Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Example
Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other.
Burke—Letter I. On a Regicide Peace. Vol. V. P. 331.
Illustrious Predecessor.
Burke—Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents. (Edition 1775).
Why doth one man’s yawning make another yawn?
Burton—Anatomy of Melancholy. Pt. I. Sec. II. Memb. 3. Subsect. 2.
This noble ensample to his sheepe he gaf,—
That firste he wroughte and afterward he taughte.
Chaucer—Canterbury Tales. Prologue. L. 496.
Quod exemplo fit, id etiam jure fieri putant.
Men think they may justly do that for which they have a precedent.
Cicero—Epistles. IV. 3.
Componitur orbis
Regis ad exemplum; nec sic inflectere sensus
Humanos edicta valent, quam vita regentis.
The people are fashioned according to the example of their kings; and edicts are of less power than the life of the ruler.
Claudianus—De Quarto Consulatu Honorii Augustii Panegyris. CCXCIX.
Illustrious predecessors.
Fielding—Covent Garden Journal. Jan. 11, 1752.
Allured to brighter worlds, and led the way.
Goldsmith—Deserted Village. L. 170.
Since truth and constancy are vain,
Since neither love, nor sense of pain,
Nor force of reason, can persuade,
Then let example be obey’d.
Geo. Granville (Lord Lansdowne)—To Myra.
Content to follow when we lead the way.
Homer—The Iliad. Bk. X. L. 141. Pope’s trans.
Avidos vicinum funus ut ægros
Exanimat, mortisque metu sibi parcere cogit;
Sic teneros animos aliena opprobria sæpe
Absterrent vitiis.
As a neighboring funeral terrifies sick misers, and fear obliges them to have some regard for themselves; so, the disgrace of others will often deter tender minds from vice.
Horace—Satires. I. 4. 126.
I do not give you to posterity as a pattern to imitate, but as an example to deter.
Junius—Letter XII. To the Duke of Grafton.
Unde tibi frontem libertatemque parentis,
Cum facias pejora senex?
Whence do you derive the power and privilege of a parent, when you, though an old man, do worse things (than your child)?
Juvenal—Satires. XIV. 56.
L’exemple est un dangereux leurre;
Où la guêpe a passé, le moucheron demeure.
Example is a dangerous lure: where the wasp got through the gnat sticks fast.
La Fontaine—Fables. II. XVI.
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.
Longfellow—A Psalm of Life.
He who should teach men to die, would at the same time teach them to live.
Montaigne—Essays. Bk. I. Ch. XIX.
He was indeed the glass
Wherein the noble youth did dress themselves.
Henry IV. Pt. II. Act II. Sc. 3. L. 21.
Sheep follow sheep.
Talmud. Ketuboth 62.
Inspicere tamquam in speculum in vitas omnium
Jubeo atque ex aliis sumere exemplum sibi.
We should look at the lives of all as at a mirror, and take from others an example for ourselves.
Terence—Adelphi. III. 3. 62.
Felix quicumque dolore alterius disces posse cavere tuo.
Happy thou that learnest from another’s griefs, not to subject thyself to the same.
Tibullus—Carmina. III. 6. 43.
I tread in the footsteps of illustrious men … in receiving from the people the sacred trust confided to my illustrious predecessor.
Martin Van Buren—Inaugural Address. March 4, 1837.
Sequiturque patrem non passibus æquis.
He follows his father with unequal steps.
Vergil—Æneid. II. 724.