"Adage" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... the most estimable characters are those with whom there is the least tendency to this overflowing prodigality of kindness. It is, however, my wish to serve Miss Damer. She shall be educated for a governess. But let us not neglect the old despised adage: 'Be just before you ...
— The Boarding School • Unknown
... conspicuous advertisements in shady retreats at midsummer, when insect life is at its height and floral competition for insect favors at its fiercest. Next of kin to the tiny blue speedwell, these minute, pallid blossoms could have little hope of winning wooers were they not living examples of the adage, "In union there is strength.' Great numbers crowded together on a single spike, and several spikes in a cluster that towers above the woodland undergrowth, cannot well be overlooked by the dullest insects, especially as nectar rewards the search of those having midlength or long tongues. Simply ...
— Wild Flowers, An Aid to Knowledge of Our Wild Flowers and - Their Insect Visitors - - Title: Nature's Garden • Neltje Blanchan
... Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life, And live a coward in thine own esteem, Letting "I dare not," wait upon "I would," Like the poor cat i' the adage? —MACBETH. ...
— The Mill Mystery • Anna Katharine Green
... deaf ear to the people who tried to convince me that it couldn't be done. I had a firm belief in that old adage, "Where there is a will there is a way," and I made another of my own, which said, "I will FIND a way or ...
— Stammering, Its Cause and Cure • Benjamin Nathaniel Bogue
... head goes, the body will follow," they say, and Ida's little body was soon on the other side of the hedge; the adage says nothing about clothes, however, and part of Ida's dress was left behind. It had caught on the stump as she scrambled through. But accidents will happen, and she was in ...
— Mrs. Overtheway's Remembrances • Juliana Horatia Ewing
... were the most eagerly employed in investigating its true meaning. The seconds were of course applied to. Arundel Dacre was proverbially unpumpable; but Peacock Piggott, whose communicative temper was an adage, how came he on a sudden so diplomatic? Not a syllable oozed from a mouth which was ever open; not a hint from a countenance which never could conceal its mind. He was not even mysterious, but really looked just as astonished and was just as curious ...
— The Young Duke • Benjamin Disraeli
... and home. Yet when Cunningham challenged me to point out what I regarded as faults, I was met at every turn by arguments which seemed quite unanswerable, so that at last I was driven to take refuge in the adage that the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and to acknowledge that if the vessel only behaved half as well as her designer asserted she would, I should be more ...
— Turned Adrift • Harry Collingwood
... a familiar adage. Not only in human affairs do we find that a part through use becomes a better tool for performing its task, and through disuse degenerates; but in the field of animal behavior we find that many of the most essential types of behavior have been learned through repeated ...
— A Critique of the Theory of Evolution • Thomas Hunt Morgan
... to me. Here ends the chronicle of my misfortunes during the year 1880. It is but a trivial tale, and one that, I fear, will have small interest for the reader, but I have ventured to tell it as an illustration of the adage that troubles never come singly. In the quarter of a century that has elapsed since then I have not had to encounter such a series of misfortunes as came upon me in the first nine months of that ...
— Memoirs of Sir Wemyss Reid 1842-1885 • Stuart J. Reid, ed.
... it and feel its darkness. In like manner was there a cloud, darker than all the rest, rising in the sky of my life. What it was I could not say; but I felt its coining, and I shuddered. "Coming events cast their shadows before," says the old adage, and looking backward I can see how true it was in ...
— Roger Trewinion • Joseph Hocking
... was at her wits' end. The biggest brother had specified that Sassy should be driven; but the leghorn would not drive. The little girl had tried her best to carry out her instructions, and had only discovered the truth of the old adage about leading a horse to water. She could bring Sassy to the very spot where a cure could be effected—and the hen would refuse treatment. Chagrined, warm, and discouraged, she resolved to carry the chicken bodily to the stone-pile, a bare half way, and there think over ...
— The Biography of a Prairie Girl • Eleanor Gates
... impartial, it was not the Sirens alone who were responsible for all the victims who perished on these arid rocks. Homo homini lupus; man is always ready to prey upon man, and many of the dark tales concerning the Galli go to prove the truth of the terrible old adage. At what period the Sirens abandoned their ancient retreat and swam or flew away to more congenial haunts is unknown to history; but certain it is that the rulers of proud Amalfi committed many a cruel deed of murder or torture upon their deserted islets. For here, ...
— The Naples Riviera • Herbert M. Vaughan
... coming nearer to examine. If he knows nothing else, he knows the unprincipled man, and when he sees such in our ranks and councils he will not wait to argue or ask questions; he will go away and remain away. The extent to which men are ruled by the old adage, "Show me your company and I'll tell you what you are," is more widespread than we think. Moreover, consistency in a fine sense is involved in our decision. We fight for freedom, not for the hope of material profit or comfort, but because every fine instinct of manhood demands ...
