DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS. (continued 14)
Reading edition
La musique seule est d'une noble inutilité, et c'est pour cela qu'elle nous émeut si profondément; plus elle est loin de tout but, plus elle se rapproche de cette source intime de nos pensées que l'application à un objet quelconque reserve dans son cours—Music alone is nobly non-utilitarian, and that is why it moves us so profoundly; the further it is removed from serving any purpose, the nearer it approaches that inner spring of our thoughts which the application to any object whatever hampers in its course. Mme. de Staël.
La naissance n'est rien où la vertu n'est pas—Birth is nothing where virtue is not. Molière.
La nation en deuil—The nation in mourning. Montalembert on Poland.
La nation ne fait pas corps en France; elle 25 réside toute entière dans la personne du roy—In France the nation is not a corporate body; it resides entirely in the person of the king. Louis XIV.
La nature a donné deux garants de la chastité des femmes, la pudeur et les remords; la confession les prive de l'un, et l'absolution de l'autre—Nature has given two safeguards for female chastity, modesty and remorse, but confession deprives them of the one and absolution of the other. Fr.
La nature aime les croisements—Nature is partial to cross-breedings. Fourier.
La nature est juste envers les hommes—Nature is just to men. Montesquieu.
La nature s'imite—Nature imitates herself. Pascal.
La nuit porte conseil—The night brings good 30 counsel. Fr. Pr.
Là ou ailleurs—There or elsewhere. M.
Là où la chèvre est attachée, il faut qu'elle broute—The goat must browse where it is tethered. Fr. Pr.
La parfaite valeur est de faire sans témoins ce qu'on serait capable de faire devant tout le monde—Sterling worth shows itself in doing unseen what we would be capable of doing in the eye of the world. La Roche.
La parole a été donnée à l'homme pour déguiser sa pensée—Speech has been given to man to conceal his thought. Voltaire.
La passion déprave, mais elle élève aussi—Passion 35 depraves, but it also elevates. Lamartine.
La passion fait souvent un fou du plus habile homme, et rend souvent habiles les plus sots—Love often makes a fool of the cleverest man, and often gives cleverness to the most foolish. La Roche.
La patience est amère, mais le fruit en est doux—Patience is bitter, but it yields sweet fruit. Rousseau.
La patience est l'art d'espérer—Patience is the art of hoping. Vauvenargues.
La patience est le remède le plus sûre contre les calomnies: le temps, tôt ou tard, découvre la vérité—Patience is the surest antidote against calumny; time, sooner or later, will disclose the truth. Fr.
La patrie veut être servie, et non pas dominée—Our country requires us to serve her, and not to lord it over her. Fr.
La pauvreté n'est pas un péché, / Mieux vaut cependant la cacher—Poverty is not a sin; but it is better to hide it. Fr. Pr.
La perfection marche lentement, il lui faut la main du temps—Perfection is attained by slow degrees; she requires the hand of time. Voltaire.
La peur est un grand inventeur—Fear is a great inventor. Fr. Pr.
La philosophie non seulement dissipe nos inquiétudes, 5 mais elle nous arme contre tous les coups de la fortune—Philosophy not only dissipates our anxieties, but it arms us against the buffets of fortune. Fr.
La philosophie qui nous promet de nous rendre heureux, trompe—Philosophy, so far as she promises us happiness, deceives us. Fr.
La philosophie triomphe aisément des maux passés, et des maux à venir; mais les maux présents triomphent d'elle—Philosophy triumphs easily enough over misfortunes that are past and to come, but present misfortunes triumph over her. La Roche.
La plupart des hommes, pour arriver à leurs fins, sont plus capables d'un grand effort que d'une longue persévérance—To attain their ends most people are more capable of a great effort than of continued perseverance. La Bruyère.
La plupart des peuples, ainsi que des hommes, ne sont dociles que dans leur jeunesse; ils deviennent incorrigibles en vieillisant—Most nations, as well as men, are impressible only in their youth; they become incorrigible as they grow old. Rousseau.
La plupart des troubles de ce monde sont 10 grammairiens—The majority of the troubles in this world are the fault of the grammarians. Montaigne.
La plus belle victoire est de vaincre son cœur—The noblest victory is to conquer one's own heart. La Fontaine.
La plus courte folie est toujours la meilleure—The short folly is always the best. Fr.
La plus part des hommes emploient la première partie de leur vie à rendre l'autre misérable—The generality of men expend the early part of their lives in contributing to render the latter part miserable. La Bruyère.
La plus part des hommes n'ont pas le courage de corriger les autres, parcequ'ils n'ont pas le courage de souffrir qu'on les corrige—The generality of mankind have not the courage to correct others, because they have not themselves the courage to bear correction.
La poesia non muore—Poetry does not die. 15 B. Zendrini.
La politesse est l'art de rendre à chacun sans effort ce que lui est socialement dû—Politeness is the art of rendering spontaneously to every one that which is his due as a member of society. Fr.
La popularité c'est la gloire en gros sous—Popularity is glory in penny-pieces. Victor Hugo.
La prière est un cri d'espérance—Prayer is a cry of hope. A. de Musset.
La propriété c'est le vol—Property, that is theft. Proudhon.
La propriété exclusive est un vol dans la 20 nature—Exclusive ownership is a theft in nature. Fr.
La prospérité fait peu d'amis—Prosperity makes few friends. Vauvenargues.
La raison du plus fort est toujours la meilleure—The argument of the strongest is always the best, i.e., has most weight. La Fontaine.
La raison émancipée n'a pas nui à la cause de Dieu; elle l'a servie—The emancipation of reason has not injured the cause of God; it has promoted it. V. Cousin.
La raison seule peut faire des lois obligatoires et durables—Reason alone can render laws binding and stable. Mirabeau.
La recherche de la paternité est interdite—Investigation 25 of paternity is forbidden. Code Napoléon.
La recherche du vrai, et la pratique du bien, sont les deux objets les plus importants de la philosophie—The pursuit of what is true and the practice of what is good are the two most important objects of philosophy. Voltaire.
La reconnaissance est un fardeau, et tout fardeau est fait pour être secoué—Gratitude is a burden, and every burden is made to be shaken off. Diderot.
La réputation d'un homme est comme son ombre, qui tantôt le suit, et tantôt le précède; quelquefois elle est plus longue, et quelquefois plus courte que lui—A man's reputation is like his shadow, which sometimes follows, sometimes precedes him, and which is occasionally longer, occasionally shorter than he is. Fr.
La roche Tarpéienne est près du Capitole—The Tarpeian rock is near the Capitol, i.e., the place of execution is near the scene of triumph. Jouy-Spontini.
La ruse est le talent des égoïstes, et ne peut 30 tromper que les sots que prennent la turbulence pour l'esprit, la gravité pour la prudence, effronterie pour le talent, l'orgueil pour la dignité.—Cunning is the accomplishment of the selfish, and can only impose upon silly people, who take bluster for sense, gravity for prudence, effrontery for talent, and pride for dignity. Mirabeau.
La sage conduite roule sur deux pivots, le passé et l'avenir—Prudent conduct turns on two pivots, the past and the future, i.e., on a faithful memory and forethought. La Bruyère.
La sauce vaut mieux que le poisson—The sauce is better than the fish. Fr. Pr.
La science du gouvernement n'est qu'une science de combinaisons, d'applications et d'exceptions, selon le temps, les lieux, les circonstances—The science of government is only a science of combinations, applications, and exceptions, according to time, place, and circumstance. Rousseau.
La seule vertu distingue les hommes, dès qu'ils sont morts—By their virtues alone are men distinguished after they are dead. L'Abbé de Choisy.
La silence est la vertu de ceux qui ne sont 35 pas sages—Silence is the virtue of the foolish. Bouhours.
La speranza è l'ultima ch'abbandona l'infelice—Hope is the last to abandon the unhappy. It. Pr.
La tempérance et le travail sont les deux vrais médicins de l'homme—Temperance and labour are the two real physicians of man. Rousseau.
La terre est couverte de gens qui ne méritent pas qu'on leur parle—The earth swarms with people who are not worth talking to. Voltaire.
La verdad es hija de Dios—Truth is the daughter of God. Sp. Pr.
La verdad es sempre verde—Truth is always green. Sp. Pr.
La vérité est cachée au fond du puits—Truth is hidden at the bottom of a well. Fr. Pr.
La vérité ne fait pas autant de bien dans le 5 monde que ses apparences y font de mal—Truth does not produce so much good in the world as the hypocritical profession of it does mischief. Fr.
La vertu a des appas qui nous portent au véritable bonheur—Virtue has attractions which lead us to true happiness. Fr.
La vertu dans l'indigence est comme un voyageur, que le vent et la pluie contraignent de s'envelopper de son manteau—Virtue in want is like a traveller who is compelled by the wind and rain to wrap himself up in his cloak. Fr. Pr.
La virtù è simile ai profumi, che rendono più grato odore quando triturati—Virtue is like certain perfumes, which yield a more agreeable odour from being rubbed. It.
La vertu est la seule noblesse—Virtue is the only true nobility. M.
La vertu est partout la même: c'est qu'elle 10 vient de Dieu, et le reste est des hommes—Virtue is everywhere the same; the reason is it proceeds from God, and the rest is from men. Voltaire.
La vertu fut toujours en minorité sur la terre—Virtue has ever been in the minority on earth. Robespierre.
La vertu n'iroit pas si loin, si la vanité ne lui tenait compagnie—Virtue would not go so far if vanity did not bear her company. La Roche.
La vicinanza de' grandi sempre è pericolosa ai picoli; sono grandi come il fuoco, che brucia eziandio quei che vi gettano dell' incenso se troppo vi si approsimino—The neighbourhood of the great is always dangerous to the little. The great are to them as a fire which scorches those who approach it too nearly. It.
La vida es corta y la esperanza larga, / El bien huye de mi y el mal se alarga—Life is short, yet hope endures; good flies off, but evil ever lurks about. Luis de Góngora.
La vie des héros a enrichi l'histoire, et l'histoire 15 a embelli les actions des héros—The lives of heroes have enriched history, and history has embellished the exploits of heroes. La Bruyère.
La vieillesse nous attache plus de rides en l'esprit qu'en visage—Old age contracts more wrinkles on the mind than the countenance. Montaigne.
La ville est le séjour de profanes humains, les dieux habitent la campagne—Towns are the dwelling-places of profane mortals; the gods inhabit rural retreats. Rousseau.
La violence est juste où la douceur est vaine—Force is legitimate where gentleness avails not. Corneille.
La volontà è tutto—The will is everything. It. Pr.
La vraie science et le vrai étude de l'homme, 20 c'est l'homme—The real science and the real study for man, is man himself. Charron.
Labitur et labetur in omne volubilis ævum—The stream flows, and will go on flowing for ever. Hor.
Labitur occulte, fallitque volubilis ætas—Time glides on stealthily, and eludes us as it steals past. Ovid.
Labor ipse voluptas—Labour itself is a pleasure. M.
