Men are governmed by their imagination. --Napoleon
Coutume, opinion, reines de notre sort, Vous reglez des mortels de la vie, et la mort. Custom, opinion, arbitrers of our fate, you rule both the lives and deaths of mankind.
Summae opes, inopia cupiditatum. Absense of desire is the greatest of riches. --from Seneca
Vulgare amici nomen, sed rara est fides. Nothing is more common than the name of friend, nothing more rare than true friendship (fidelity).--Socrates
Vous etes empereur, seigneur, et vous pleurez! You are emperor, sire, and you weep?--Berenice
Usque adeone mori miserum est? Is it so hard a thing to die? --Virgil
Vivare est cogitare. The essence of life is thinking. --Cicero.
You wished it, you wished it, Georges Dandin! You wished it! It is all your own doing, you have brought it on yourself. Moliere--G. Dandin
Vita sine proposito vaga est. A life without an aim is a sadly desultory one.--Seneca
Ad populum phaleras, ego te intus et in cute novi. Keep your finery for the mob, I know your nature to the very bottom. --Persius Flaccus
Vincere scis, Hannibal; victoria uti nescis. You know how to win the victory, Hannibal, but you don't know how to profit by it.--Livy
Ventum seminbunt et turbinem metent. They shall sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.--Ovid
Alles schon dagewesen. Everything has been already; and there is nothing new under the sun. --Gutzkow
Alterius non sit qui suus esse potest. Let none be at the beck of another who can be his own master. --Gualterus Anglus to Henry II of England.
Verba nitent phaleris, at nulla verba medullas Intus habent. The words make a fine show, but they have no pith in them. --Palingenius
Un homme d'esprit serait souvent bien embarasse sans la compagnie des sots. --A wit would often be much at a loss if it were not for the company of fools. --La Rochefoucauld
Adieu, brave Crillon, je vous aime a tort et a travers. Good-bye, my brave Crillon, I love you to distraction. Henry IV of France
Aliena nobis, nostra plus aliis placent. Everyone prefers other persons' things to his own. --Publilius Syrus.
Men use thought only to justify their injustices, and speech only to conceal their thoughts.--Voltaire
Common sense is not so common. --Voltaire
This agglomeration which was called and which still calls itself the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire. --Voltaire
Amare autem nihil aliud est, nisi eum ipsum diligere, quem ames, nulla indigentia, nulla utiliate quaesita. To love is to esteem anyone for himself, apart from all question of need or of advantage. --Cicero
Nothing is permanent except change. --Heine
Amour, folie amiable: ambition sottise serieuse. Love is a pardonable insanity; ambition, downright folly. --Chamford
Even the gods do not battle against necessity. --Pittacus.
Asperius nihil est humili, quum surgit in altum. Nothing so odious as a clown who has risen to power. --Claudianus
At non ingenio quaesitum nomen ab aevo Excidet: ingenio stat sine morte decus. Time cannot wither talents' well earned-fame; true genius has secured a deathless name.
Audacem fecerat ipse timor. Fear made her bold. (Under a show of daring, a great fear is concealed). --Lucanus
Disciplus est prioris posterior dies. Every day is yesterday's disciple. Publilius Syrus.
Je plie, mais je ne romps pas. I bend, but I do not break. --La Fontaine
Aut insanit homo, aut versus facit. The man is either mad, or else he's writing verses. --said of Horace
Aut non tentaris, aut perfice. Either carry it through, or don't make the attempt at all. --Ovid
No written laws can be so plain, so pure
But wit may gloss, and malice obscure. --Dryden
Cet age est sans pitie. This age has no pity. -- La Fontaine
Cineri gloria sera venit. Glory comes too late when one is turned to ashes. --Martialis
The opportunity you once let slip, Eternity'll not give you back again. --Schiller
Das Publikum, das ist ein Mann, Der alles weiss and gar nights kann. The Public, that means a man who knows everything and can do nothing. --Mannheim
LIBERTY, n. One of Imagination's most precious possessions. --Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
Verba data omnis amor. Love/a lover always deceives. --Ovid
The soul of the philosopher runs away from his body and desires to be alone and by herself. --Plato, Phaedo
Discitur innocuas ut agat facundia causas: Protegit haec sontes, immeritosque permit. In the cause of truth men study eloquence: tho' it screen guilt, and bully innocence. --Ovid
It is a gain to find a beautiful human soul. --J. G. Herder
A single moment can change all. --Wieland, Oberon
We pride ourselves on being far better men than our fathers. --Homer
Curae leves loquuntur, ingentes stupent. Light sorrows speak; but deeper ones are dumb. --Seneca
Entre tard et trop tard, il y a, par la grace de Dieu, une distance oncommensurable. The difference between late and too late is, by God's mercy, immeasurable.--Mme Swetchine
Purity of soul cannot be lost without consent. --St. Augustine.