— Principles of Freedom • Terence J. MacSwiney
... said that neither fools, women, nor children can drive cattle. The explanation of this adage is not here assumed, nor its community of relation. I know the handling of these great droves is considered business for an expert. The cattle owner would no sooner trust a herd to men picked up by the roadway than the trainmaster ...
— Dwellers in the Hills • Melville Davisson Post
... to know how to mix my truth and lies, and so preferred to hold my tongue. In this instance, as subsequent events proved, I held it not wisely but too well. The open man, with no secrets from the world, often enough escapes disasters which overtake your very discreet person, who acts on the old adage that speech was given to ...
— The Purple Land • W. H. Hudson
... examining the tongue of Giant Gulliver, I was suddenly clapped upon the shoulder. It flashed into my mind that perhaps it was forbidden to stare at the tunnel-in-making; and turning to defend myself from a lash of red tape, with the adage that "a cat may look at a king," I saw a man I had known ...
— The Princess Passes • Alice Muriel Williamson and Charles Norris Williamson
... remarkable books, the Pierre et Jean is certainly the most finished and the most agreeable. In Mont-Oriol, a beautiful landscape of Auvergne mountain and bath enshrines a singularly pessimistic rendering of the adage "He loved and he rode away." Few of the author's thoughtful admirers will admit that in Fort comme la Mort he has done justice to his powers. In Notre Coeur he has taken up one of the psychological problems which have hitherto lain in the undisputed ...
— The works of Guy de Maupassant, Vol. 5 (of 8) - Une Vie and Other Stories • Guy de Maupassant 1850-1893
... farm it is to be assumed that he will be conducted over the farm by the owner or his authorized agent. It is proper to give respectful attention to everything that is told him, provided he follows carefully the California adage to "believe nothing you hear and only one-half what ...
— The Young Farmer: Some Things He Should Know • Thomas Forsyth Hunt
... proportionate to the enormity of the offence would be to put Buondelmonti to death. And although some took into consideration the evils that might ensue upon it, Mosca Lamberti said, that those who talk of many things effect nothing, using that trite and common adage, Cosa fatta capo ha. Thereupon, they appointed to the execution of the murder Mosca himself, Stiatti Uberti, Lambertuccio Amidei, and Oderigo Fifanti, who, on the morning of Easter day, concealed themselves ...
— History Of Florence And Of The Affairs Of Italy - From The Earliest Times To The Death Of Lorenzo The Magnificent • Niccolo Machiavelli
... an old adage which saith, 'As the old cock crows, so doth the young.' Wherefore didst thou set him ...
— Jacob Faithful • Captain Frederick Marryat
... oven on that account need not lose character with bread-eaters, for according to the old adage, Omne ...
— Letters on the Cholera Morbus. • James Gillkrest
... have quite as good cattle, for market or use, as can another, who has the best breed in the world, but keeps them indifferently. But good breeds and good keeping make splendid animals, and will constantly improve them. The old adage, "Anything worth doing at all, is worth doing well" is nowhere more true, than in the care of calves. We shall not pause to present the various and contradictory methods of raising calves, that are presented in the numerous books, on the subject, ...
— Soil Culture • J. H. Walden
... pottering about with a stick, hating young fellows, and making myself generally disagreeable. Price's second team was driven by his son Mosey, a tight little fellow, whose body was about five-and-twenty, but whose head, according to the ancient adage, had worn out many a ...
— Such is Life • Joseph Furphy
... an oft-proved adage that for ten who can stand adversity there is but one who can stand prosperity. Sandy, alas! was no exception to any rule which went to prove the frailty of human nature. The sudden acquisition of ten dollars cast ...
— Sandy • Alice Hegan Rice
... little essay "Saturday Night," written in 1829, Lamb disputes the truth of the adage "Cleanliness is ...
— Books for Children - The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, Vol. 3 • Charles and Mary Lamb
... part of a true learning has not been collected hitherto into writing, to the great derogation of learning, and the professors of learning; for from this proceeds the popular opinion which has passed into an adage, that there is no great concurrence between wisdom and learning. The deficiency here is well nigh total he says: 'but for the wisdom of business, wherein man's life is most conversant, there be no books of it, except some few scattered advertisements, that have no proportion ...