Labor omnia vincit / Improbus, et duris urgens in rebus egestas—Persevering labour overcomes all difficulties, and want that urges us on in the pressure of things. Virg.
Laborare est orare—Work is worship (lit. to 25 labour is to pray). Monkish Pr.
Labore—By labour. M.
Labore et honore—By labour and honour. M.
Labore vinces—By labour you will conquer. M.
Laborum dulce lenimen—The sweet soother of my toils. Hor. to his lyre.
Labour bestowed on nothing is fruitless. Hitopadesa. 30
Labour endears rest, and both together are absolutely necessary for the proper enjoyment of human existence. Burns.
Labour for labour's sake is against nature. Locke.
Labour has a bitter root but a sweet taste. Dan. Pr.
Labour is exercise continued to fatigue; exercise is labour used only while it produces pleasure. Johnson.
Labour is life. From the inmost heart of the 35 worker rises his God-given force—the sacred celestial life-essence breathed into him by Almighty God. Carlyle.
Labour is preferable to idleness, as brightness to rust. Plato.
Labour is the beginning, the middle, and the end of art. Anon.
Labour is the fabled magician's wand, the philosopher's stone, and the cap of Fortunatus. J. Johnson.
Labour is the instituted means for the methodical development of all our powers under the direction and control of the will. J. G. Holland.
Labour is the Lethe of both past and present. 40 Jean Paul.
Labour is the ornament of the citizen; the reward of toil is when you confer blessings on others; his high dignity confers honour on the king; be ours the glory of our hands. Schiller.
Labour is the talisman that has raised man from the condition of the savage. M'Culloch.
Labour itself is but a sorrowful song, / The protest of the weak against the strong. Faber.
Labour, if it were not necessary for the existence, would be indispensable for the happiness, of man. Johnson.
Labour, like everything else that is good, is 45 its own reward. Whipple.
Labour like this our want supplies, / And they must stoop who mean to rise. Cowper.
Labour of the hands, even when pursued to the verge of drudgery, is perhaps never the worst form of idleness (for the mind); it has a constant and imperishable moral. Thoreau.
Labour past is pleasant. Pr.
Labour to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire—conscience. Washington.
Labour, wide as the earth, has its summit in heaven. Carlyle.
Labour with what zeal we will, / Something 5 still remains undone, / Something uncompleted still / Waits the rising of the sun. Longfellow.
Lachen, Weinen, Lust und Schmerz / Sind Geschwister-Kinder—Laughing and weeping, pleasure and pain, are cousins german. Goethe.
Lacrymæque decoræ, / Gratior et pulchro veniens in corpore virtus—His tears, that so well become him, and a merit still more pleasing that shows itself in his fair form. Virg.
Lactuca innatat acri / Post vinum stomacho—Lettuce after wine floats on the acrid stomach. Hor.
Lad's love is lassie's delight, / And if lads won't love, lassies will flite (scold). Craven.
Lad's love's a busk of broom, hot awhile and 10 soon done. Pr.
Lade nicht alles in ein Schiff—Embark not your all in one venture. Ger. Pr.
Ladies like variegated tulips show; / 'Tis to their changes half their charms they owe. Pope.
Læso et invicto militi—For our wounded but unconquered soldiery. Inscription on the Berlin Invalidenhaus.
Lætus in præsens animus, quod ultra est / Oderit curare, et amara lento / Temperet risu. Nihil est ab omni / Parte beatum—The mind that is cheerfully contented with the present will shrink from caring about anything beyond, and will temper the bitters of life with an easy smile. There is nothing that is blessed in every respect. Hor.
Lætus sorte tua vives sapienter—You will live 15 wisely if you live contented with your lot. Pr.
Lætus sum laudari a laudato viro—I am pleased to be praised by a man who is so praised as you are. Cic.
Laisser dire le monde, et toujours bien faire, c'est une maxime, qui étant bien observée assure notre repos, et établit enfin notre réputation—To let the world talk, and always to act correctly, is a maxim which, if well observed, will secure our repose, and in the end establish our reputation. Fr.
Laissez dire les sots, le savoir a son prix—Let ignorance talk, learning has its value. La Fontaine.
Laissez faire, laissez passer!—Let it be! Let it pass! Gournay, Quesnay.
Laissez faire—the "let alone" principle, is, in 20 all things which man has to do with, the principle of death. It is ruin to him, certain and total, if he lets his land alone—if he lets his fellow-men alone—if he lets his own soul alone. Ruskin.
Laissez-leur prendre un pied chez vous, / Ils en auront bientôt pris quatre—Let them take one foot in your house, and they will soon have taken four (give them an inch and they will take an ell). La Fontaine.
Lamenting becomes fools, and action wise folk. Sir P. Sidney.
Lampoons and satires, that are written with wit and spirit, are like poisoned darts, which not only inflict a wound, but make it incurable. Addison.
Land is the right basis of an aristocracy. No true aristocracy but must possess the land. Carlyle.
Land of lost gods and godlike men. Byron of 25 Greece.
Land should be given to those who can use it, and tools to those who can use them. Ruskin.
Land was never lost for want of an heir. Pr.
Lands intersected by a narrow firth / Abhor each other. Mountains interposed / Make enemies of nations, which had else, / Like kindred drops, been mingled into one. Cowper.
Lands mortgaged may return, and more esteemed; / But honesty once pawned is ne'er redeemed. Middleton.
Lang ill, soon weel. Sc. Pr. 30
Lang syne, in Eden's bonny yaird, / When youthfu' lovers first were pair'd, / And all the soul of love they shared, / The raptured hour, / Sweet on the fragrant flowery swaird, / In shady bower, / Then you, ye auld sneck-drawing (latch-lifting) dog, / Ye cam' to Paradise incog, / And play'd on man a curséd brogue, / (Black be your fa') / And gied the infant warld a shog (shake), / 'Maist ruin'd a'. Burns to the Deil.
Langage des halles—Language of the fishmarket. Fr.
Lange ist nicht ewig—Long is not for ever. Ger. Pr.
Lange Ueberlegungen zeigen gewöhnlich, dass man den Punkt nicht im Auge hat, von dem die Rede ist; übereilte Handlungen, dass man ihn gar nicht kennt—Long pondering on a matter usually indicates that one has not properly got his eye on the point at issue; and too hasty action that he does not know it at all. Goethe.
Langes Leben heisst viele überleben—To live 35 long is to outlive many. Goethe.
Langeweile ist ein böses Kraut / Aber auch eine Würze, die viel verdaut—Ennui is an ill weed, but also a condiment which digests a good deal. Goethe.
Langh festjen is nin brae sperjen—A long fast saves no bread. Fris. Pr.
Langsam nur im Menschengeiste / Reift das Saatkorn der Erkenntniss, / Doch die Blumen wachsen schnell—The seed-grain of knowledge ripens but slowly in the spirit of man, yet the flowers grow fast. Bodenstedt.
Language at its infancy is all poetry. Emerson.
Language is always wise. Emerson. 40
Language is fossil poetry. Trench.
Language is not only the vehicle of thought, it is a great and efficient instrument in thinking. Sir H. Davy.
Language is only clear when it is sympathetic. Ruskin.
Language is properly the servant of thought, but not unfrequently it becomes its master. W. B. Clulow.
Language is the armoury of the human mind, and at once contains the trophies of its past, and the weapons of its future, conquests. Coleridge.
Language is the dress of thought. Johnson.
Language is the memory of the human race. It is a thread or nerve of life running through all the ages, connecting them into one common, prolonged, and advancing existence. Wm. Smith.
Language most shows a man; speak that I may see thee. Ben Jonson.
Languages are more properly to be called 5 vehicles of learning than learning itself.... True knowledge consists in knowing things, not words. Lady Montagu.
Languages are the barometers of national thought and character. Hare.
Languages are the pedigree of nations. Johnson.
Lapidary inscriptions should be historical rather than lyrical. Carlyle.
Lapis philosophorum—The philosopher's stone.
Lapis qui volvitur algam non generat—A rolling 10 stone gathers no moss. Pr.
Lapsus memoriæ—A slip of the memory.
Lares et penates—Household gods.
Large bodies are far more likely to err than individuals. The passions are inflamed by sympathy; the fear of punishment and the sense of shame are diminished by partition. Every day we see men do for their faction what they would die rather than do for themselves. Macaulay.
Large charity doth never soil, but only whiten, soft white hands. Lowell.
Large fortunes are all founded either on occupation 15 of land, or usury, or taxation of labour. Ruskin.
Large fortunes cannot be made by the work of any one man's hands or head. Ruskin.
Large masses of mankind, in every society of our Europe, are no longer capable of living at all by the things which have been. Carlyle.
Largitio fundum non habet—Giving has no bottom. Pr.
Las manos blancas no ofenden—White hands cannot harm one. Sp. Pr.
Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch'entrate—Abandon 20 all hope, ye who enter here. Dante.
Lascivi soboles gregis—The offspring of a wanton herd. Hor.
Lass das Vergangne vergangen sein—Let what is past be past. Goethe, Faust to Margaret in the end.
Lass deine Zunge nie das Amt des Schwertes führen—Never let thy tongue do the work of the sword. (?)
Lass dich nicht verblüffen—Don't let yourself be disconcerted. Herder.
Lass die Leute reden und die Hunde bellen—Let 25 the people talk and the dogs bark. Ger. Pr.
Lass die schwerste Pflicht dir die allerheiligste Pflicht sein—Let the most arduous duty be the most sacred of all to thee. Lavater.
Lass die Winde stürmen auf des Lebens Bahn, / Ob sie Wogen türmen gegen deinen Kahn. / Schiffe ruhig weiter, wenn der Mast auch bricht, / Gott ist dein Begleiter, er vergisst dich nicht—Let winds storm on life's course, even though they swell over and threaten thy skiff. Sail quietly on, even if the mast gives way. God is thy convoy; He forgets thee not. Tiedge.
Lass diesen Händedruck dir sagen / Was unaussprechlich ist—Let this pressure of the hand reveal to thee what is unutterable. Goethe, Faust to Margarite.
Lass ruhn, lass ruhn die Toten, / Du weckst sie mit Klagen nicht auf—Let them rest, let thy dead ones rest, thou awakest them not with thy wailing. Chamisso.
Lasses and glasses are brittle wares. Sc. Pr. 30
Lasst fahren hin das allzu Flüchtige! / Ihr sucht bei ihm vergebens Rat! / In dem Vergangnen lebt das Tüchtige / Verewigt sich in schöner That—Let the too transient pass by; ye seek counsel in vain of it. Yet what will avail you lives in the past, and lies immortalised in what has been nobly done. Goethe.
Lasst uns hell denken, so werden wir feurig lieben—Let us think clearly, we shall love ardently. Schiller.
Last come, worst served.
Last in bed, best heard. Pr.
Last, not least. Jul. Cæs., iii. 1. Lear, i. 1. 35
Last scene of all, ... / Is second childishness and mere oblivion; / Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything. As You Like It, ii. 7.
