Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Self
Explore the dark recesses of the mind,
In the soul’s honest volume read mankind,
And own, in wise and simple, great and small,
The same grand leading principle in all,
… and by whatever name we call
The ruling tyrant, Self is all in all.
Churchill.—The Conference, Line 167.
Suppose a neighbor should desire
To light a candle at your fire,
Would it deprive your flame of light,
Because another profits by ’t?
Lloyd.—Epistle to J. B., Esq.
He is too great a niggard that will werne
A man to light a candle at his lanterne;
He shall have never the less light pardie,
Have thou enough, thee thar not plainen thee.
Chaucer.—The Wife of Bath’s Prol. Line 5915.
[To “werne” is to refuse. “Thee thar,” &c., behoves thee not to complain.]
I to myself am dearer than a friend.
Shakespeare.—The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act II. Scene 6. (Proteus balancing himself between honour and dishonour.)
The shin is further off than the knee; let me have something myself.
Buckley’s Theocritus, Page 84.
You shall have her all,
Jewels and gold sometimes, so that herself
Appears the least part of herself.
Ben Jonson.—Catiline, Act II. Scene 1.
Seek not thyself, without thyself, to find.
Dryden’s Persius.—Sat. I. Line 19.
Or sought myself, without myself, from home!
Ben Jonson.—The New Inn, Act II. Scene 1.
Born to myself, I like myself alone.
Rochester.—Essay to Mulgrave.
Self-defence is nature’s eldest law.
Dryden.—Absalom and Achitophel, Part I. Line 548.
For I am the only one of my friends that I can rely upon.
Apollodorus.
Of all mankind each loves himself the best.
Terence. (Ramage’s Thoughts from the Latin, Page 401.)
We have this principal desire implanted in us by nature, that our first wish is to preserve ourselves.
Yonge’s Cicero.—De Finibus, Book IV. Div. X. Page 219.