There is nothing in words; believe what is before your eyes. --Ovid
Laws are always useful to persons of property, and hurtful to those who have none. --Rousseau
Semper eadem--Always the same. --Motto of Queen Elizabeth I of England
No man is happy unless he believes he is. --Pubilius Syrus
We criticize the faults of others more out of pride than goodness; and we criticize them not so much to correct them as to persuade them that we are free from their faults. -la Rochefoucauld
There is no great genius without a touch of dementia. --Seneca
Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed. --Alexander Pope
Fata viam intervenit. Fate will find a way. --Virgil
Fate does not work in trivialities--Welsh proverb
The principle is more than half of the whole question. --Aristotle
We are but shadows: we are not endowed with real life, and all that seems most real about us is but the thinnest substance of a dream--til we be touched. That touch creates us-then we begin to be-thereby we are beings of reality and inheritors of eternity. --Nathaniel Hawthorne
Reason is founded on the evidence of our senses. --Shelley
A genius never can be quite still. --Samuel Johnson
Sincerity is openness of heart, and we find it in very few people. What we usually see is nothing more than an artful trickery designed to gain the confidence of others. -la Rochefoucauld
Those who are faithless know the pleasures of love; it is the faithful who know love's tragedies. --Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Truth does less good in the world than the appearance of truth does evil.-la Rochefoucauld
Semper enim falsis a vero petitur veritas. Falsehood always attacks truth in the guise of truth. --Seneca
Etiam oblivisci quid sis, interdum expedit. It is sometimes expedient to forget who you are. --Publilius Syrus.
Everybody complains of their memory, but nobody complains of their judgement.-la Rochefoucauld
No disguise can hide love for long where it exists, nor feign it where it does not. -la Rochefoucauld
No great discovery was ever made without a bold guess. --Isaac Newton
Etiam celeritas in desdiderio mora est. When we long for a thing, haste itself is slow.--Publilius Syrus.
To have real freedom, you must be the slave of philosophy. --Epicurus, Aphorisms
Factum abiit, monumenta manent. The event is past, the memorial of it remains. --Ovid
Tacitum vivit sub pectore vulnus. The secret wound still rankles in her heart. --Virgil
Sua cuique deus fit dira cupido. Each man's fierce passion becomes his god. --Virgil
Fere libenter homines id quod volunt credunt. Men in general believe what they wish. --Caesar
The world more often rewards the appearance of merit than merit itself. -la Rochefoucauld
Audentes Fortuna juvat. Fortune favours the brave. --Virgil
Finge datos currus, quid agas? Suppose the chariot were granted to you, what would you do? -- Apollo to Phaethon, --Ovid
Some evil people would be less dangerous if they had no good at all in them. -la Rochefoucauld
Hic vigilans somniat. He is dreaming wide-awake. --Plautus
Laws exist in vain for those who have not the courage or the means to defend them. --Macaulay, 1832
Il plait a tout le monde, et ne sauroit se plaire. He pleases all the world, but cannot please himself. --said of Moliere
In every work of genius, we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty. --Ralph Waldo Emerson
We often pardon those people who bore us, but we cannot pardon those who find us boring. -la Rochefoucauld
Impossible est un mot que je ne dis jamais. "Impossible" is a word I never pronounce. --Napoleon
Je m'en vais chercher un grand peut-etre. I am off in search of a great may-be. --Rabelais
We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep. --Shakespeare, The Tempest
La plupart des hommes emploient la premiere partie de leur vie a rendre l'autre miserable. Most men spend the first part of their lives in making the latter part miserable. --La Bruyere
Faciunt nae intelligendo, ut nihil intelligant. They are so knowing that they know nothing at all.
Liebe kennt der Allein, der ohne Hoffnung liebt. He only knows what love is, who loves without hope. --Schiller
Memini etiam quae nolo oblivisci non possum quae volo. I remember things I had rather not: I am unable to forget those I would. --Cicero
We would yearn for very few things if we clearly understood what we wanted.-la Rochefoucauld
With stupidity, the gods themselves battle in vain. --Schiller
We are born but to die, and our end joins on to the beginning. --Manilius
Bacchus hath drowned more men than Neptune. --Fuller, 1732
Nothing should be valued more highly than the value of a single day. --Goethe
What makes us like new acquaintances is not so much weariness of the old ones or the pleasure of making a change, as displeasure at not being sufficiently admired by those who know us too well, and the hope of being more admired by those who do not yet know us well enough. -la Rochefoucauld
Omnia fui et nihil expedit. Time bears away all things, even the memory. --Virgil
Hier stehe ich! Ich kann nicht anders. Gott helfe mir, Amen! Here I take my stand! I cannot do otherwise. God help me, Amen. -- Luther
There is a point beyond which even justice becomes unjust. --Sophocles.
