifices must ever be offered, and from whom none can be obtained.Jean Paul.
Nature smiles as sweet, I ween, / To shepherds as to kings.Burns.
Nature stretches out her arms to embrace man; only let his thoughts be of equal greatness.Emerson.
Nature, study, and practice must combine to ensure proficiency in any art.Aristotle.
Nature suffers nothing to remain in her kingdom which cannot help itself.Emerson.
Nature takes as much pains in the forming of a beggar as an emperor.Proverb.
Nature teaches beasts to know their friends.Coriolanus, ii. 1.
Nature transcends all our moods of thought, and its secret we do not yet find.Emerson.
Nature trips us up when we strut.Emerson.
Nature understands no jesting; she is always true, always serious, always severe; she is always right, and the errors and faults are always those of man. Him who is incapable of appreciating her she despises, and only to the apt, the pure, and the true, does she resign herself and reveal her secrets.Goethe.
“Nature veils God,” but what I see of Him in nature is not veiled.Goethe.
Nature, which is the Time-vesture of God, and reveals Him to the wise, hides Him from the foolish.Carlyle.
Nature will not be Buddhist; she resents generalising, and insults the philosopher in every moment with a million of fresh particulars.Emerson.
Nature without discipline is of small force, and discipline without nature more feeble.John Lily.
Nature without learning is like a blind man; learning without Nature, like a maimed one; practice without both, incomplete.Plutarch.
Nature works after such eternal, necessary, divine laws, that the Deity himself could alter nothing in them.Goethe, after Spinoza.
Nature works on the method of all for each and each for all.Emerson.
Nature works very hard, and only hits the white once in a million throws. In mankind, she is contented if she yields one master in a century.Emerson.
Nature’s above art.King Lear, iv. 6.
Nature’s chief masterpiece is writing well.Duke of Buckingham.
Nature’s shadows are ever varying.William Blake.
Nature’s tears are Reason’s merriment.Romeo and Juliet, iv. 5.
Natures that have much heat, and great and violent desires and perturbations, are not ripe for action till they have passed the meridian of their years.Bacon.
Natürlicher Verstand kann fast jeden Grad von Bildung ersetzen, aber keine Bildung den natürlichen Verstand—Natural intelligence may make up almost every step in culture, but no culture make up for natural intelligence.Schopenhauer.
Natus nemo—Not a born soul.Plautus.
Natus sum; esuriebam, quærebam; nunc repletus requiesco—I was born; I felt hungry, and sought for food; now that I am satiated, I lay me down to rest.
Naufragium in portu facere—To make shipwreck in port.Quintilian.
Nay! evermore, / All things and thoughts, both new and old, are writ / Upon the unchanging human heart and soul.Lewis Morris.
Nay, let us seek at home to find / Fit harvest for the brooding mind, / And find, since thus the world grows fair, / Duty and pleasure everywhere.Lewis Morris.
Nay, that’s past praying for.1 Henry IV., ii. 4.
Nay, then, farewell! / I have touch’d the highest point of all my greatness, / And, from that full meridian of my glory, / I haste now to my setting: I shall fall / Like a bright exhalation in the evening, / And no man see me more.Wolsey, in Henry VIII., iii. 2.
Ne Æsopum quidem trivit—He is a backward pupil (lit. he has not yet thumbed Æsop).
Ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito—Yield not to misfortunes, but rather go more boldly to meet them.Virgil.
Ne depugnes in alieno negrotio—Do not take up the cudgels in another man’s affairs.Proverb.
Ne exeat regno—Let him not go out of the kingdom. (A writ to prevent a person leaving the country).Law.
Ne faut-il que délibérer? / La cour en conseillers foisonne: / Est-il besoin d’exécuter? / L’on ne rencontre personne—Is a matter to be discussed? the council chamber is full of advisers. Is there something to be done? the chamber is empty.La Fontaine.
Ne forçons point notre talent; / Nous ne ferions rien avec grâce—Let us not force our faculty; we shall in that case do nothing to good effect.La Fontaine.
Ne fronti crede—Trust not to appearances.
Ne Hercules quidem contra duos—Not even Hercules could contend against two at once.
Ne Jupiter quidem omnibus placet—Not even Jupiter can please everybody.Proverb.
Ne nimium—Not too much.Motto.
Ne obliviscaris—Do not forget.Motto.
Ne plus ultra—What cannot be surpassed; perfection (lit. no more beyond).
Né pour la digestion—Born merely to consume good things.La Bruyère.
Ne quid detrimenti respublica capiat—See that the commonwealth suffer no detriment.
Ne quid falsi dicere audeat, ne quid veri non audeat—Let him not dare to say anything that is false, nor let him dare to say what is not true.Cicero.