Late children are early orphans. Sp. Pr.
Late fruit keeps well. Ger. Pr.
Lateat scintillula forsan—A small spark may perhaps lurk unseen. M.
Laterem laves—You may as well wash a clay 40 brick white. Ter.
Latet anguis in herba—There is a snake in the grass. Virg.
[Greek: lathe biôsas]—Remain hidden in life. Epicurus.
Latitat—He lurks; a writ of summons (Law).
Latius regnes, avidum domando / Spiritum, quam si Libyam remotis / Gadibus jungas, et uterque Pœnus / Serviat uni—By subduing an avaricious spirit you will rule a wider empire than if you united Lybia to the far-off Gades, and the Carthaginian on both shores should be subject to you alone. Hor.
Latrante uno, latrat statim et alter canis—When 45 one dog barks, another straightway begins to bark too. Pr.
Latrantem curatne alta Diana canem?—Does the high-stepping Diana care for the dog that bays her? Pr.
Laudant quod non intelligunt—They praise what they don't understand.
Laudari a viro laudato maxima est laus—To be commended by a man of high repute is the greatest possible praise.
Laudat venales qui vult extrudere merces—He praises his wares who wishes to palm them off upon others. Hor.
Laudato ingentia rura, / Exiguum colito—Praise 50 a large estate, but cultivate a small one. Virg.
Laudator temporis acti—The praiser of bygone times. Hor.
Laudatur ab his, culpatur ab illis—Some praise him, others censure him. Hor.
Laudatus abunde, / Non fastiditus si tibi, lector, ero—Abundantly, reader, shall I be praised if I do not cause thee disgust. Ovid.
Laudem virtutis necessitati damus—We give to necessity the praise of virtue. Quinct.
Laudibus arguitur vini vinosus—He is convicted of being a wine-bibber by his praises of wine. Hor.
Laudo Deum verum, plebem voco, congrego 5 clerum, / Defunctos ploro, pestem fugo, festa decoro—I praise the true God, I summon the people, I call together the clergy, I bewail the dead, I put to flight the plague, I celebrate festivals. Inscription on a church bell.
Laudo manentem; si celeres quatit / Pennas, resigno quæ dedit, et mea / Virtute me involvo probamque / Pauperiem sine dote quæro—I praise her (Fortune) while she stays with me; if she flaps her swift pinions, I resign all she has given me, and wrap myself up in my own virtue and pay my addresses to honest undowered poverty. Hor.
Laugh and be fat. Ben Jonson.
Laugh at all twaddle about fate. A man's fate is what he makes it, nothing else. Anon.
Laugh at leisure; ye may greet (weep) ere nicht. Sc. Pr.
Laugh not too much: the witty man laughs 10 least: / For wit is news only to ignorance. / Less at thine own things laugh: lest in the jest / Thy person share, and the conceit advance. George Herbert.
Laugh where we must, be candid where we can, / But vindicate the ways of God to man. Pope.
Laughing cheerfulness throws the light of day on all the paths of life; sorrow is more confusing and distracting than so-called giddiness. Jean Paul.
Laughter almost ever cometh of things most disproportioned to ourselves. Sir P. Sidney.
Laughter and tears are meant to turn the wheels of the same machinery of sensibility; one is wind-power, and the other water-power, that is all. Holmes.
Laughter, holding both his sides. Milton. 15
Laughter is akin to weeping, and true humour is as closely allied to pity as it is abhorrent to derision. H. Giles.
Laughter is one of the very privileges of reason, being confined to the human species. Leigh Hunt.
Laughter is the cipher-key wherewith we decipher the whole man. Carlyle.
Laughter leaves us doubly serious shortly after. Byron.
Laughter makes good blood. It. Pr. 20
Laughter should dimple the cheek, not furrow the brow. Feltham.
Laus Deo—Praise be to God. M.
Laus est facere quod decet, non quod licet—It is doing what we ought to do, and not merely doing what we may do, that is the ground of praise.
Laus in proprio ore sordescit—Self-praise is offensive. Pr.
Laus magna natis obsequi parentibus—Great 25 praise is the meed of children who respect the wishes of their parents. Phaedr.
Lavish promises lessen credit. Hor.
Lavishness is not generosity. Pr.
Law and equity are two things which God hath joined, but which man hath put asunder. Colton.
Law cannot persuade when it cannot punish. Pr.
Law has her seat in the bosom of God, her 30 voice in the harmony of the world. Hooker.
Law is a bottomless pit; keep far from it. Pr.
Law is a lottery. Pr.
Law is not law if it violates the principles of eternal justice. L. M. Child.
Law is powerful, necessity more so. Goethe.
Law it is which is without name, or colour, or 35 hands, or feet; which is smallest of the least, and largest of the large; all, and knowing all things; which hears without ears, sees without eyes, moves without feet, and seizes without hands. Emerson.
Law licks up a'. Sc. Pr.
Law-makers should not be law-breakers. Pr.
Law, man's sole guardian ever since the day when the old brazen age in sadness saw love fly the world. Schiller.
Law teaches us to know when we commit injury and when we suffer it. Johnson.
Law that shocks equity is reason's murderer. 40 A, Hill.
Lawless are they that make their wills their law. Sh.
Laws act after crimes have been committed; prevention goes before them both. Zimmermann.
Laws and rights are transmitted like an inveterate hereditary disease. Goethe.
Laws are generally found to be nets of such texture as the little creep through, the great break through, and the middle size are alone entangled in. Shenstone.
Laws are intended to guard against what 45 men may do, not to trust what they will do. Junius.
Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through. Swift.
Laws are like spider webs, small flies are ta'en, / While greater flies break in and out again. Braithwaite.
Laws are not made for particular cases, but for men in general. Johnson.
Laws are not made like nets—to catch, but like sea-marks—to guide. Sir P. Sidney.
Laws are not masters, but servants, and he 50 rules them who obeys them. Ward Beecher.
Laws are not our life, only the house wherein our life is led; nay, they are but the bare walls of the house; all whose essential furniture, the inventions and traditions and daily habits that regulate and support our existence, are the work not of Dracos and Hampdens, but of Phœnician mariners, of Italian masons, and Saxon metallurgists, of philosophers, alchymists, prophets, and the long-forgotten train of artists and artisans, who from the first have been jointly teaching us how to think and how to act, how to rule over spiritual and physical nature. Carlyle.
Laws are the silent assessors of God. W. R. Alger.
Laws are the sovereigns of sovereigns. Louis XIV.
Laws are the very bulwarks of liberty. They define every man's rights, and stand between and defend the individual liberties of all. J. G. Holland.
Laws are usually most beneficial in operation on the people who would have most strongly objected to their enactment. Ruskin.
Law's costly; tak' a pint and 'gree. Sc. Pr.
Laws exist in vain for those who have not the courage and the means to defend them. Macaulay.
Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the 5 law. Goldsmith.
Laws, like cobwebs, catch flies, but let hornets go free. Pr.
Laws of Nature are God's thoughts thinking themselves out in the orbs and the tides. C. H. Parkhurst.
Laws should be like death, which spares no one. Montesquieu.
Laws undertake to punish only overt acts. Montesquieu.
Laws were made for rogues. It. Pr. 10
Laws, written, if not on stone tables, yet on the azure of infinitude, in the inner heart of God's creation, certain as life, certain as death, are there, and thou shalt not disobey them. Carlyle.
Lawyers and painters can soon make black white. Pr.
Lawyers and woodpeckers have long bills. Pr.
Lawyers are always more ready to get a man into troubles than out of them. Goldsmith.
Lawyers are needful to keep us out of law. 15 Pr.
Lawyers' houses are built of fools' heads. Fr. Pr.
Lawyers, of whose art the basis / Is raising feuds and splitting cases. Butler.
Lawyers' robes are lined with the obstinacy of litigants. It. Pr.
Lawyers will live as long as mine and thine does. Ger. Pr.
Lay by, like ants, a little store, / For summer 20 lasts not evermore. Pr.
Lay by something for a rainy day. Pr.
Lay not all the load on the lame horse. Pr.
Lay not that flattering unction to your soul. Ham., iii. 4.
Lay not thine heart open to every one, but treat of thy affairs with the wise and such as fear God. Thomas à Kempis.
Lay the blame at the right door. Pr. 25
Lay the proud usurpers low! / Tyrants fall in every foe! / Liberty's in every blow! / Forward! let us die. Burns.
Lay thy hand upon thy halfpenny twice before thou partest with it. Pr.
Lay up and lay out should go together. Pr.
Lay up that you may lay out. Pr.
Lazarus did not go to Abraham's bosom because 30 he was poor, or every sluggard would go there easily. Spurgeon.
Laziness begins with cobwebs and ends with iron chains. Pr.
Laziness is nothing unless you carry it out. Pr.
Laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him. Ben. Franklin.
Lazy as Ludlam's dog, that laid his head against the wall to bark. Pr.
Lazy folks ask for work with their lips, but 35 their hearts pray God that they may not find it. Creole saying.
Lazy folk's stomachs don't get tired. Uncle Remus.
Lazy is the hand that ploughs not. Gael. Pr.
Le beau monde—The fashionable world. Fr.
Le bestemmie fanno come le processioni; ritornano donde partirono—Curses are like processions, they come back to whence they set out. It. Pr.
Le bien ne se fait jamais mieux que lorsqu'il 40 opère lentement—Good is never more effectually done than when it is produced slowly. Fr. Pr.
Le bon sens vulgaire est un mauvais juge quand il s'agit des grandes choses—Good common-sense is a bad judge when it is a question of high matters. Renan.
Le bon temps viendra—The good time will come. M.
Le bonheur de l'homme en cette vie ne consiste pas à être sans passions, il consiste à en être le maître—The happiness of man in this life does not consist in being devoid of passions, but in mastering them. Fr.
Le bonheur des méchants comme un torrent s'écoule—The happiness of the wicked passes away like a brook. Racine.
Le bonheur des peuples dépend et de la félicité 45 dont ils jouissent au dedans et du respect qu'ils inspirent au dehors—The welfare of nations depends at once on the happiness which they enjoy at home and the respect which they command abroad. Helvetius.
Le bonheur et le malheur des hommes ne dépendent pas moins de leur humeur que de la fortune—The happiness and unhappiness of men depend as much on their dispositions as on fortune. La Roche.
Le bonheur n'est pas chose aisée; il est très-difficile de le trouver en nous, et impossible de le trouver ailleurs—Happiness is no easy matter; it is very hard to find it within ourselves, and impossible to find it elsewhere. Chamfort.
Le bonheur ne peut être / Où la vertu n'est pas—Happiness cannot exist where virtue is not. Quinault.
Le bonheur ou le malheur vont ordinairement à ceux qui ont le plus de l'un ou de l'autre—Good fortune or bad generally falls to those who have the greatest share of either. La Roche.
Le bonheur semble fait pour être partagé—Happiness 50 seems appointed to be shared. Racine.
