There is a time for some things, and a time for all things; a time for great things, and a time for small things.1 Part in. Chap. xxxv. But all in good time. Matters will go swimmingly. Chap. xxxvi. Ibid. Chap. xxxvii. Many go out for wool, and come home shorn themselves. They had best not stir the rice, though it sticks to the pot. Ibid. Chap. xl. Good wits jump; a word to the wise is enough. Ibid. You may as well expect pears from an elm.3 Make it thy business to know thyself, which is the most difficult lesson in the world.1 Chap. xlii. You cannot eat your cake and have your cake; and store's no sore. 6 Diligence is the mother of good fortune. What a man has, so much he is sure of. Chap. xliii. Ibid. Ibid. When a man says, "Get out of my house! what would you have with my wife?" there is no answer to be made. The pot calls the kettle black. This peck of troubles. Ibid. Ibid. Chap. lüi. Chap. liv. When thou art at Rome, do as they do at Rome.7 Many count their chickens before they are hatched; and where they expect bacon, meet with broken bones. 1 To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose. astes iii. 1. 2 See Sterne, page 378. 4 See Chaucer, page 4. 6 See Heywood, page 11. Chap. lv. My thoughts ran a wool-gathering; and I did like the countryman who looked for his ass while he was mounted on his back. Part ii. Chap. lvii. Liberty... is one of the most valuable blessings that Heaven has bestowed upon mankind. As they use to say, spick and span new.1 I think it a very happy accident." I shall be as secret as the grave. Chap. Iviii. Ibid. Ibid. Chap. lxii. Now, blessings light on him that first invented this same sleep! It covers a man all over, thoughts and all, like a cloak; it is meat for the hungry, drink for the thirsty, heat for the cold, and cold for the hot. It is the current coin that purchases all the pleasures of the world cheap, and the balance that sets the king and the shepherd, the fool and the wise man, even.3 Rome was not built in a day.1 Chap. lxviii. Chap. lxxi. The ass will carry his load, but not a double load; ride not a free horse to death. Ibid. Never look for birds of this year in the nests of the last.5 Chap. lxxiv. Don't put too fine a point to your wit for fear it should get blunted. The Little Gypsy (La Gitanilla). My heart is wax moulded as she pleases, but enduring as marble to retain." 1 See Middleton, page 172. 2 See Middleton, page 174. Ibid. 8 Blessing on him who invented sleep, the mantle that covers all human thoughts, the food that appeases hunger, the drink that quenches thirst, the fire that warms cold, the cold that moderates heat, and, lastly, the general coin that purchases all things, the balance and weight that equals the shepherd with the king, and the simple with the wise. - Jarvis's translation. 4 See Heywood, page 15. 5 See Longfellow, page 613. 6 See Byron, page 554. JOHN SIRMOND. 1589 (?) −1649. If on my theme I rightly think, Or any other reason why.2 Causæ Bibendi. FRIEDRICH VON LOGAU. 1604-1655. Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small; 3 Though with patience He stands waiting, with exactness Retribution. (Sinngedichte.) grinds He all. Man-like is it to fall into sin, 1 Goethe adopted this motto for his "Travels in Italy." Sin. (Ibid.) 2 These lines are a translation of a Latin epigram (erroneously ascribed to Henry Aldrich in the "Biographia Britannica," second edition, vol. i. p. 131), which Menage and De la Monnoye attribute to Père Sirmond: Si bene commemini, causæ sunt quinque bibendi: Hospitis adventus; præsens sitis atque futura; Et vini bonitas, et quælibet altera causa. 8 See Herbert, page 206. Menagiana, vol. i. p. 172. Ὀψὲ θεοῦ μύλοι ἀλέουσι τὸ λεπτὸν ἄλευρον. —Oracula Sibylliana, liber viii. line 14. Οψὲ θεῶν ἀλέουσι μύλοι, ἀλέουσι δὲ λεπτά. — LEUTSCH AND SCHNΕΙDEWIN: Corpus Parœmiographorum Græcorum, vol. i. p. 444. Sextus Empiricus is the first writer who has presented the whole of the adage cited by Plutarch in his treatise "Concerning such whom God is slow to punish." ISAAC DE BENSERADE. 1612-1691. In bed we laugh, in bed we cry ; FRANCIS, DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD. 1613-1680. (Reflections, or Sentences and Moral Maxims.) Our virtues are most frequently but vices disguised.2 We have all sufficient strength to endure the misfortunes of others. Maxim 19. Philosophy triumphs easily over past evils and future evils; but present evils triumph over it.3 Maxim 22. We need greater virtues to sustain good than evil fortune. Maxim 25. Neither the sun nor death can be looked at with a steady eye. Maxim 26. Interest speaks all sorts of tongues, and plays all sorts of parts, even that of disinterestedness. Maxim 39. We are never so happy or so unhappy as we suppose. Maxim 49. There are few people who would not be ashamed of being loved when they love no longer. 1 Translated by Samuel Johnson. Maxim 71. 2 This epigraph, which is the key to the system of La Rochefoucauld, is found in another form as No. 179 of the Maxims of the first edition, 1665 ; it is omitted from the second and third, and reappears for the first time in the fourth edition at the head of the Reflections. - AIME MARTIN. 8 See Goldsmith, page 401. True love is like ghosts, which everybody talks about and few have seen. Maxim 76. The love of justice is simply, in the majority of men, the fear of suffering injustice. Maxim 78. Silence is the best resolve for him who distrusts himself. Maxim 79. Friendship is only a reciprocal conciliation of interests, and an exchange of good offices; it is a species of commerce out of which self-love always expects to gain something. Maxim 83. A man who is ungrateful is often less to blame than his benefactor. Maxim 96. The understanding is always the dupe of the heart. Maxim 102. Nothing is given so profusely as advice. Maxim 110. The true way to be deceived is to think oneself more knowing than others. Maxim 127. Usually we praise only to be praised. Maxim 146. Our repentance is not so much regret for the ill we have done as fear of the ill that may happen to us in consequence. Most people judge men only by success or by fortune. Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue. Maxim 180. Maxim 212. Maxim 218. Too great haste to repay an obligation is a kind of ingratitude. Maxim 226. There is great ability in knowing how to conceal one's ability. Maxim 245. The pleasure of love is in loving. We are happier in the passion we feel than in that we inspire.1 1 See Shelley, page 566. Maxim 259. |