Ne quid nimis—Let there be no excess.Motto.
Ne sutor supra crepidam—Let the cobbler stick to his last.Pliny.
Ne te longis ambagibus ultra / Quam satis est morer—To make a long story short (lit. not to detain you by long digressions more than enough).Horace.
Ne te quæsiveris extra—Seek not thyself outside of thyself.
Ne tempora perde precando—Lose not the time that offers itself by praying.Ovid.
Ne tentes, aut perfice—Either attempt not, or go through with it.Motto.
Ne vile fano—Bring nothing base to the temple.Motto.
Ne vile velis—Incline to nothing vile.Motto.
Near and far do not belong to the eternal world, which is not of space and time.Carlyle.
Near is my shirt, but nearer is my skin.Proverb.
Nearer the kirk the farther frae grace.Scotch Proverb.
Nearly all our powerful men in this age of the world are unbelievers; the best of them in doubt and misery; the plurality in plodding hesitation, doing, as well as they can, what practical work lies ready to their hands.Ruskin.
Neat, not gaudy.Charles Lamb.
Nec aspera terrent—Not even hardships deter us.Motto.
Nec caput nec pedes—In confusion, neither head nor tail.Proverb.
Nec cui de te plusquam tibi credas—Do not believe any man more than yourself about yourself.Proverb.
Nec cupias, nec metuas—Neither desire nor fear.Motto.
Nec deus intersit, nisi dignus vindice nodus—Never let a god interfere unless a difficulty arise worthy of a god’s interposition.Horace.
Nec domo dominus sed domino domus honestanda est—The master should not be graced by the mansion, but the mansion by the master.Cicero.
Nec est ad astra mollis e terris via—The way from the earth to the stars is no soft one.Seneca.
Nec habeo, nec careo, nec curo—I neither have, nor want, nor care.Motto.
Nec lusisse pudet, sed non incidere ludum—There is no shame in having led a wild life, but in not breaking it off.Horace.
Nec male notus eques—A knight of good repute.Motto.
Nec meus audet / Rem tentare pudor, quam vires ferre recusent—My modesty does not permit me to essay a thing which my powers are not equal to accomplish.Virgil.
Nec minor est virtus, quam quærere, parta tueri: / Casus inest illic; hic erit artis opus—It is no less merit to keep what you have got than to gain it. In the one there is chance; the other will be a work of art.Ovid.
Nec mora, nec requies—Neither delay nor cessation.Virgil.
Nec morti esse locum—There is no room for death.Ovid.
Nec obolum habet unde restim emat—He hasn’t a penny left to buy a halter.Proverb.
Nec omnia, nec semper, nec ab omnibus—Neither all, nor always, nor by all.
Nec placida contentus quiete est—Nor is he contented with quiet repose.Motto.
Nec pluribus impar—Not an unequal match for numbers.Motto.
Nec prece nec pretio—Neither by entreaty nor by a bribe.Motto.
Nec, quæ præterlit, iterum revocabitur unda; / Nec, quæ præteriit, hora redire potest—Neither can the wave which has passed by be again recalled, nor can the hour which has passed ever return.Ovid.
Nec quærere nec spernere honorem—Neither to seek nor to despise honours.Motto.
Nec regi nec populo, sed utrique—Neither for king nor for people, but for both.Motto.
Nec scire fas est omnia—It is not permitted us to know all things.Horace.
Nec si non obstatur propterea etiam permittitur—That an act is not prohibited, it does not follow that it is permitted.Cicero.
Nec sibi, sed toti genitum se credere mundo—To think that he was born not for himself alone, but for the whole world.Lucan.
Nec soli cedit—He yields not even to the sun.Motto.
Nec temere nec timide—Neither rashly nor timidly.Motto.
Nec tibi quid liceat, sed quid fecisse decebit / Occurrat—And let it not concern you what you may do, but what you ought to do.Claudian.
Nec timeo, nec sperno—I neither fear nor despise.Motto.
Nec Veneris pharetris macer est, aut lampade fervet: / Inde faces ardent, veniunt a dote sagittæ—He is not made thin by Venus’ quiver, nor does he burn with her torch; it is from this that his fires are fed, from her dowry the arrows come.Juvenal.
Nec verbum verbo curabis reddere fidus / Interpres—Nor, as a faithful translator, should you be careful to render the original word for word.Horace.
Nec vidisse semel satis est, juvat usque morari, / Et conferre gradum, et veniendi discere causas—Nor is it enough to have once seen him; they are delighted to linger near him, and to keep step with him, and to learn the reason of his coming.Virgil.
Nec vultu destine dicta tuo—Do not discredit your words by your looks.Ovid.