— The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakspere Unfolded • Delia Bacon
... engaged in this dangerous and telling work. It proved too much for flesh and blood, and one night just as a visit was planned he broke right down and was carried to our lines on a stretcher. Well, Toby got the blame for the failure of that evening and left our battalion; but as the old adage puts it "You can't keep a good man down" and Toby Jones enlisted again as a private in the 42nd Battalion—won back his commission with the D.C.M. and a bar. Every man in the "Fighting Twenty-Fifth" lifts his hat to Toby Jones—the greatest hero ...
— Over the top with the 25th - Chronicle of events at Vimy Ridge and Courcellette • R. Lewis
... Professor Lancaster. I have written to the said professor, and have told him that it is not improbable that I shall soon marry. I don't know yet to what lady I shall be united, but I believe in the truth of the adage, 'that all things come to those who can not wait.' They are in such a hurry that they take what they ...
— The Captain's Toll-Gate • Frank R. Stockton
... in American literature from the earliest times until the present. Many pupils fail to obtain a clear idea of great American authors and literary movements because textbook writers and teachers ignore the element of truth in the old adage, "The half is greater than the whole," and dwell too much on minor authors and details, which could reasonably be expected to interest only a specialist. In the following pages especial attention has been paid, not only to the individual work of great authors, but also to literary ...
— History of American Literature • Reuben Post Halleck
... in hopes of bettering our condition, and the reverses which almost drove us to despair, the sun of prosperity is at length beginning to shine for us. Our experience is but another illustration of the adage, that "opportunities come ...
— Rabbi and Priest - A Story • Milton Goldsmith
... and makes you weep for very pity of his weakness, will never appall you by exhibitions of his strength. He may possess constructive talent, but never that creative power which we call genius because it suggests the genii. "No man is a hero to his valet," says the adage. Carlyle assumes this to be the fault of the latter—due to sawdust or other cheap filling in the head of the menial. Yet, may not the valet be wiser in this matter than the world? The hero, the greatest ...
— Volume 1 of Brann The Iconoclast • William Cowper Brann
... was in despair. Fortunately the days were short and Jane didn't have much time out of school hours to get into mischief. While Ernest was shut in, she spent most of her play time faithfully trying to amuse him. But after he got out she proved the truth of the old adage of Satan and ...
— Chicken Little Jane • Lily Munsell Ritchie
... the strength of ridicule, than which no weapon is more false or deadly. She laughed at qualities she could not comprehend, and underrated what she could not imitate. The Duc de Richelieu, who had been instrumental to her good fortune, and for whom (remembering the old adage: when one hand washes the other both are made clean) she procured the command of the army—this Duke, the triumphant general of Mahon and one of the most distinguished noblemen of France, did not blush to become the secret agent of a depraved meretrix in the conspiracy ...
— The Memoirs of Louis XV. and XVI., Volume 3 • Madame du Hausset, and of an Unknown English Girl and the Princess Lamballe
... in single spies but in battalions," and experience proves the adage to be true. William Fry, the eldest son of the family, was thrown upon a bed of illness, as the result of an over-strained and exhausted brain; soon after, sickness spread through the whole family, until the house, and even ...
— Elizabeth Fry • Mrs. E. R. Pitman
... well-worn adage that "competition is the life of trade"; and if this be true, we shall certainly not expect to find the men who are earning their living by the purchase and sale of goods endeavoring to take away the life ...
— Monopolies and the People • Charles Whiting Baker
... an early age. Ideas of truthfulness and honesty, for instance, are graven so deeply on the young mind that they can never afterwards be erased. "Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined," said our forefathers, and it is true. "First impressions are the most lasting," is another true adage. This being so, we should see to it that the first impression the child gets on the subject in question is the one we wish him to keep. Many a life has been lamed and saddened because of the first terrible and ineradicable impressions it received upon ...
— The Renewal of Life; How and When to Tell the Story to the Young • Margaret Warner Morley
... grasping policy, whilst his conscience is the easier for his forbearance. His firm determination to do right in every transaction and under all circumstances has in his case given fresh proof of the truth of the adage that "honesty is ...
— Cleveland Past and Present - Its Representative Men, etc. • Maurice Joblin
... and are so arranged, that the passenger, on entering the bridge, has before him a long array of these grotesque and gloomy pictures. The motive for placing the Dance in such a place is unknown, and it is difficult to conjecture what it was. It could hardly have been to enforce the old adage,—Speak well of the bridge that ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 3, Issue 17, March, 1859 • Various
... accepted the proposed settlement of the Indian question. Nothing remained but to incorporate in a treaty form the points agreed upon. Lord Bathurst, who seems throughout the negotiation to have forgotten the old adage, that "fine words butter no parsnips," and with true British blindness never to have appreciated how thoroughly he was overmatched by Mr. Gallatin, submitted a preliminary notification that the British terms would be based on the principle of uti possidetis, which involved ...