Laws are made by the conqueror, and accepted by the conquered. --Latin proverb
In every walk of life each man puts on a personality and outward appearance so as to look what he wants to be thought: in fact you might say that society is entirely made up of assumed personalities.-la Rochefoucauld
Ie congnois tout, fors que moy mesmes. I know everything except myself. --Francois Villon
On n'est jamais trahi que par ses siens. One is never betrayed except by one's own friends.
On s'attend a tout, et on n'est jamais prepare a rien. One expects anything, and one is prepared for nothing. --Mme Swetchine
These are small matters, it is true; but it is not by despising these small things that our forefathers raised their country to her present great position. --Livy, on Rome
Liberty is obedience to the law which one has laid down for oneself. --Rousseau
I am poor, I own, but I bear it: I put up with what the gods send me. --Plautus
Quand tout le monde a tort, tout le monde a raison. When all the world is wrong, all the world is right. --La Chaussee
Everyone complains of his memory, but not of his judgment. --La Rochefoucauld
Regia, crede mihi, res est succurrere lapsis. Believe me, it is a royal deed to succor the fallen. --Ovid
All knowledge is remembrance. --Hobbes
Liberty means responsibility. that is why most men dread it. --GB Shaw
Rien ne m'est plus, plus ne m'est rien. Nothing is left me, and everything is now as nothing. ---mother of Charles V of France
Saepe summa ingenia in occulto latent. The most brilliant talents often lie concealed in obscurity. --Plautus
I slept and dreamed that life was beauty;
I woke and found that life was duty. --Anonymous, 1850
Nothing so much prevents our being natural as the desire to seem so. --la Rochefoucalud
Tout bien ou rien. Either do it well or not at all.
The love of learning and the love of money rarely meet. --Herbert, 1651
God send you joy, for sorrow will come fast enough. --John Clarke, 1639
No one is ever innocent when his opponent is the judge. --Lucan, Pharsalia
Some will shine in the second rank who are lost in the first. ---Voltaire
To ridicule philosophy, that is to be a real philosopher. --Blaise Pascal
Of all the varieties of virtue, liberality is the most beloved. --Aristotle
On pardonne tant que l'on aime. When one loves, it is easy to forgive. La Rochefoucauld.
Men never cling to their dreams with such tenacity as at the moment when they are losing faith in them, and know it, but do not dare yet to confess it to themselves. --Sumner, 1887
A man can die but once. --Shakespeare, Henry IV
Spem pretio non emo. I do not wish to purchase mere hopes--Terentius?
Man has but one life in this world. --Goethe
Thou inquirest what liberty is? To be slave to nothing, to no necessity, to no accident, to keep fortuine at arm's length. --Seneca
O lyric love, half angel and half bird,
And all a wonder and a wild desire! --Robert Browning
Si fuit errandum, causas habet error honestas. If I sinned, the sin had fair excuse. -- Dido to Aeneas, Ovid.
Ever in thought returned to me, the days that are no more. --Manzoni, Adelchi
Even god cannot change the past. --Aristotle
Sed tu Ingenio verbis concipe plura meis. You must please to understand more than is expressed by my words. --Ovid
If the secret troubles of every one were written on his forehead for all to read, how many who now excite envy, would excite our pity! --Metastasio
A Boston man is the East Wind made flesh. --Apollinaire
Honesty has no pride.
A l'impossible nul n'est tenu. No one can be obliged to do the impossible.
There is an innocence in lying which is the sign of good faith in a cause. --Nietzsche
Until you love, the world makes no sense. -E E Cummings
Justice is lame as well as blind. --Thomas Otway, 1682
Dying is ceasing to be afraid. --Wycherley, 1634
You ask me about that country
whose details now escape me
I don't remember its geography
nothing of its history
And should I visit it in memory
it would least be as I would a past love
After years, for a night
no longer restless with passion,
with no fear of regret.
I have reached that age
When one visits the heart
merely as a courtesy. --"Let Me Think",
Fuiz Ahmed Fuiz
Amantes, amentes. In love, insane. --Chiliades.
Love is like measles: you can get it only once, and the later in life it occurs the tougher it goes. --H. W. Shaw
He warns the heads of parties against believing their own lies. --Thomas Gold Appleton
All knowledge is of itself of some value. There is nothing so minute or inconsiderable that I would not rather know it than not. --Samuel Johnson
He is poor that can't promise.
MISFORTUNE, n. The kind of fortune that never misses. --Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
Poets, artists, and men of genius in general are seldom coxcombs, but often slovens; for they find something out of themselves better worth studying than their own persons. --Hazlitt, 1826
Love is a familiar. Love is a devil. There is no evil angel but love. --Shakespeare, Love's Labour Lost
What soberness conceals, drunkenness reveals.