Le bruit est si fort, qu'on n'entend pas Dieu tonner—The noise (of things) is so deafening that we cannot hear God when He thunders. Fr. Pr.
Le bruit est pour le fat, la plainte est pour le sot, / L'honnête homme trompé s'éloigne et ne dit mot—Blustering is for the fop, whimpering for the fool; the sensible man when deceived goes off and says nothing. Lanoue.
Le chemin est long du projet à la close—The road is a long one from the projection of a thing to its accomplishment. Molière.
Le ciel me prive d'une épouse qui ne m'a jamais donné d'autre chagrin que celui de sa mort—Heaven bereaves me of a spouse who never caused me any other vexation than by her death. Louis XIV. of his wife.
Le citoyen peut périr, et l'homme rester—The citizen may perish and man remain. Montesquieu.
Le cœur a ses raisons, que la raison ne connoit pas—The heart has its reasons, which reason does not know. Pascal.
Le cœur de l'homme n'est jamais si inflexible que son esprit—The heart of man is never so inflexible as his intellect. Lamartine.
Le cœur d'une femme est un vrai miroir qui 5 reçoit toutes sortes d'objets sans s'attacher à aucun—The heart of woman is a real mirror, which reflects every object without attaching itself to any. Fr.
Le congrès ne marche pas; il danse—The Congress does not advance; it dances. The Prince de Ligne of the Vienna Congress.
Le conquérant est craint, le sage est estimé, / Mais le bienfaiteur plait, et lui seul est aimé—The conqueror is held in awe, the sage is esteemed, but it is the benevolent man who wins our affections and is alone beloved. Fr.
Le conseil manque à l'âme, / Et le guide au chemin—The soul wants counsel, and the road a guide. Fr.
Le contraire des bruits qui courent des affaires, ou des personnes, est souvent la vérité—The converse of what is currently reported about things and people is often the truth. La Bruyère.
Le contrat du gouvernement est tellement dissous 10 par despotisme que le despot n'est le maître qu'aussi long temps qu'il est le plus fort; et que si tôt qu'on peut l'expulser, il n'a point à réclaimer contre la violence—The contract of government is so dissolved by despotism, that the despot is master only so long as he is the strongest, and that as soon as there is power to expel him, he has no right to protest against the violent proceeding. Rousseau.
Le corps politique, aussi bien que le corps de l'homme, commence à mourir dès sa naissance, et porte en lui-même les causes de sa destruction—The body politic, like the body of man, begins to die as soon as it is born, and bears within it the seeds of its own dissolution. Rousseau.
Le cose non sono come sono, ma come si vedono—Things are not as they are, but as they are regarded. It. Pr.
Le courage est souvent un effet de la peur—Courage is often an effect of fear. Fr. Pr.
Le coûte en ôte le goût—The cost takes away from the relish. Fr. Pr.
Le cri d'un peuple heureux est la seule éloquence 15 qui doit parler des rois—The acclaim of a happy people is the only eloquence which ought to speak in the behalf of kings.
Le crime fait la honte, et non pas l'échafaud—It is the crime that's the disgrace, not the scaffold. Corneille.
Le désespoir comble non seulement notre misère, mais notre faiblesse—Despair gives the finishing blow not only to misery, but to weakness. Vauvenargues.
Le désespoir redouble les forces—Despair doubles our powers. Fr. Pr.
Le despotisme tempéré par l'assassinat, c'est notre Magna Charta—Despotism tempered by assassination is our Magna Charta. A Russian noble to Count Münster on the murder of the Czar Paul.
Le dessous des cartes—The lower side of the 20 cards. Fr.
Le devoir, c'est l'âme intérieure, c'est la vie de l'éducation—Duty is the inner soul, the life of education. Michelet.
Le devoir des juges est de rendre justice, leur métier est de la différer; quelques uns savent leur devoir, et font leur métier—The duty of judges is to administer justice, but their practice is to delay it; some of them know their duty, but adhere to the practice. La Bruyère.
Le diable était beau quand il était jeune—The devil was handsome when he was young. Fr. Pr.
Le divorce est le sacrement de l'adultère—Divorce is the sacrament of adultery.
Le doute s'introduit dans l'âme qui rêve, la foi 25 descend dans l'âme qui souffre—Doubt insinuates itself into a soul that is dreaming; faith comes down into one that struggles and suffers.
Le droit est au plus fort en amour comme en guerre, / Et la femme qu'on aime aura toujours raison—Right is with the strongest in love as in war, / And the woman we love will always be right. A. de Musset.
Le feu qui semble éteint souvent dort dans la cendre—The fire which seems extinguished often slumbers in the ashes. Corneille.
Le génie c'est la patience—Genius is just patience. Fr. Pr.
Le génie n'est autre chose qu'une grande aptitude à la patience—Genius is nothing else than a sovereign capacity for patience. Buffon.
Le géologue est un nouveau genre d'antiquaire—The 30 geologist is a new species of antiquarian. (?)
Le gouvernement représentatif est la justice organisée, la raison vivante, la morale armée—Representative government is justice organised, reason in living action, and morality armed. Royer Collard.
Le grand art de la supériorité, c'est de saisir les hommes par leur bon côté—The great art of superiority is getting hold of people by their right side. Mirabeau.
Le grand monarque—The grand monarch, Louis XIV.
Le grandeur et le discernement sont des choses différentes, et l'amour pour la vertu, et pour les vertueux une troisième chose—High rank and discernment are two different things, and love for virtue and for virtuous people is a third thing. La Bruyère.
Le hasard donne les pensées; le hazard les 35 ôte: point d'art pour conserver ni pour acquérir—Chance suggests thoughts; changes deprive us of them: there is no rule for preserving or acquiring them. Pascal.
Le hasard est un sobriquet de la Providence—Chance is a nickname for Providence. Chamfort.
Le jeu est le fils de l'avarice et le père du désespoir—Gambling is the son of avarice and the father of despair. Fr. Pr.
Le jeu n'en vaut pas la chandelle—The game is not worth the candle. Fr. Pr.
Le jour viendra—The day will come. M.
Le masque tombe, l'homme reste / Et le héros s'évanouit—The mask falls off, the man remains, and the heroic vanishes. J. B. Rousseau.
Le mauvais métier que celui de censeur—A bad business that of censor. Guy Patin.
Le méchant n'est jamais comique—A bad man is never amusing. De Maistre.
Le médicin Tant-pis et le médicin Tant-mieux—The pessimist and the optimist (lit. Doctor So-much-the-worse and Doctor So-much-the-better). La Fontaine.
Le mérité est souvent un obstacle à la fortune; 5 c'est qu'il produit toujours deux mauvais effets, l'envie et la crainte—Merit is often an obstacle to fortune; the reason is it produces two bad effects, envy and fear. Fr.
Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien—Better is the enemy of well. Fr. Pr.
Le moindre grain de mil serait bien mieux mon affaire—The smallest grain of millet would serve my needs better. La Fontaine, "The Cock and the Pearl."
Le moineau en la main vaut mieux que l'oie qui vole—A sparrow in the hand is worth a goose on the wing. Fr. Pr.
Le monde, chère Agnès, est une étrange chose—The world, dear Agnes, is a queer concern. Molière.
Le monde est le livre des femmes—The world 10 is the book of women. Rousseau.
Le monde est plein de fous, et qui n'en veut pas voir / Doit se tenir tout seul et casser son miroir—The world is full of madmen, and he who would not see one must keep himself quite alone and break his looking-glass.
Le monde paye d'ingratitude—The world pays with ingratitude. Fr. Pr.
Le monde savant—The learned world. Fr.
Le mort est le dernier trait du tableau de la vie—Death is the finishing touch in the picture of life. Fr.
Le mot de l'énigme—The key to the riddle. Fr. 15
Le moy est haïssable—Egotism is hateful. Pascal.
Le moyen le plus sûr de se consoler de tout ce qui peut arriver, c'est de s'attendre toujours au pire—The surest way to console one's self against whatever may happen is always to expect the worst. Fr.
Le nombre des élus au Parnasse est complet—The list of the elect of Parnassus is made up. (?)
Le nombre des sages sera toujours petit—The wise will always be few in number.
Le parjure est une vertu, / Lorsque le serment 20 fut un crime—Perjury is a virtue when the oath was a crime. Voltaire.
Le pas—Precedence in place or rank. Fr.
Le pays du mariage a cela de particulier, que les étrangers ont envie de l'habiter, et les habitans naturels voudroient en être exilés—The land of matrimony possesses this peculiarity, that strangers to it would like to dwell in it, and the natural inhabitants wish to be exiled. Montaigne.
Le pédant et l'instituteur disent à peu près les mêmes choses; mais le premier les dit à tout propos: le second ne les dit que quand il est sûr de leur effet—The pedant and the teacher say nearly the same things; but the former on every occasion, the latter only when he is sure of their effect. Rousseau.
Le petit monde—The lower orders. Fr.
Le peuple anglais pense être libre; il ne l'est 25 que durant l'élection des membres du parlement—The English think they are free; they are free only during the election of members of Parliament. Rousseau.
Le peuple est le cœur du pays—The people is the heart of a country. Lamartine.
Le peuple ne comprend que ce qu'il sent. Les seuls orateurs pour lui sont ceux qui l'émeuvent—The people understand only what they feel; the only orators that can affect them are those who move them. Lamartine.
Le plaisir le plus délicat est de faire celui d'autrui—The most exquisite pleasure consists in promoting the pleasures of others. La Bruyère.
Le plus âne des trois n'est pas celui qu'on pense—The greatest ass of the three is not the one who seems so. La Fontaine, "The Miller, his Son, and his Ass."
Le plus dangereux ridicule des vieilles personnes 30 qui sont aimables, c'est d'oublier qu'elles ne le sont plus—For old people, however estimable, to forget that they are no longer estimable is to expose themselves to certain ridicule. La Roche.
Le plus lent à promettre est toujours le plus fidèle à tenir—He who is slow in promising is always the most faithful in performing. Rousseau.
Le plus sage est celui qui ne pense point l'être—The wisest man is he who does not think he is so. Boileau.
Le plus semblable aux morts meurt le plus à regret—He who most resembles the dead dies with most reluctance. La Fontaine.
Le plus véritable marque d'être né avec de grandes qualités, c'est d'être né sans envie—The sure mark of being born with noble qualities is being born without envy. La Roche.
Le premier écu est plus difficile à gagner que 35 le second million—The first five shillings are harder to win than the second million. Fr. Pr.
Le premier soupir de l'amour est le dernier de la sagesse—The first sigh of love is the last of wisdom. Charron.
Le présent est gros de l'avenir—The present is big with coming events. Leibnitz.
Le présent est pour ceux qui jouissent, l'avenir pour ceux qui souffrent—The present is for those who enjoy, the future for those who suffer. Fr.
Le public! combien faut-il de sots pour faire un public?—The public! How many fools must there be to make a public? Chamfort.