— Albert Gallatin - American Statesmen Series, Vol. XIII • John Austin Stevens
... White-fronted is one of the most interesting, is held in high estimation by the sportsman, and even he, if keen of observation, will learn from it many things that will entitle the species to advancement in the mental grade, and prove the truth of a very old adage, that you cannot judge of things by outward appearance. A goose, waddling around the barnyard, may not present a very graceful appearance, nor seem endowed with much intelligence, yet the ungainly creature, when in its natural state, has ...
— Birds Illustrated by Color Photography, Vol. II., No. 5, November 1897 - A Monthly Serial designed to Promote Knowledge of Bird-Life • Various
... Wend was originally a party to the scheme. Only the trouble with Miss Wend was that she was too shrewd to be fooled. She insisted that she have her full share of the pickings. In that case it seems to have been the whole field against Miss Wend, not a very gallant thing, nor yet according to the adage about honour ...
— The Poisoned Pen • Arthur B. Reeve
... an old adage, that "when the devil finds a man idle, he sets him to work;" when love finds a heart unoccupied, he soon finds it a tenant, for it always has been, is now, and always will ...
— An Old Sailor's Yarns • Nathaniel Ames
... man's meat is another man's poison, according to the homely adage, and in this case what made Frank so happy made—Damase miserable. The jealous, revengeful fellow saw in it only another proof of the foreman's favouritism, and was also pleased to regard the relegating of Laberge to the dish-washing ...
— The Young Woodsman - Life in the Forests of Canada • J. McDonald Oxley
... is a fixture! I have said already and I say it again, that the church was quite good enough for such people as live here, in its original condition, and that you have really spent a great deal of cash on a very needless work! I mustn't be rude, no, no, no!—but you know the old adage: 'Fools and their money!' Ha-ha-ha! But we shan't quarrel. Oh, dear no! It has cost ME nothing, I am glad to say! Ha-ha! Nor anybody else! Now, if Miss Vancourt of Abbot's Manor had been here when you began ...
— God's Good Man • Marie Corelli
... did, and Hunus helped himself to as much as would fill a gallon-measure (vas sextarii mensuram) of the sacred remains. Eginhard's indignation at the "rapine" of this "nequissimus nebulo" is exquisitely droll. It would appear that the adage about the receiver being as bad as the thief was not current in ...
— Lectures and Essays • Thomas Henry Huxley
... two blades of grass grow where one grew before" is said to be a national benefactor, and, I suppose, the same adage applies a fortiori to wheat, but I have never seen a monument raised to his memory or even the circulation of the national hat for his benefit. Too often the only proof of his neighbour's recognition of his improved crops is the notification of an increased assessment of the amount of ...
— Grain and Chaff from an English Manor • Arthur H. Savory
... That homely adage, "What is one man's meat is another man's poison," comes to mind when we consider with what different eyes different naturalists look upon the hypothesis of the derivative origin of actual specific forms, since ...
— Darwiniana - Essays and Reviews Pertaining to Darwinism • Asa Gray
... showing in true Hamlet fashion how resolution has been "sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought." In fact, as his wife says to him, he lets "'I dare not' wait upon 'I would' like the poor cat i' the adage." Even when whipped to action by Lady Macbeth's preternatural ...
— The Man Shakespeare • Frank Harris
... is the old medical adage: Above all things do no harm; the second is: Be as useful as ...
— The Sexual Question - A Scientific, psychological, hygienic and sociological study • August Forel
... I seem to you, for the moment, pert) you are Warden here. It is your duty, even your privilege, to GUARD. Is it not? Well, I grant you the adage that it is useless to bolt the stable door when the horse has been stolen. But what shall be said of the ostler who doesn't know—won't even 'inquire' whether—the horse ...
— Zuleika Dobson - or, An Oxford Love Story • Max Beerbohm
... prohibiting it; to supplement it in 1800 with another Act in the same direction; and on March 2, 1807, to pass another supplemental Act —to take effect January 1, 1808—still more stringent, and covering any such illicit traffic, whether to the United States or with other countries. Never was the adage that, "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley," more painfully apparent. Slaves increased and multiplied within the land, and enriched their white owners to such a degree that, as the years rolled by, instead of compunctions ...
— The Great Conspiracy, Complete • John Alexander Logan
... you often hear 'the rustle of their wings.' I believe there is an old adage of that sort, or something similar," said a deep voice beside her, and turning around with a low cry she saw Lester Stanwick ...