Necessary patience in seeking the Lord is better than he that leadeth his life without a guide.Ecclesiasticus.
Necesse est cum insanientibus furere, nisi solus relinqueris—You must be mad with the insane unless you wish to be left quite alone.Petronius.
Necesse est ut multos timeat, quem multi timent—He whom many fear must necessarily fear many.Syrus.
Necessità ’l a’ induce, e non diletto—Necessity, not pleasure, brings him here.Dante.
Necessitas non habet legem—Necessity has no law.
Necessity does everything well.Emerson.
Necessity is cruel, but it is the only test of inward strength. Every fool may live according to his own likings.Goethe.
Necessity is the mistress of the arts.Proverb.
Necessity is the mother of invention.Proverb.
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants, it is the creed of slaves.William Pitt.
Necessity makes even cowards brave.Proverb.
Necessity reforms the poor, and satiety the rich.Tacitus.
Necessity unites hearts.German Proverb.
Necessity urges desperate measures.Cervantes.
Necio es quien piensa que otros no piensan—He is a fool who thinks that others don’t think.Spanish Proverb.
Need mak’s an auld wife trot.Scotch Proverb.
Needles and pins, needles and pins! / When a man marries his trouble begins.Proverb.
Needs must when the devil drives.Scotch Proverb.
Ne’er grudge and carp, / Though fortune use you hard and sharp.Burns.
Ne’er let your gear owergang ye—i.e., never let your wealth get the better of you.Scotch Proverb.
Ne’er linger, ne’er o’erhasty be, / For time moves on with measured foot.Goethe.
Ne’er put a sword in a wud man’s (a madman’s) hand.Scotch Proverb.
Ne’er tak’ a wife till ye ken what to do wi’ her.Scotch Proverb.
Ne’er the rose without the thorn.Herrick.
Ne’er trust muckle to an auld enemy or a new freend.Scotch Proverb.
Neglecta solent incendia sumere vires—A fire, if neglected, always gathers in strength.Horace.
Negligence is the rust of the soul, that corrodes through all her best resolves.Feltham.
Negligere quid de se quisque sentiat, non solum arrogantis est, sed omnino dissoluti—To be careless of what others think of us, not only indicates an arrogant, but an utterly abandoned character.Cicero.
Nehmt die Gottheit auf in euren Willen, / Und sie steigt von ihrem Weltenthron—Take the divine up into your will, and she descends from her world-throne.Schiller.
Nehmt die Stimmung wahr, / Denn sie kommt so selten—Take advantage of the right mood, for it comes so seldom.Goethe.
Neid zu fühlen, ist menschlich; Schadenfreude zu geniessen, teuflisch—To feel envy is human; to joy in mischief is devilish.Schopenhauer.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be; / For loan oft loses both itself and friend.Hamlet, i. 3.
Neither borrow money of a neighbour nor a friend, but of a stranger, where, paying for it, thou shalt hear no more of it.Lord Burleigh.
Neither crow nor croak.Proverb.
Neither exalt your pleasures, nor aggravate your vexations, beyond their real and natural state.Johnson.
Neither heat, nor frost, nor thunder / Shall wholly do away, I ween, / The marks of that which once hath been.Coleridge.
Neither hew down the whole forest, nor come home without wood.Servian Proverb.
Neither lead nor drive.Proverb.
Neither our virtues nor vices are all our own.Johnson.
Neither painting nor fighting feed men; nor can capital, in the form of money or machinery, feed them.Ruskin.
Neither praise nor blame is the object of true criticism. Justly to discriminate, firmly to establish, wisely to prescribe, and honestly to award—these are the true aims and duties of criticism.Simms.
Neither rhyme nor reason.Shakespeare.
Neither seek nor shun the fight.Gaelic Proverb.
Neither sign a paper without reading it, nor drink water without seeing it.Spanish Proverb.
Neither wise men nor fools / Can work without tools.Proverb.
Neither woman nor man, nor any kind of creature in the universe, was born for the exclusive, or even the chief, purpose of falling in love or being fallen in love with…. Except the zoophytes and coral insects of the Pacific Ocean, I am acquainted with no creature with whom it is the one or grand object.Carlyle.
Neither women nor linen by candlelight.Proverb.
[Greek]—A dead man doesn’t bite.Plutarch.
Nem. con., abbrev. for Nemine contradicente—Nobody opposing.
Nem. diss., abbrev. for Nemine dissentiente—Same as above.
Nemesis checks, with cubit-rule and bridle, / Immoderate deeds, and boastings rash and idle.Anonymous.
Nemesis is lame, but she is of colossal stature, like the gods.George Eliot.