Le réel est étroit, le possible est immense—The 40 real is limited, the possible is unlimited. Lamartine.
Le refus des louanges est souvent un désir d'être loué deux fois—The refusal of praise often proceeds from a desire to have it repeated.
Le repos est une bonne chose, mais l'ennui est son frère—Repose is a good thing, but ennui is his brother. Voltaire.
Le reste ne vaut pas l'honneur d'être nommé—The rest don't deserve to be mentioned. Corneille.
Le roi est mort; vive le roi!—The king is dead; long live the king! The form of announcing the death of a French king.
Le roy et l'état—The king and the state. M. 45
Le roi le veut—The king wills it. The formula of royal assent in France.
Le roi régne et ne gouverne pas—The king reigns but does not govern. Thiers at the accession of Louis Philippe.
Le roi s'avisera—The king will consider it. The form of a royal veto in France.
Le sage entend à demi-mot—A hint suffices for a wise man. Fr. Pr.
Le sage quelquefois évite le monde de peur d'être ennuyé—The wise man sometimes shuns society from fear of being bored. La Bruyère.
Le sage songe avant que de parler à ce qu'il 5 doit dire; le fou parle, et ensuite songe à ce qu'il a dit—A wise man thinks before he speaks what he ought to say; the fool speaks and thinks afterwards what he has said. Fr. Pr.
Le savoir faire—Knowing how to act; ability.
Le savoir vivre—Knowing how to live; good manners.
Le secret d'ennuyer est celui de tout dire—The secret of boring people is saying all that can be said on a subject. Voltaire.
Le sens commun est le génie de l'humanité—Common sense is the genius of humanity. Goethe.
Le sentiment de la liberté est plus vif, plus il 10 y entre de malignité—The passion for liberty is the keener the greater the malignity associated with it. Fr.
Le silence du peuple est la leçon des rois—The silence of the people is a lesson to kings. M. de Beauvais.
Le silence est l'esprit des sots, / Et l'une des vertus du sage—Silence is the wit of fools, and one of the virtues of the wise man. Bonnard.
Le silence est la vertu de ceux qui ne sont pas sages—Silence is the virtue of those who want it. Bouhours.
Le silence est le parti le plus sûr pour celui qui se défie de soi-même—Silence is the safest course for the man who is diffident of himself. La Roche.
Le soleil ni la mort ne se peuvent regarder 15 fixement—Neither the sun nor death can be looked at fixedly. La Roche.
Le sort fait les parents, le choix fait les amis—It is to chance we owe our relatives, to choice our friends. Delille.
Le style est l'homme même—The style is the man himself. Buffon.
Le superflu, chose très-nécessaire—The superfluous, a thing highly necessary. Voltaire.
Le temps est un grand maître, il régle bien les choses—Time is a great master; it regulates things well. Corneille.
Le temps guérit les douleurs et les querelles, 20 parcequ'on change, on n'est plus la même personne—Time heals our griefs and wranglings, because we change, and are no longer the same. Pascal.
Le temps n'épargne pas ce qu'on fait sans lui—Time preserves nothing that has been done without her, i.e., that has taken no time to do. Favolle.
Le tout ensemble—The whole together. Fr.
Le travail du corps délivre des peines de l'esprit; et c'est ce qui rend les pauvres heureux—Bodily labour alleviates the pains of the mind, and hence arises the happiness of the poor. La Roche.
Le travail éloigne de nous trois grand maux, l'ennui, le vice, et le besoin—Labour relieves us from three great evils, ennui, vice, and want. Fr.
Le trépas vient tout guérir; / Mais ne bougeons 25 d'où nous sommes: / Plutôt souffrir que mourir, / C'est la devise des hommes—Death comes to cure everything, but let us not stir from where we are. "Endure sooner than die," is the proper device for man. La Fontaine.
Le trident de Neptune est le sceptre du monde—The trident of Neptune is the sceptre of the world. Lemierre.
Le vesciche galleggiano sopre aqua, mentre le cose di peso vanno al fondo—Bladders swim on the surface of the water, while things of weight sink to the bottom. It. Pr.
Le vivre et le couvert, que faut-il davantage?—Life and good fare, what more do we need? La Fontaine, "The Rat in Retreat."
Le vrai mérite ne dépend point du temps ni de la mode—True merit depends on neither time nor mode. Fr. Pr.
Le vrai moyen d'être trompé, c'est de se croire 30 plus fin que les autres—The most sure way to be imposed on is to think one's self cleverer than other people. La Roche.
Le vrai n'est pas toujours vraisemblable—The true is not always verisimilar. Fr. Pr.
Le vrai peut quelquefois n'être pas vraisemble—What is true may sometimes seem unlike truth. Boileau.
Lead, kindly light, amid th' encircling gloom, / Lead thou me on. Newman.
Lead thine own captivity captive, and be Cæsar within thyself. Sir Thomas Browne.
Leal heart leed never. Sc. Pr. 35
Lean liberty is better than fat slavery. Pr.
Lean not upon a broken reed, which will not only let thee fall, but pierce thy arm too. Thomas à Kempis.
Lean, rent, and beggared by the strumpet wind! Mer. of Ven., ii. 6.
Learn a craft while you are young, that you may not have to live by craft when you are old. Pr.
Learn never to repine at your own misfortunes, 40 or to envy the happiness of another. Addison.
Learn of the little nautilus to sail, / Spread the thin oar and catch the driving gale. Pope.
Learn taciturnity; let that be your motto. Burns.
Learn that nonsense is none the less nonsense because it is in rhyme; and that rhyme without a purpose or a thought that has not been better expressed before is a public nuisance, only to be tolerated because it is good for trade. C. Fitzhugh.
Learn the value of a man's words and expressions, and you know him. Each man has a measure of his own for everything; this he offers you inadvertently in his words. He who has a superlative for everything wants a measure for the great or small. Lavater.
Learn to be good readers, which is perhaps a 45 more difficult thing than you imagine. Learn to be discriminative in your reading; to read faithfully, and with your best attention, all kinds of things which you have a real interest in—a real, not an imaginary—and which you find to be really fit for what you are engaged in. Carlyle to students.
Learn to be pleased with everything; with wealth so far as it makes us of benefit to others; with poverty, for not having much to care for; and with obscurity, for being unenvied. Plutarch.
Learn to creep before you leap. Pr.
Learn to hold thy tongue. Five words cost Zacharias forty weeks' silence. Fuller.
Learn to labour and to wait. Longfellow.
Learn to say before you sing. Pr. 5
Learn to say No! and it will be of more use to you than to be able to read Latin. Spurgeon.
Learn wisdom from the follies of others. Pr.
Learn you a bad habit, an' ye'll ca'd a custom. Sc. Pr.
Learn young, learn fair; / Learn auld, learn mair. Sc. Pr.
Learned fools are the greatest of all fools. 10 Ger. Pr.
Learned Theban. Lear, iii. 4.
Learned without sense and venerably dull. Churchill.
Learning by study must be won, / 'Twas ne'er entail'd from son to son. Gay.
Learning hath gained most by those books by which printers have lost. Fuller.
Learning hath its infancy, when it is almost 15 childish; then its youth, when luxurious and juvenile; then its strength of years, when solid; and lastly its old age, when dry and exhaust. Bacon.
Learning is a companion on a journey to a strange country. Hitopadesa.
Learning is a dangerous weapon, and apt to wound its master if it is wielded by a feeble hand, and by one not well acquainted with its use. Montaigne.
Learning is a livelihood. Hitopadesa.
Learning is a sceptre to some, a bauble to others. Pr.
Learning is a superior sight. Hitopadesa. 20
Learning is an addition beyond / Nobility of birth; honour of blood, / Without the ornament of knowledge, is / A glorious ignorance. Shirley.
Learning is better than hidden treasure. Hitopadesa.
Learning is better worth than house or land. Crabbe.
Learning is but an adjunct to ourself; / And, where we are, our learning likewise is. Love's L. Lost, iv. 3.
Learning is not to be tacked to the mind, but 25 we must fuse and blend them together, not merely giving the mind a slight tincture, but a thorough and perfect dye. Montaigne.
Learning is pleasurable, but doing is the height of enjoyment. Novalis.
Learning is strength inexhaustible. Hitopadesa.
Learning is the dictionary, but sense the grammar, of science. Sterne.
Learning is the source of renown, and the fountain of victory in the senate. Hitopadesa.
Learning itself, received into a mind / By 30 nature weak or viciously inclined, / Serves but to lead philosophers astray, / Where children would with ease discern the way. Cowper.
Learning, like money, may be of so base a coin as to be utterly devoid of use; or, if sterling, may require good management to make it serve the purpose of sense and happiness. Shenstone.
Learning, like the lunar beam, affords light, not heat. Young.
Learning makes a man a fit companion for himself. Pr.
Learning makes a man wise, but a fool is made all the more a fool by it. Pr.
Learning needs rest; sovereignty gives it. 35 Sovereignty needs counsel; learning affords it. Ben Jonson.
Learning once made popular is no longer learning. Johnson.
Learning passes for wisdom among them who want both. Sir W. Temple.
Learning puffeth men up; words are but wind, and learning is nothing but words; ergo, learning is nothing but wind. Swift.
Learning to a man is a name superior to beauty. Hitopadesa.
Learning to the inexperienced is a poison. 40 Hitopadesa.
Learning without thought is labour lost. Pr.
Least said is soonest mended. Pr.
Leave a jest when it pleases you best. Pr.
Leave a man to his passions, and you leave a wild beast of a savage and capricious nature. Burke.
Leave a welcome behind you. Pr. 45
Leave all piggies' ears alone rather than seize upon the wrong one. Spurgeon.
Leave all things to a Father's will, / And taste, before him lying still, / Even in affliction, peace. Anstice.
Leave all to God, / Forsaken one, and stay thy tears! Winkworth.
Leave Ben Lomond where it stands. Sc. Pr.
Leave her to heaven, / And to those thorns 50 that in her bosom lodge, / To prick and sting her. Ham., i. 5.
Leave it if you cannot mend it. Pr.
Leave not the meat to gnaw the bones, / Nor break your teeth on worthless stones. Pr.
Leave off no clothes / Till you see a June rose. Pr.
"Leave off your fooling and come down, sir." Oliver Cromwell.
Leave the court ere the court leave you. 55 Sc. Pr.
Leave the great ones of the world to manage their own concerns, and keep your eyes and observations at home. Thomas à Kempis.
Leave this keen encounter of our wits, / And fall somewhat into a slower method. Rich. III., i. 2.
Leave to-morrow till to-morrow. Pr.
Leave to the diamond its ages to grow, nor expect to accelerate the births of the eternal. Emerson.
Leave well alone. Pr. 60
Leave you your power to draw, / And I shall have no power to follow you. Mid. Night's Dream, ii. 2.
Leaves enough, but few grapes. Pr.
Leaves have their time to fall, / And flowers to wither at the north wind's breath, / And stars to set; but all, / Thou hast all seasons for thine own, O death! Mrs. Hemans.