— Daisy Brooks - A Perilous Love • Laura Jean Libbey
... of the immediate case in issue, and indulges in a fierce onslaught upon test-oaths in general. If so, it will only add another reason for such a re-organization as will prevent the judges in the last resort from becoming the mere agents of party, or the mere defenders of rebellion. The adage constantly quoted, yet never out of fashion, that 'Whom the Gods wish to destroy they first make mad,' is having a pointed illustration in these successive judicial assaults upon the rights of the people. Although the Supreme Judges hold for life, there is at once ...
— Personal Reminiscences of Early Days in California with Other Sketches; To Which Is Added the Story of His Attempted Assassination by a Former Associate on the Supreme Bench of the State • Stephen Field; George C. Gorham
... adage, 'Plans of mice and men go astray,' but it did not say 'Plans of girls and mice.' So my plan will come out fine, you-all ...
— Polly and Eleanor • Lillian Elizabeth Roy
... take as much as he pleased. On this occasion, many of the soldiers of Narvaez, and some of our own, loaded themselves with gold. Cortes now learned that a quantity of gold in bars was in circulation among the troops at La Frontera, who were much engaged in deep play, and forgot the old adage, that riches and amours should be concealed. He now issued an order for all the gold to be delivered within a given time, under severe penalties for disobedience, and promised to return back a third ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. IV. • Robert Kerr
... is no want of knowledge respecting what is wisest and best in morals, government, and political economy, or at least, what is wiser and better than what men now practise and endure. But we let 'I DARE NOT wait upon I WOULD, like the poor cat in the adage.' We want the creative faculty to imagine that which we know; we want the generous impulse to act that which we imagine; we want the poetry of life: our calculations have outrun conception; we have eaten more than we can digest. The cultivation of those sciences which have enlarged the limits ...
— A Defence of Poetry and Other Essays • Percy Bysshe Shelley
... interview, the invitation was accepted. The entertainment was served up on pieces of bark, and consisted entirely of roasted potatoes, of which the general ate heartily, requesting his guest to profit by his example, repeating the old adage, that 'hunger is the best sauce.'" "But surely, general," said the officer, "this cannot be your ordinary fare." "Indeed, sir, it is," he replied, "and we are fortunate on this occasion, entertaining company, to have more than our usual allowance."* The story goes, that the young Briton ...
— The Life of Francis Marion • William Gilmore Simms
... obvious with reference to the order of Nature. Our life depends on adapting means to ends; which supposes that we know cause and effect in the world around us. A long story is cut short by the adage, "Knowledge is power"; otherwise ...
— Practical Essays • Alexander Bain
... Doctor Schoolman. "I am glad you see it. We cannot afford to give all our attention to the graver pursuits of life. We need relaxation. 'All work and no play'—you know the old adage, eh? Ha, ha!" ...
— The First Soprano • Mary Hitchcock
... work; and that if you are able to, it would be far better to think just as little as possible about coming home and resolutely set yourself to putting your best thought into your work. It is an illustration of the old adage about putting your hand to the plow and then looking back. In after life, of course, it is always possible that at some time you may have to go away for a year or two from home to do some piece of work. If during that whole time you ...
— Letters to His Children • Theodore Roosevelt
... soft-hearted sick-nurse, whose adage is, "Somebody must eat drumsticks," and whose practice is based upon the formula.—A. D. T. Whitney, ...
— Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama - A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook, Vol. 3 • E. Cobham Brewer
... thought it necessary to borrow queen Elizabeth's ruff, and eat beef-steaks with her maids of honour, in order, by living that age over again, to qualify himself to decypher the local allusions of our great bard. POOR MALONE! if he had ever heard the old adage, that "none but a poet should edit a poet," he would have saved his midnight oil, and solicited a ray from Phoebus. Now, I take the road to poetry to be just as plain as the road to Clapham. In the latter journey you have nothing to do but to invoke Rowland ...
— The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor - Vol. I. No. 3. March 1810 • Various
... case this person will fall back upon the point of the adage: 'It is better to die two years too soon than to live one year too long,'" replied Chang Tao. "Should he fail in the adventure and thus lose all hope of Melodious Vision, of the house of Shen, there will be no further object ...
— Kai Lung's Golden Hours • Ernest Bramah
... And yet the adage lives, in the valley of thy birth, When wayward children spend their days in heedless play and mirth, Oft mothers say, half smiling, half sighing, "Heaven knows Whatever will become of ...
