Habit is second nature. Montaigne, Essays, Book iii. Ch. x. Half is more than the whole. Νήπιοι· οὐδὲ ἴσασιν ὅσῳ πλέον ἥμισυ παντός. — Hesiod, Works and Days, v. 40. Hobson's choice. Tobias Hobson was the first man in England that let out hackney horses. When a man came for a horse he was led into the stable, where there was a great choice, but he obliged him to take the horse which stood next to the stable door; so that every customer was alike well served according to his chance, from whence it became a proverb, when what ought to be your election was forced upon you, to say, "Hobson's choice.". Spectator, No. 509. I am the things that are, and those that are to be, and those that have been. No one ever lifted my skirts; the fruit which I bore was the Sun. Inscription in the temple of Neith at Sais, in Egypt. - Proclus, I believe it, because it is impossible. Certum est, quia impossibile est. - Tertullian, De Carne Christi, c. 5. Usually misquoted, Credo quia impossibile. I came, I saw, I conquered. Veni, vidi, vici. The brief despatch in which Julius Cæsar announced to the Senate his victory over Pharnaces. I too was born in Arcadia. This is the motto which Goethe adopted for his Travels in Italy. It is said to be a saying of the painter Schidoni (or Schedone). 1560-1616. Leave no stone unturned. ПáνTA KIVĥσαι TÉTрov. — Euripides, Heraclid. 1002. Man is a two-legged animal without feathers. Plato having defined man to be a two-legged animal without feathers, he (Diogenes) plucked a cock, and, bringing him into the school, said, "Here is Plato's man.' From which there was added to the definition, "with broad flat nails.” — Diogenes Laertius, Lib. vi. c. ii. Vit. Diog., Ch. vi. § 40. Medicine for the soul. Inscription over the door of the Library at Thebes.- Diodorus Men, women, and Herveys. Lord Wharncliffe says, "The well-known sentence, almost a proverb, that this world consisted of men, women, and Herveys,' was originally Lady Montagu's." (Montagu's Letters, Vol. i. p. 64.) Wraxall says, it was a saying of the Dowager Viscountess Townsend, Memoirs, 2d Ser., Vol. ii. p. 117. Months without an R. It is unseasonable and unwholesome in all months that have not an R in their name to eat an oyster. - Butler, Dyet's Dry Dinner. 1599. Nation of shopkeepers. From an oration purporting to have been delivered by Samuel No such American edition has ever been seen, but at least four copies are known of the London issue. A German translation of this oration was printed in 1778, perhaps at Berne; the place of publication is not given. Wells's Life of Adams. To found a great empire for the sole purpose of raising up a people of customers may at first sight appear a project fit only for a nation of shopkeepers. -- Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, Vol. ii. Book iv. Ch. vii. Part 3. 1775. And what is true of a shopkeeper is true of a shopkeeping nation. Tucker, Dean of Gloucester, Tract. 1766. Let Pitt then boast of his victory to his nation of shopkeepers. — Nothing succeeds like success. A French proverb. No one is a hero to his valet. This phrase is commonly attributed to Madame de Sévigné, but, Few men are admired by their servants.-Montaigne, Essays, When Hermodotus in his poems described Antigonus as the son Old wood to burn! Old wine to drink! Old friends to trust! Old authors to read! Alonso of Aragon was wont to say, in commendation of age, Is not old wine wholesomest, old pippins toothsomest, old wood What find you better or more honourable than age? Take the preheminence of it in everything: in an old friend, in old wine, in an old pedigree. — Shackerley Marmion (1602–1639), The Antiquary. I love everything that's old. Old friends, old times, old man- Order reigns in Warsaw. General Sebastiani announced the fall of Warsaw in the Cham- Orthodoxy is my doxy, Heterodoxy is another man's doxy. "I have heard frequent use," said the late Lord Sandwich, in a debate on the Test Laws, "of the words 'orthodoxy' and 'heterodoxy'; but I confess myself at a loss to know precisely what they mean." "Orthodoxy, my Lord," said Bishop Warburton, in a whisper,-"orthodoxy is my doxy,-heterodoxy is another man's doxy."-Priestley's Memoirs, Vol. i. p. 572. Paying through the nose. Grimm says that Odin had a poll-tax which was called in Sweden a nose-tax; it was a penny per nose or poll. - Deutsche Rechts Alterthümer. Reading between the lines. The sagacious reader, who is capable of reading between these lines what does not stand written, or is only implied. — Goethe, Autobiography, Book xviii., edited by Park Godwin. Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God. From an inscription on the cannon near which the ashes of President John Bradshaw were lodged, on the top of a high hill near Martha Bay in Jamaica. —Stiles's History of the Three Judges of King Charles I. This supposititious epitaph was found among the papers of Mr. Jefferson, and in his handwriting. It was supposed to be one of Dr. Franklin's spirit-stirring inspirations. Randall's Life of Jefferson, Vol. iii. p. 585. Ridicule the test of truth. We have, oftener than once, endeavoured to attach some meaning to that aphorism, vulgarly imputed to Shaftesbury, which, however, we can find nowhere in his works, that ridicule is the test of truth.-Carlyle, Miscellanies: Voltaire. How comes it to pass, then, that we appear such cowards in reasoning, and are so afraid to stand the test of ridicule ?Shaftesbury, Characteristics: A Letter concerning Enthu siasm, Sec. 2. Truth, 't is supposed, may bear all lights; and one of those principal lights or natural mediums by which things are to be viewed, in order to a thorough recognition, is ridicule itself. — Shaftesbury, Essay on the Freedom of Wit and Humour, Sec. 1. 'T was the saying of an ancient sage (Gorgias Leontinus, apud Arist. Rhetor., Lib. iii. c. 18), that humour was the only test of gravity; and gravity of humour. For a subject which would not bear raillery was suspicious; and a jest which would not bear a serious examination was certainly false wit. — Ibid., Sec. 5. Rowland for an Oliver. These were two of the most famous in the list of Charlemagne's twelve peers; and their exploits are rendered so ridiculously and equally extravagant by the old romancers, that from thence arose that saying, amongst our plain and sensible ancestors, of giving one a "Rowland for his Oliver," to signify the matching one incredible lie with another. Thomas Warburton. Sardonic smile. The island of Sardinia, consisting chiefly of marshes or of mountains, has, from the earliest period to the present, been cursed with a noxious air, an ill-cultivated soil, and a scanty population. The convulsions produced by its poisonous plants gave rise to the expression of sardonic smile, which is as old as Homer (Odyssey, xx. 302). — Mahon, History of England, Vol. i. p. 287. See how these Christians love one another. Vide, inquiunt, ut invicem se diligant. — Tertullian, Apologet., c. 39. Sinews of war. Eschines (Adv. Ctesiph., c. 53) ascribes to Demosthenes the Smell of the lamp. Plutarch, Lafe of Demosthenes. 46 Speech was given to man to conceal his thoughts. Ils n'employent les paroles que pour déguiser leurs pensées.— When Harel wished to put a joke or witticism into circulation, |