Leaving for gleaner makes farmer no leaner. Pr.
Lebe, wie du, wenn du stirbst, / Wünschen wirst, gelebt zu haben—Live, as you will wish to have lived when you come to die. Gellert.
Leben athme die bildende Kunst, / Geist fordr' ich vom Dichter—Let painting and sculpture breathe life; it is spirit itself I require of the poet. Schiller.
Leben heisst träumen: weise sein heisst 5 angenehm träumen—To live is to dream, to be wise is to dream agreeably. Schiller.
Leberide cæcior—Blinder than a serpent's slough. Pr.
Led by illusions romantic and subtle deceptions of fancy, / Pleasure disguised as duty, and love in the semblance of friendship. Longfellow.
Leeze me o' drink; it gies us mair / Than either school or college; / It kindles wit, it waukens lair (learning), / It pangs (stuffs) us fu' o' knowledge. Burns.
Legant prius et postea despeciant—Let them read first, and despise afterwards. Lope de Vega.
Legatus a latere—An extraordinary Papal ambassador. 10
Lege totum si vis scire totum—Read the whole if you wish to know the whole.
Legem brevem esse oportet quo facilius ab imperitis teneatur—A law ought to be short, that it may be the more easily understood by the unlearned. Sen.
Leges ad civium salutem, civitatumque incolumitatem conditæ sunt—Laws were framed for the welfare of citizens and the security of states. Cic.
Leges bonæ malis ex moribus procreantur—Good laws are begotten of bad morals. Pr.
Leges mori serviunt—Laws are subordinate to 15 custom. Plaut.
Leges posteriores priores contrarias abrogant—Later statutes repeal prior contrary ones. L.
Leges sunt inventæ quæ cum omnibus semper una atque eadem voce loquerentur—Laws are so devised that they may always speak with one and the same voice to all. Cic.
Legimus ne legantur—We read that others may not read. Lactantius.
Legis constructio non facit injuriam—The construction of the law does injury to no man. L.
Legum ministri magistratus, legum interpretes 20 judices; legum denique idcirco omnes servi sumus, ut liberi esse possimus—The magistrates are the ministers of the laws, the judges their interpreters; we are all, in short, servants of the laws, that we may be free men. Cic.
Leib und Seele schmachten in hundert Banden, die unzerreissbar sind, aber auch in hundert andern, die ein einziger Entschluss zerreisst—Body and soul languish under a hundred entanglements from which there is no deliverance, but also in hundreds of others which a single resolution can snap away. Feuchtersleben.
Leicht zu sättigen ist, und unersättlich, die Liebe—Love is at once easy to satisfy and insatiable. Rückert.
Leichter trägt, was er trägt, / Wer Geduld zur Bürde legt—He bears what he bears more lightly who adds patience to the burden. Logau.
Leisure and solitude are the best effect of riches, because mother of thought. Both are avoided by most rich men, who seek company and business, which are signs of their being weary of themselves. Sir W. Temple.
Leisure for men of business, and business for 25 men of leisure, would cure many complaints. Mrs. Thrale.
Leisure is seldom enjoyed with perfect satisfaction except in solitude. Zimmermann.
Leisure is the reward of labour. Pr.
Leisure is time for doing something useful; this leisure the diligent man will obtain; the lazy man never. Ben. Franklin.
Lend, hoping for nothing again. Bible.
Lend only what you can afford to lose. 30 Pr.
Length of saying makes languor of hearing. J. Roux.
Lenior et melior fis, accedente senecta—You become milder and better as old age advances. Hor.
Leniter ex merito quidquid patiare ferendum est, / Quæ venit indigne pœna dolenda venit—Whatever you suffer deservedly should be borne with resignation; the penalty that comes upon us undeservedly comes as a matter of just complaint. Ovid.
Lenity is part of justice. Joubert.
Lenity will operate with greater force, in some 35 instances, than rigour. It is, therefore, my first wish to have my whole conduct distinguished by it. G. Washington.
Leonem larva terres—You frighten a lion with a mask. Pr.
Leonina societas—Partnership with a lion.
Leonum ora a magistris impune tractantur—The mouths of lions are with impunity handled by their keepers. Sen.
Leporis vitam vivit—He lives the life of a hare, i.e., always full of fear. Pr.
Lern' entbehren, O Freund, / Beut Trotz dem 40 Schmerz und dem Tode, / Und kein Gott des Olymps fühlet sich freier, als du—Learn to dispense with things, O friend, bid defiance to pain and death, and no god on Olympus breathes more freely than thou. Bürger.
Lerne vom Schlimmsten Gutes, und Schlimmes nicht vom Besten—Learn good from the worst, and not bad from the best. Lavater.
Les affaires? c'est bien simple: c'est l'argent des autres—Business? That's easily defined: it is other people's money. Dumas fils.
Les affaires font les hommes—Business makes men. Fr.
Les amertumes sont en morale ce que sont les amers en médicine—Afflictions are in morals what bitters are in medicine. Fr.
Les âmes privilégiées rangent à l'égal des 45 souverains—Privileged souls rank on a level with princes. Frederick the Great.
Les amis, ces parents que l'on se fait soi-même—Friends, those relations that we make ourselves.
Les amis de mes amis sont mes amis—My friends' friends are my friends. Fr. Pr.
Les anglais s'amusent tristement—The English have a heavy-hearted way of amusing themselves. Sully.
Les beaux esprits se rencontrent—Great wits draw together. Fr. Pr.
Les belles actions cachées sont les plus estimables—The acts that we conceal are regarded with the highest esteem. Pascal.
Les biens mal acquis s'en vont à vau-l'eau—Wealth ill acquired soon goes (lit. goes with the stream). Fr. Pr.
Les biens viennent, les biens s'en vont, / 5 Comme la fumée, comme toute chose—Wealth comes and goes like smoke, like everything. Bret. Pr.
Les bras croisés—Idle (lit. the arms folded). Fr.
Les cartes sont brouillées—A fierce dissension has arisen (lit. the cards are mixed).
Les choses valent toujours mieux dans leur source—Things are always best at their source. Pascal.
Les cloches appellent à l'église, mais n'y entrent pas—The bells call to church, but they do not enter. Fr. Pr.
Les consolations indiscrètes ne font qu'aigrir 10 les violentes afflictions—Consolation indiscreetly pressed only aggravates the poignancy of the affliction. Rousseau.
Les délicats sont malheureux, / Rien ne saurait les satisfaire—The fastidious are unfortunate; nothing satisfies them. La Fontaine.
Les enfants sont ce qu'on les fait—Children are what we make them. Fr. Pr.
Les envieux mourront, mais non jamais l'envie—The envious will die, but envy never will. Molière.
Les esprits médiocres condamnent d'ordinaire tout ce qui passe leur portée—Men of limited intelligence generally condemn everything that is above their power of understanding. La Roche.
Les extrêmes se touchent—Extremes meet. 15 Mercier.
Les femmes ont toujours quelque arrière-pensée—Women have always some mental reservation. Destouches.
Les femmes ont un instinct céleste pour le malheur—Women have a divine instinctive feeling for misfortune. Fr.
Les femmes peuvent tout, parcequ'elles gouvernent les personnes qui gouvernent tout—Women can accomplish everything, because they govern those who govern everything. Fr. Pr.
Les femmes sont extrêmes: elles sont meilleures ou pires que les hommes—Women indulge in extremes; they are always either better or worse than men. La Bruyère.
Les gens qui ont peu d'affaires, sont de très 20 grands parleurs—People who have little to do are excessive talkers. Fr.
Les gens sans bruit sont dangereux—Still people are dangerous. La Fontaine.
Les girouettes qui sont placées le plus haut, tournent le mieux—Weathercocks placed on the most elevated stations turn the most readily. Fr. Pr.
Les grandes âmes ne sont pas celles qui ont moins de passions et plus de vertus que les âmes communes, mais celles seulement qui ont de plus grands desseins—Great souls are not those who have fewer passions and more virtues than common souls, but those only who have greater designs. La Roche.
Les grands et les petits ont mêmes accidents, et mêmes fâcheries et mêmes passions, mais l'un est au haut de la roue et l'autre près du centre, et ainsi moins agité par les mêmes mouvements—Great and little are subject to the same mischances, worries, and passions, but one is on the rim of the wheel and the other near the centre, and so is less agitated by the same movements. Pascal.
Les grands hommes ne se bornent jamais dans 25 leurs desseins—Great men never limit themselves to a circumscribed sphere of action. Bouhours.
Les grands hommes sont non-seulement populaires: ils donnent la popularité à tout ce qu'ils touchent—Great men are not only popular themselves; they give popularity to whatever they touch. Fournier.
Les grands ne sont grands que parceque nous sommes à genoux; relevons-nous!—The great are great only because we are on our knees. Let us rise up. Quoted by Prudhomme.
Les grands noms abaissent, au lieu d'élever ceux qui ne les savent pas soutenir—High titles lower, instead of raising, those who know not how to support them. La Roche.
Les grands seigneurs ont des plaisirs, le peuple a de la joie—High people have pleasures, common people have joy. Montesquieu.
Les haines sont si longues et si opiniâtres, 30 que le plus grand signe de mort dans un homme malade, c'est la réconciliation—The passion of hatred is so long-lived and obstinate a malady, that the surest prognostic of death in a sick man is his desire for reconciliation. La Bruyère.
Les hommes extrêmement heureux et les hommes extrêmement malheureux, sont également portés à la dureté—Men extremely happy and men extremely unhappy are alike prone to become hard-hearted. Montesquieu.
Les hommes font les lois, les femmes font les mœurs—Men make the laws, women the manners. Guibert.
Les hommes fripons en détail sont en gros de très honnêtes gens—Men who are knaves severally are in the mass highly honourable people. Montesquieu.
Les hommes ne sont justes qu'envers ceux qu'ils aiment—Men are just only to those they love. Fr.
Les hommes sont cause que les femmes ne 35 s'aiment point—It is on account of the men that the women do not love each other. La Bruyère.
Les hommes sont rares—Men are rare. Fr. Pr.
Les honneurs changent les mœurs—Honours change manners. Fr. Pr.
Les honneurs coutent à qui veut les posséder—Honours are dearly bought by whoever wishes to possess them. Fr. Pr.
Les jeunes gens disent ce qu'ils font, les vieillards ce qu'ils ont fait, et les sots ce qu'ils ont envie de faire—Young people talk of what they are doing, old people of what they have done, and fools of what they have a mind to do. Fr.
Les jours se suivent et ne se ressemblent pas—The 40 days follow, but are not like each other. Fr. Pr.
Les magistrates, les rois n'ont aucune autorité sur les âmes; et pourvu qu'on soit fidèle aux lois de la société dans ce monde, ce n'est point à eux de se mêler de ce qu'on deviendra dans l'autre, où ils n'ont aucune inspection—Rulers have no authority over men's souls; and provided we are faithful to the laws of society in this world, it is no business of theirs to concern themselves with what may become of us in the next, over which they have no supervision. Rousseau.