— Poems Teachers Ask For • Various
... thee something whereof to lay hold and escape from this case, or I shall abandon thee to thy doom. But this thing may not be, for I am not safe from falling into some such strait as this thou art in, which, indeed, would be fitting punishment of perfidy. Of a truth the adage saith, 'Faith is fair and faithlessness is foul.'[FN162] So it behoveth thee to trust in me, for I am not ignorant of the haps and mishaps of the world; and delay not to contrive some device for our deliverance, as the case is too close to allow ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 3 • Richard F. Burton
... enjoyed by most of these squireens, and they are a fine, independent class of Englishman, who get more fun out of life than many richer men, They will tell you with regard to the labourers that the following adage is still to be ...
— A Cotswold Village • J. Arthur Gibbs
... you have had me do? Should I have stood here, letting I dare not wait upon I would, like the cat i' the adage, while the oak caught and rushed you off to sea? Too big a broomstick for ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 80, June, 1864 • Various
... his own cabin, even the simple laborer of Sclavic race never departs from this munificence; more joyously eager in his welcome than the Arab in his tent, he compensates for the splendor which may be wanting in his reception by an adage which he never fails to repeat, and which is also repealed by the grand seignior after the most luxurious repasts served under gilded canopies: CZYM BOHAT, TYM RAD—which is thus paraphrased for foreigners: "Deign graciously to pardon all that is unworthy of you, it is all my humble riches which ...
— Life of Chopin • Franz Liszt
... priest bethought him: "'Milk that's spilt' —You know the adage! Watch and pray! Saints tumble to earth with so slight a tilt! It would build a new altar; that we may!" And ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 13, No. 79, May, 1864 • Various
... a partisan cast. The theory that municipal government should be independent of party politics had been an adage in Benham since its foundation, and been disregarded annually by nine-tenths of the population ever since. This was a Democratic love-feast. The speakers and the audience alike were in the best of spirits, for there was no uncertainty in the minds ...
— Unleavened Bread • Robert Grant
... time will come when it will be ashamed of what it's done to-day. For my own part, I think I will move out of the town. Politics have become a dirty business now, when a nameless vagrant can become a Member of Parliament. Still, we know the old adage, 'Give a beggar ...
— The Day of Judgment • Joseph Hocking
... shoes in winter, and homespun cotton frocks and nothing at all on her feet in summer. But I see that, in this list, I had well nigh forgotten the most popular of all superlatives—"prettiest." So accustomed am I to squaring my estimate of beauty by the good, old adage, "he handsome is who handsome does," or "she beautiful is who beautiful does"—to employ a gender more appropriate to the case. Well, then, "the prettiest," withal, as you may easily believe when I tell you that her hair was so gold-like, her eyes so ...
— The Red Moccasins - A Story • Morrison Heady
... him sprang the prophets and the orthodox Caliphs and Kings; whilst Cham's face was blackened and he fled forth to the land of Abyssinia, and of his lineage came the blacks.[FN360] All people are of one mind in affirming the lack of understanding of the blacks, even as saith the adage, 'How shall one find a black with a mind?' Quoth her master, 'Sit thee down, thou hast given us sufficient and even excess.' Thereupon he signed to the negress, who rose and, pointing her finger at the blonde, said: Dost thou not know that in the ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 4 • Richard F. Burton
... head, is Palatine of Masovia, which, next to the throne, is the first dignity in the state. He is one of the warmest champions of his country's rights; and though born to command, has so far transgressed the golden adage of despots, 'Ignorance and subjection,' that throughout his territories every man is taught to worship his God with his heart as well as with his knees. The understandings of his peasants are opened to all useful knowledge. He ...
— Thaddeus of Warsaw • Jane Porter
... that he could barely add two and two together. At last his father determined to put up with his stupidity no longer, and giving him a purse full of gold, he sent him off to seek his fortune in foreign lands, mindful of the adage: ...
— The Grey Fairy Book • Various
... maxim, aphorism; apothegm, apophthegm[obs3]; dictum, saying, adage, saw, proverb; sentence, mot[Fr], motto, word, byword, moral, phylactery, protasis[obs3]. axiom, theorem, scholium[obs3], truism, postulate. first principles, a priori fact, assumption (supposition) 514. reflection &c (idea) 453; conclusion &c (judgment) 480; golden rule &c. (precept) ...
— Roget's Thesaurus
... been built by a lonely old fellow who resorted to it in summer because it was right on the fishing-grounds, and he was getting unable any longer to face the long row to and from his house in the harbour. Nowhere in the world is the old adage concerning the birds of a feather truer than on this coast. The poorer and lonelier a man is, the greater is the certainty that some other poor and lonely person will seek the shelter of their poverty. Thus it had ...