It is not the strength but the duration of exalted sensations which makes exalted men. --Nietzsche
He conquers who endures. --Italian proverb
A man has no enemy worse than himself. --Cicero
The boor is of no use in conversation. He contributes nothing worth hearing, and takes offense at everything. --Aristotle
God save me from my friends; I can take care of my enemies. --English proverb, 1477
Love of one is a piece of barbarism for it is practised at the expense of all others. --Nietzsche
Memories are haunting horns whose sound dies on the wind. --Ludovico Ariosto
Extremiy of law is extremity of wrong. --Clarke, 1639
There is no word in the Latin language that signifies a female friend. Amica means a mistress; and perhaps there is no friendship betwixt the sexes wholly disunited from a degree of love. -- Shenstone, 1764
Whatever crushes individuality is despotism, by whatever name it is called. --Mill, on Liberty
What? A great man? I always see only the actor of his own ideal. --Nietzsche
A young saint may prove an old devil.
Half dust, half deity. (Man is) --Byron
Grin when you win, and laugh when you lose.
True love always involves remunciation of one's personal comfort. --Tolstoy
The will to overcome an emotion is ultimately only the will of another emotion or of several others. --Nietzsche
Love is a fiend, a fire, a heaven, a hell,
Where pleasure, pain, and sad repentence dwell. --Richard Barnfield
If liberty produces ill-manners and want of taste, she is a very excellent parent with two very disagreeable daughters. --Hazlitt, 1829
One is punished most for one's virtues. --Nietzsche
A philosopher is a fool who torments himself while he is alive, to be talked about after he is dead. --Jean le Rond D'Alembert
All credibility, all good conscience, all evidence of truth comes only from the senses. --Nietzsche
Take away love, and our earth is a tomb. --Robert Browning
Knowledge is not knowledge until someone else knows that one knows. --Lucilius
Pride and grace never dwell in onw place.
Man is a shadow and a dream. --Pindar, Pythian
Man is the only animal who injures his mate. --Ariosto, 1532
What we do in dreams we also do when we are awake--we invent and fabricate the person with whom we associate--and immediately foregt we have done so. --Nietzsche
The law obliges us to do what is proper, not simply what is just. --Grotius
Success generally depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed. --Montesquieu
Nothing but money is sweeter than honey. --Benjamin Franklin
In a really just cause, the weak conquer the strong. --Sophocles
Whoever fights, whoever falls
Justice conquers evermore. --R. W. Emerson
However we brave it out, we men are a little breed. --Tennyson
It is misery enough to have once been happy. --Clarke, 1639
He that gets, forgets, but he that wants, thinks on.
Odenit, dum metuant. Let them hate, so long as they fear. --Accius
Liberty here means to do each as he pleases; to care for nothing and nobody, and cheat everybody. --Faux, Memorable Days in America, 1832
He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you. --Nietzsche
Thus I live in the world rather as a spectator of mankind than as one of the species. --Addison, the Spectator
Let him not think himself loved by any who loves none. Epicetus: Encheiradon.
The only things one never regrets are one's mistakes. --Wilde
The mob has many heads, but no brains. --Fuller
The mob's a monster. --Benjamin Franklin
To our strongest desire, the tyrant in us, not only our reason but also our conscience submits. --Nietzsche
In love there are two evils: war and peace. --Virgil
The voice of the majority is no proof of justice. --Schiller
They do not love that do not show their love. --John Heywood
Madness is something rare in individuals--but in groups, parties, people, ages it is the rule. --Nietzsche
More worship the rising than the setting sun. --Plutarch
Be commonplace and creeping, and you will be a success. --Beaumarchais
It is a strange desire which men have, to seek power and lose liberty. --Bacon
In the desert,
I saw a creature, naked, bestial
Who, squatting upon the ground
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said, "Is it good, friend?"
"It is bitter-bitter"' he answered;
"But I like it,
Because it is bitter.
And because it is my heart." --from "The Black Riders", Stephen Crane
The perfection of art lies in its concealment. --Ovid
What shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue. --Burke
Laughter is not a sign of being at one's ease.--St. Evremond
O! What a miserable thing is it to be injured by those of whom we cannot complain. --Bacon
To talk about oneself a great deal can also be a means of concealing oneself. --Nietzsche
Love is nothing save an insatiable thirst to enjoy a greedily desired object. --Michel de Montaigne
The bulk of mankind are schoolboys through life. --Thomas Jefferson
The more noble, the more humble.
Ultimately, one loves one's desires and not that which is desired. --Nietzsche
No law perfectly suits the convenience of every member of the community; the only consideration is, whether upon the whole it be profitable to the greater part. --Livy
Alas! We are ridiculous animals. --Horace Walpole, 1777
Nothing stings more deeply than the loss of money. --Livy
Love, it is said, is blind; but it is not blind. It is an extra eye which shows us what is most worthy of regard. --J. M. Barrie
There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. --Shakespeare, Hamlet