Les maladies viennent à cheval, retournent à pied—Diseases make their attack on horseback, but retire on foot. Fr.
Les malheureux qui ont de l'esprit trouvent des resources en eux-mêmes—Men of genius when under misfortune find resources within themselves. Bouhours.
Les maximes des hommes décèlent leur cœur—Men show what they are by their maxims. Vauvenargues.
Les méchants sont toujours surpris de trouver 5 de l'habilité dans les bons—Wicked men are always surprised to discover ability in good men. Vauvenargues.
Les médiocrités croient égaler le génie en dépassant la raison—Men of moderate abilities think to rank as geniuses by outstripping reason. Lamartine.
Les mœurs du prince contribuent autant à la liberté que les lois—The manners of the prince conduce as much to liberty as the laws. Montesquieu.
Les mœurs se corrompent de jour en jour, et on ne saurait plus distinguer les vrais d'avec les faux amis—Our manners are daily degenerating, and we can no longer distinguish true friends from false. Fr.
Les moissons, pour mûrir, ont besoin de rosée, / Pour vivre et pour sentir, l'homme a besoin des pleurs—Harvests to ripen have need of dew; man, to live and to feel, has need of tears. A. de Musset.
Les mortels sont égaux; ce n'est point la naissance, / 10 C'est la seule vertu qui fait la différence—All men are equal; it is not birth, it is virtue alone that makes the difference. Voltaire.
Les murailles (or murs) ont des oreilles—Walls have ears. Fr. Pr.
Les passions personelles se lassent et s'usent; les passions publiques jamais—Private passions tire and exhaust themselves; public ones never. Lamartine.
Les passions sont les seuls orateurs qui persuadent toujours—The passions are the only orators which always convince us. La Roche.
Les passions sont les vents qui enflent les voiles du vaisseau; elles le submergent quelquefois, mais sans elles il ne pourrait voguer—The passions are the winds that fill the sails of the ship; they sometimes sink it, but without them it could not make any way. Voltaire.
Les passions sont les vents qui font aller notre 15 vaisseau, et la raison est le pilote qui le conduit; le vaisseau n'irait point sans les vents, et se perdrait sans le pilote—The passions are the winds which propel our vessel; our reason is the pilot that steers her; without winds the vessel would not move; without pilot she would be lost. Fr.
Les petits chagrins rendent tendre; les grands, dur et farouche—Slight troubles render us tender; great ones make us hard and unfeeling. André Chénier.
Les peuples une fois accoutumés à des maîtres ne sont plus en état de s'en passer—People once accustomed to masters are no longer able to dispense with them. Rousseau.
Les plaisirs sont amers si tôt qu'on en abuse—Pleasures become bitter as soon as they are abused. Fr. Pr.
Les plus grands crimes ne coutent rien aux ambitieux, quand il s'agit d'une couronne—The greatest crimes cause no remorse in an ambitious man when a crown is at stake. Fr.
Les plus grands hommes d'une nation sont 20 ceux qu'elle met à mort—The greatest men of a nation are those whom it puts to death. Renan.
Les plus malheureux osent pleurer le moins—Those who are most wretched dare least give vent to their grief. Fr.
Les querelles ne dureraient pas longtemps, si le tort n'était que d'un côté—Quarrels would not last so long if the fault lay only on one side. La Roche.
Les races se féminisent—Races are becoming effeminate. Fr.
Les républiques finissent par le luxe; les monarchies par la pauvreté—Luxury ruins republics; poverty, monarchies. Montesquieu.
Les rivières sont des chemins qui marchent—Rivers 25 are moving roads. Pascal.
Les sophistes ont ébranlé l'autel, mais ce sont les prêtres qui l'ont avili—The sophists have shaken the altar, but it is the priests that have disgraced it. Regnault de Waren.
Les sots depuis Adam sont en majorité—Ever since Adam's time fools have been in the majority. Delavigne.
Les talents sont distribués par la nature, sans égard aux généalogies—Talents go by nature, not by birth. Frederick the Great.
Les utopies ne sont souvent que des vérités prématuriées—Utopias are often only premature truths. Lamartine.
Les vérités sont des fruits qui ne doivent être 30 cueillis que bien mûrs—Truths, like fruits, ought not to be gathered until they are quite ripe, i.e., till the time is ripe for them. Fr. Pr.
Les vers sont enfants de la lyre; / Il faut les chanter, non les lire—Verses are children of the lyre; they must be sung, not read. Fr.
Les vertus se perdent dans l'intérêt comme les fleuves se perdent dans la mer—Our virtues lose themselves in our interests, as the rivers lose themselves in the ocean. La Roche.
Les vieillards aiment à donner de bons préceptes, pour se consoler de n'être plus en état de donner de mauvais exemples—Old men like to give good precepts, to make amends for being no longer able to set bad examples. La Roche.
Les vieilles coutumes sont les bonnes coutumes—The old customs are the good customs. Bret. Pr.
Les vieux fous sont plus fous que les jeunes—Old 35 fools are more foolish than young ones. La Roche.
Les villes sont le gouffre de l'espèce humaine—Towns are the sink of our race. Rousseau.
Lèse-majesté—High-treason. Fr.
Leser, wie gefall' ich dir? / Leser, wie gefällst du mir?—Reader, how please I thee? Reader, how pleasest thou me? M.
Less in rising into lofty abstractions lies the difficulty, than in seeing well and lovingly the complexities of what is at hand. Carlyle.
Less of your courtesy and more of your purse. Pr.
Less of your honey and more of your honesty. 5 Pr.
Lessons hard to learn are sweet to know. Pr.
Lessons of wisdom have never such power over us as when they are wrought into the heart through the groundwork of a story which engages the passions. Sterne.
Lessons of wisdom open to our view / In all life's varied scenes of gay or gloomy hue. De Bosch.
Let a good pot have a good lid. Pr.
Let a hoard always be made, but not too 10 great a hoard. Hitopadesa.
Let a horse drink when he will, not what he will. Pr.
Let a man be a man, and a woman a woman. Pr.
Let a man be but born ten years sooner or ten years later, his whole aspect and performance shall be different. Goethe.
Let a man believe in God, and not in names, places, and persons. Emerson.
Let a man do his work; the fruit of it is the 15 care of Another than he. Carlyle.
Let a man overcome anger by love, let him overcome evil by good; let him overcome the greedy by liberality, the liar by truth. Buddha.
Let a saint be ever so humble, he will have his wax taper. Dan. Pr.
Let a woman once give you a task, and you are hers, heart and soul; all your care and trouble lend new charms to her for whose sake they are taken. Jean Paul.
Let ae deil ding (beat) anither. Sc. Pr.
Let all things be done decently and in order. 20 St. Paul.
Let anger's fire be slow to burn. Pr.
Let another do what thou wouldst do. Pr.
Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips. Bible.
Let another's shipwreck be your beacon. Pr.
Let any man compare his present fortune 25 with the past, and he will probably find himself, upon the whole, neither better nor worse than formerly. Goldsmith.
Let authors write for glory or reward; / Truth is well paid when she is sung and heard. Bp. Corbet.
Let but the mirror be clear, this is the great point; the picture must and will be genuine. Carlyle.
Let but the public mind once become thoroughly corrupt, and all attempts to secure property, liberty, or life by mere force of laws written on parchment will be as vain as putting up printed notices in an orchard to keep off canker-worms. Hor. Mann.
Let byganes be byganes, / Wha's huffed at anither, / Dinna cloot the auld days / And the new anes thegither; / Wi' the fauts and the failings / O' past years be dune, / Wi a grip o' fresh freen'ship / A New-Year begin. M. W. Wood.
Let charity be warm if the weather be cold. 30 Pr.
Let dogs delight to bark and bite, / For God hath made them so. Watts.
Let each tailor mend his own coat. Pr.
Let every bird sing its own note. Dan. Pr.
Let every eye negotiate for itself, and trust no agent. Much Ado, ii. 1.
Let every fox take care of his own brush. 35 Pr.
Let every herring hang by its own tail. Irish Pr.
Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. St. Paul.
Let every man come to God in his own way. Ward Beecher.
Let every man do what he was made for. Pr.
Let every man praise the bridge he goes over. 40 Pr.
Let every minute be a full life to thee. Jean Paul.
Let every one inquire of himself what he loveth, and he shall resolve himself of whence he is a citizen. S. Augustine.
Let every one look to himself, and no one will be lost. Dut. Pr.
Let every tailor keep to his goose. Pr.
Let every thought too, soldier-like, be 45 stripped, / And roughly looked over. P. J. Bailey.
Let ev'ry man enjoy his whim; / What's he to me or I to him? Churchill.
Let fate do her worst; there are moments of joy, / Bright dreams of the past, which she cannot destroy; / Which come in the nighttime of sorrow and care, / And bring back the features that joy used to wear. Moore.
Let fortune empty her whole quiver on me, / I have a soul that, like an ample shield, / Can take in all, and verge enough for more. Dryden.
Let fouk bode weel, and strive to do their best; / Nae mair's required; let Heaven mak' out the rest. Allan Ramsay.
Let gleaners glean, though crops be lean. 50 Pr.
Let go desire, and thou shalt lay hold on peace. Thomas à Kempis.
Let go quarrel and contention, nor embroil thyself in trouble and differences by being over-solicitous in thy own defence. Thomas à Kempis.
Let go thy hold when a great wheel runs down a hill, lest it break thy neck with following it; but the great one that goes up the hill, let him draw thee after. Lear, ii. 4.
Let grace our selfishness expel, / Our earthliness refine. Gurney.
Let her (woman) make herself her own, / To 55 give or keep, to live, and learn, and be, / All that not harms distinctive womanhood. Tennyson.
Let Hercules himself do what he may, / The cat will mew, and dog will have his day. Ham., v. 1.
Let him be kept from paper, pen, and ink; / So may he cease to write, and learn to think. Prior.
Let him count himself happy who lives remote from the gods of this world. Goethe.
Let him tak' his fling, and find oot his ain wecht (weight). Sc. Pr.
Let him that does not know you buy you. 5 Pr.
Let him that earns eat. Pr.
Let him that stole steal no more; but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. St. Paul.
Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. St. Paul.
Let him who gives say nothing, and him who receives speak. Port. Pr.
Let him who gropes painfully in darkness or 10 uncertain light, and prays vehemently that the dawn may ripen into day, lay this precept well to heart: "Do the duty which lies nearest thee," which thou knowest to be a duty! Thy second duty will already have become clearer. Carlyle.
Let him who has hold of the devil keep hold of him; he is not likely to catch him a second time in a hurry. Goethe.
Let him who is reduced to beggary first try every one and then his friend. It. Pr.
Let him who is well off stay where he is. Pr.
Let him who knows not how to pray go to sea. Pr.
Let him who sleeps too much borrow the pillow 15 of a debtor. Sp. Pr.