— Labrador Days - Tales of the Sea Toilers • Wilfred Thomason Grenfell
... of the stripling: "See, how bright they are burnished, as if in an arsenal hanging; That is because I have done it myself, and not left it to others. Serve yourself, would you be well served, is an excellent adage; So I take care of my arms, as you of your pens and your inkhorn. Then, too, there are my soldiers, my great, invincible army, Twelve men, all equipped, having each his rest and his matchlock, Eighteen shillings a month, together with diet and pillage, And, like Caesar, ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
... Spurinna and Antoninus; he is related to the one, and shares the same house with the other. You may guess from this that he is a youth of finished parts, when he is thus loved by men of their years and worth. For the old adage is wonderfully true, "You may tell a man by the company ...
— The Letters of the Younger Pliny - Title: The Letters of Pliny the Younger - - Series 1, Volume 1 • Pliny the Younger
... traveller in a country where, if his nature would not allow him, it became a matter of policy, if not of necessity, to appear high-hearted and gay, and frequently to join in the amusements of the people amongst whom he might be residing. Lander himself was not ignorant of the Arab adage, "Beware of the man who never laughs;" and, therefore, as he was likely to be thrown amongst those very people, he ought to have practised himself in the art of laughing, so as not to rouse their suspicions, which, it is well known, if once roused, ...
— Lander's Travels - The Travels of Richard Lander into the Interior of Africa • Robert Huish
... it is certainly undesirable to encourage in pre-adolescents any tendency towards paired comradeship. It is certainly best that boys and girls should have many good friends of both sexes. The real truth back of the old adage "two is company and three is a crowd" makes the "crowd" highly desirable for both pre-adolescence and early adolescence, for in these years it is friendship and not romantic love that will be most helpful in the later life. As one step in this ...
— Sex-education - A series of lectures concerning knowledge of sex in its - relation to human life • Maurice Alpheus Bigelow
... Goer, but the Return is Rolling:" this adage was ever upon the End of Time's tongue, yet my fate was apparently an exception to the general rule. On the 25th January, we were delayed by the weakness of the camels, which had been half starved in the Girhi mountains. And as we were about ...
— First footsteps in East Africa • Richard F. Burton
... mannerisms that generally make rivals ridiculous in all eyes save their own. The revelation at luncheon had convinced them of the futility of things in general and of woman in particular. They were, without being aware of the fact, each a consolation to the other. The old adage that misery loves company ...
— The Place of Honeymoons • Harold MacGrath
... constituents; and I was assured that public officers have often sold their country at very moderate prices. Thousands sold their happiness for a whim. Gilded chains were in great demand, and purchased with almost any sacrifice. In truth, those who desired, according to the old adage, to sell anything valuable for a song, might find customers all over the Fair; and there were innumerable messes of pottage, piping hot, for such as chose to buy them with their birthrights. A few articles, however, could not be found genuine ...
— Mosses from an Old Manse and Other Stories • Nathaniel Hawthorne
... liable to a more serious objection.—He was a total stranger to real nature:—classical taste, indeed, and knowledge, and grace, and beauty, pervade all his works; but it is a taste, and a knowledge, and a grace, and a beauty, formed solely upon the contemplation of the antique. Horace's adage, that "decipit exemplar vitiis imitabile," has been remarkably verified in the case of Poussin; and I am mistaken, if the example set by him, which has been rigorously followed in the French school, even down to the present day, ...
— Account of a Tour in Normandy, Vol. II. (of 2) • Dawson Turner
... opinion, Grenvile, it is that yonder fellow is a slaver that is not too tender of conscience to indulge in a little piracy at times, when the opportunity appears favourable, as it does at present. I have heard that, in contradiction of the adage that 'there is honour among thieves', there are occasionally to be found among the slavers a few that are not above attacking other slavers and stealing their slaves from them. It saves them the bother of a run in on the coast, with its attendant risk of losses by ...
— A Middy in Command - A Tale of the Slave Squadron • Harry Collingwood
... whom deriv'd, Were shame enough to shame thee, wert thou not shameless. Thy father bears the type of King of Naples, Of both the Sicils and Jerusalem, Yet not so wealthy as an English yeoman. Hath that poor monarch taught thee to insult? It needs not, nor it boots thee not, proud queen; Unless the adage must be verified, That beggars mounted run their horse to death. 'T is beauty that doth oft make women proud; But, God he knows, thy share thereof is small. 'T is virtue that doth make them most admir'd; The contrary doth make thee wond'red at. 'T is government that makes them seem divine; The ...