Let him who would move and convince others be first moved and convinced himself. Let a man but speak forth with genuine earnestness the thought, the emotion, the actual condition of his own heart, and other men, so strangely are we all knit together by the tie of sympathy, must and will give heed to him. Carlyle.
Let him who would write heroic poems make his life a heroic poem. Milton.
Let ilka ane soop (sweep) before his ain door. Sc. Pr.
Let it be your first care not to be in any man's debt. Johnson.
Let it not be grievous to thee to humble and 20 submit thyself to the capricious humours of men with whom thou conversest in this world, but rather ... endure patiently whatever they shall, but should not, do to thee. Thomas à Kempis.
Let it not be imagined that the life of a good Christian must necessarily be a life of melancholy and gloominess; for he only resigns some pleasures, to enjoy others infinitely greater. Pascal.
Let John Bull beware of John Barleycorn. Pr.
Let justice guide your feet. Hipparchus.
Let knowledge grow from more to more, / But more of reverence in us dwell. Tennyson.
Let man be noble, helpful, and good, for that 25 alone distinguishes him from every other creature we know. Goethe.
Let man's own sphere confine his view. Beattie.
Let May be oot (out) before you cast a cloot (a piece of clothing). Sc. Pr.
Let me be cruel, not unnatural; / I will speak daggers to her, but use none. / My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites. Ham., iii. 2.
Let me die to the sounds of the delicious music. Last words of Mirabeau.
Let me have men about me that are fat; / 30 Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights; / Yond' Cassius has a lean and hungry look; / He thinks too much; such men are dangerous. Jul. Cæs., i. 2.
Let me have no lying; it becomes none but tradesmen. Winter's Tale, iv. 3.
Let me keep from vice myself, and pity it in others. Goldsmith.
Let me make the ballads of a people, and I care not who makes the laws. Quoted by Fletcher of Saltoun.
Let me play the fool; / With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come, / And let my liver rather heat with wine / Than my heart cool with mortifying groans. Mer. of Ven., i. 1.
Let me say amen betimes, lest the devil cross 35 my prayers. Mer. of Ven., iii. 1.
Let me still take away the harms I fear, / Not fear still to be taken. Lear, i. 4.
Let me tell the adventurous stranger, / In our calmness lies our danger; / Like a river's silent running, / Stillness shows our depth and cunning. Durfey.
Let me warn you very earnestly against scruples. Johnson.
Let men know that they are men, created by God, responsible to God, who work in any meanest moment of time what will last through eternity. Carlyle's version of John Knox's gospel to the Scotch.
Let men laugh when you sacrifice desire to 40 duty, if they will. You have time and eternity to rejoice in. Theodore Parker.
Let men see, let them know, a real man, who lives as he was meant to live. M. Aurelius.
Let never day nor night unhallow'd pass, / But still remember what the Lord hath done. 2 Hen. VI., ii. 1.
Let never maiden think, however fair, / She is not finer in new clothes than old. Tennyson.
Let no complaisance, no gentleness of temper, no weak desire of pleasing on your part, no wheedling, coaxing, nor flattery on other people's, make you recede one jot from any point that reason and prudence have bid you pursue. Chesterfield.
Let no man be called happy before his death. 45 Solon.
Let no man doubt the omnipotence of nature, doubt the majesty of man's soul; let no lonely unfriended son of genius despair. If he have the will, the right will, then the power also has not been denied him. Carlyle.
Let no man measure by a scale of perfection the meagre product of reality. Schiller.
Let no man think he is loved by any man, when he loves no man. Epictetus.
Let no man trust the first false step of guilt; it hangs upon a precipice, whose steep descent in last perdition ends. Young.
Let no man value at a little price a virtuous woman's counsel. George Chapman.
Let no mean spirit of revenge tempt you to throw off your loyalty to your country, and to prefer a vicious celebrity to obscurity crowned with piety and virtue. Sydney Smith.
Let no one so conceive of himself as if he were the Messiah the world was praying for. Goethe.
Let no one think that he can conquer the first impressions of his youth. Goethe.
Let no one who loves be called altogether unhappy; 5 even love unreturned has its rainbow. J. M. Barrie.
Let nobility and virtue keep company, for they are nearest of kin. William Penn.
Let none admire / That riches grow in hell; that soil may best / Deserve the precious bane. Milton.
Let none henceforth seek needless cause t' approve / The faith they owe; when earnestly they seek / Such proof, conclude they then begin to fail. Milton.
Let none presume / To wear an undeservéd dignity. Mer. of Ven., ii. 9.
Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast 10 himself as he that putteth it off. Bible.
Let not man tempt the gods, or ever desire to pry into what they graciously conceal under a veil of darkness or terror. Schiller.
Let not mercy and truth forsake thee. Bible.
Let not mirth turn to mischief. Pr.
Let not my bark in calm abide, / But win her cheerless way against the chafing tide. Keble.
Let not one enemy be few, nor a thousand 15 friends many, in thy sight. Heb. Pr.
Let not one look of fortune cast you down; / She were not fortune if she did not frown; / Such as do braveliest bear her scorns awhile / Are those on whom at last she most will smile. Orrery.
Let not plenty make you dainty. Pr.
Let not poverty part good company. Pr.
Let not the emphasis of hospitality lie in bed and board; but let truth and love and honour and courtesy flow in all thy deeds. Emerson.
Let not the grass grow on the path of friendship. 20 American-Indian Pr.
Let not the remembrance of thy former trials discourage thee. Thomas à Kempis.
Let not the sun go down upon your wrath, i.e., let it set with the sun, or, as Ruskin suggests, let it never go down so long as the wrong is there. St. Paul.
Let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth; therefore let thy words be few. Bible.
Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth. Jesus.
Let not your money become your master. Pr. 25
Let not your mouth swallow you. Pr.
Let not your sail be bigger than your boat. Ben Jonson.
Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory. St. Paul.
Let nothing in excess be done; with this let all comply. Anon.
Let observation, with extensive view, / Survey 30 mankind, from China to Peru; / Remark each anxious toil, each eager strife, / And watch the busy scenes of crowded life. Johnson.
Let our finger ache, and it endues / Our other healthful members ev'n to that sense / Of pain. Othello, iii. 4.
Let pleasure be ever so innocent, the excess is always criminal. St. Evremond.
Let present rapture, comfort, ease, / As heaven shall bid them, come and go; / The secret this of rest below. Keble.
Let pride go afore, shame will follow after. Chapman, Jonson, and Marston.
Let prideful priests do battle about creeds, / 35 The Church is mine that does most Christ-like deeds. Prof. Blackie.
Let prudence number o'er each sturdy son, / Who life and wisdom at one race begun. Burns.
Let rumours be, when did not rumours fly? Tennyson.
Let sleeping dogs lie. Sc. Pr.
Let still the woman take / An elder than herself; so wears she to him, / So sways she level in her husband's heart; / For, boy, however we do praise ourselves, / Our fancies are more giddy and unfirm, / More longing, wavering, sooner lost and worn / Than women's are. Twelfth Night, ii. 4.
Let such teach others who themselves excel, / 40 And censure freely who have written well. Pope.
Let that which is lost be for God. Sp. Pr.
Let the angry person always have the quarrel to himself. Rev. John Clark.
Let the best horse leap the hedge first. Pr.
Let the cobbler stick to his last. Pr.
Let the dainty rose awhile / Her bashful fragrance 45 hide; / Rend not her silken veil too soon, / But leave her, in her own soft noon, / To flourish and abide. Keble.
Let the dead bury their dead, i.e., let the spiritually dead bury the bodily dead. Jesus.
Let the devil catch you by a hair, and you are his for ever. Lessing.
Let the devil get into the church, and he will soon be on the altar. Ger. Pr.
Let the foibles of the great rest in peace. Goldsmith.
Let the galled jade wince, our withers are unwrung.
50
Ham.
, iii. 2.
Let the great book of the world be your principal study. Chesterfield.
Let the great world spin forever down the ringing grooves of change. Tennyson.
Let the matter be good, and let the manner befit it. Spurgeon.
Let the night come before we praise the day. Pr.
Let the path be open to talent. Napoleon. 55 See La Carrière.
Let the reader have seen before he attempts to oversee. Carlyle.
Let the road be rough and dreary, / And its end far out of sight, / Foot it bravely! strong or weary, / "Trust in God, and do the right." Dr. Norman Macleod.
Let the shoemaker stick to his last, the peasant to his plough, and let the prince understand how to rule. Goethe.
Let the thing we do be what it will, it is the principle upon which we do it that must recommend it. Thomas à Kempis.
Let the tow (rope) gang wi' the bucket. Sc. Pr.
Let the world slide, let the world go; / A fig for care, and a fig for woe! / If I can't pay, why, I can owe, / And death makes equal the high and low. Heywood.
Let the world wag. Pr.
Let the young people mind what the old people 5 say, / And where there is danger keep out of the way. Pr.
Let them call it mischief; / When it is past and prosper'd it will be virtue. Ben Jonson.
Let them obey that know not how to rule. 2 Hen. VI., v. 1.
Let there be thistles, there are grapes; / If old things, there are new; / Ten thousand broken lights and shapes, / Yet glimpses of the true. Tennyson.
Let thine eyes look right on. Bible.
Let this be an example for the acquisition of 10 all knowledge, virtue, and riches. By the fall of drops of water, by degrees, a pot is filled. Hitopadesa.
Let those have night that love the night. Quarles.
Let those who believe in immortality enjoy their belief in silence, and give themselves no airs about it. Goethe.
Let those who hope for brighter shores no more, / Not mourn, but turning inland, bravely seek / What hidden wealth redeems the shapeless shore. Eugene Lee Hamilton.
Let thy alms go before, and keep heaven's gate / Open for thee, or both may come too late. George Herbert.
Let thy child's first lesson be obedience, and 15 the second will be what thou wilt. Ben. Franklin.
Let thy fair wisdom, not thy passion, sway. Twelfth Night, iv. 1.
Let thy great deeds force fate to change her mind; / He that courts fortune boldly, makes her kind. Dryden.
Let thy mind still be bent, still plotting where, / And when, and how thy business may be done, / Slackness breeds worms; but the sure traveller, / Though he alights sometimes, still goeth on. George Herbert.
Let thy mind's sweetness have his operation / Upon thy body, clothes, and habitation. George Herbert.
Let thy words be few. Bible. 20
Let us a little permit Nature to take her own way; she better understands her own affairs than we. Montaigne.
Let us approach our friend with an audacious trust in the truth of his heart, in the breadth, impossible to be overturned, of his foundations. Emerson.
Let us be back'd with God, and with the seas, / Which He hath given for fence impregnable, / And with these helps only defend ourselves; / In them, and in ourselves, our safety lies. 3 Hen. VI., iv. 1.
Let us be content in work / To do the thing we can, and not presume / To fret because it's little. E. B. Browning.
Let us be men with men, and always children 25 before God. Joubert.
Let us be poised, and wise, and our own to-day. Emerson.