— King Henry VI, Third Part • William Shakespeare [Rolfe edition]
... being attended to, Dick and I began our preparations for the all important dinner. This was to consist of roast scrub turkey and plum pudding, washed down by Battle axe brandy. And here the good old cookery-book adage came into play, for as yet our bird was running wild in the scrub, and it was a case of first catch your turkey. The morning was hot, but not too hot, with just a pleasant breeze stirring in the bush, and I rather ...
— The Moving Finger • Mary Gaunt
... house. Though he called Bozzle a knave and Trevelyan a madman, still he considered that Colonel Osborne was the chief sinner, and that Emily Trevelyan had behaved badly. He constantly repeated to himself the old adage, that there was no smoke without fire; and lamented the misfortune that had brought him into close relation with things and people that were so little to his taste. He sat for awhile, with a pen in his hand, at the miserable ...
— He Knew He Was Right • Anthony Trollope
... surrounding her, Miss Preston often in secret floundered in a "slough of despond," for that which could influence one girl for her good might prove a complete failure when brought to bear upon another. Never was the old adage, "What is one man's meat is another man's poison," more ...
— Caps and Capers - A Story of Boarding-School Life • Gabrielle E. Jackson
... Vandeloup, coolly; 'I know your adage, "dead men tell no tales," but it is a mistake—they do, and to kill him is dangerous. No, if we stun him we can go off with the nugget, and then make our way to Melbourne, where we can get rid of it quietly. As to Madame Midas, if ...
— Madame Midas • Fergus Hume
... courage and purpose. Some things delineated I now believe as true. The first cups were a veritable marvel, yet too sadly comprehensive. I am greatly indebted to you for this most infatuating pleasure, proving the old adage, that the last do sometimes come first, by their patience. We all need just such talks sometimes. These are beyond the mere realms of pastime, said the reader, who was ...
— Cupology - How to Be Entertaining • Clara
... personal authority and by common fortunes, was sufficient to carry on many rude industries. It wandered from pasture to pasture, practised hospitality, watched the stars, and seems (at least in poetic retrospect) to have been not unhappy. A Roman adage has declared that to know the world one household suffices; and one patriarchal family, in its simplicity and grandeur, seems to have given scope enough for almost all human virtues. And those early men, as Vico ...
— The Life of Reason • George Santayana
... here is a man who goes out of his way to be absurd, and is troublesome by a romantic effort of generosity. You cannot say to him, 'All this may be interesting to you, but I have no concern in it': you cannot put him off in that way. He retorts the Latin adage upon you-Nihil humani a me alienum puto. He has got possession of a subject which is of universal and paramount interest (not 'a fee-grief, due to some single breast'), and on that plea may hold you by the button as long as he chooses. ...
— Table-Talk - Essays on Men and Manners • William Hazlitt
... power," says the old adage; and yet so meaningless now, in many respects, do the words sound, that it is hard even to recapture the mental outlook from which it emanated. I imagine that it dates from a time when knowledge meant an imagined ...
— Joyous Gard • Arthur Christopher Benson
... jocularity. His treatment of Marley's ghost lacks dignity and decorum. Clanking its chains in a remote cellar of the silent, empty house, it has the power to disturb us, but we lose our respect for the shade when we gaze upon it eye to eye. Applied to the spirit world, there is much truth in the old adage that familiarity breeds contempt. The account of the thirteenth juryman, in Dr. Marigold's Prescriptions, is much more alarming. The story of the signalman, No. 1 Branch line, in Mugby Junction, is indefinably horrible. The signalman's ...
— The Tale of Terror • Edith Birkhead
... of Spanish folk-lore there is a saying that good wine retains its flavor in spite of rude bottles and cracked cups. The success of M. Rostand’s brilliant drama, Cyrano de Bergerac, in its English dress proves once more the truth of this adage. The fun and pathos, the wit and satire, of the original pierce through the halting, feeble translation like light through a ragged curtain, dazzling the spectators and ...
— The Ways of Men • Eliot Gregory
... Mr. Man's medicine was certainly wonderful; but just then Mr. Rabbit dropped in, and when they told him about it, he said of course the medicine might have had some effect, but that the dumplings and chicken caused the real cure. He said there was an old adage to prove that—one that his thirty-fifth great-grandfather had made for just such a case of this kind. This, Mr. ...
— Hollow Tree Nights and Days • Albert Bigelow Paine
... not deceived, gentlemen," she said, "and that which I have been fearing has occurred. Our common adage, which we have in England, is a very good one. When one fears that an evil is coming, the sooner it arrives the better. Here is a quarter of a year that I have been expecting you, and certainly for the great benefit I have conferred on you, you have exhibited a great ingratitude, ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley |
