Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

POPULAR

ENGLISH QUOTATIONS.

A.

Abandon.-ABANDON all hope, ye who enter here.-DANTE, Inferno. Abdiel. [Heb. Servant of God.] The name of an angel mentioned by the Jewish cabalists. He is represented by Milton as one of the seraphim, who, when Satan tried to stir up a revolt among the angels subordinate to his authority, alone and boldly withstood his traitorous designs.

Among the faithless, faithful only he:

Among innumerable false, unmoved,
Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified,

His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal.-Paradise Lost.

Abide.-ABIDE with me; fast falls the eventide ;

The darkness deepens, Lord, with me abide!

When other helpers fail, and comforts flee,

Help of the helpless, O abide with me !-H. F. LYTE.

ABIDE with me from morn till. eve,

For without Thee I cannot live;

Abide with me when night is nigh,

For without Thee I dare not die.-KEBLE, Evening.

Absence.-ABSENCE makes the heart grow fonder;

Isle of Beauty, fare thee well!—T. H. BAYLEY, Isle of Beauty. Abstracts. They are the ABSTRACTS and brief chronicles of the time. -SHAKESPERE, Hamlet.

Abundance.-For out of the ABUNDANCE of the heart the mouth speaketh.-Matthew, chap. xii., 34.

Accident. The ACCIDENT of an accident.-Lord THURLOW, Reply to the Duke of Grafton.

Account.-A beggarly ACCOUNT of empty boxes.-SHAKESPERE, Romeo and Juliet.

Acquaintance.—Should auld ACQUAINTANCE be forgot,

And never brought to min'?

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And days o' lang syne?

BURNS, Auld Lang Syne.

Action.-ACTION is transitory-a step, a blow,

[ocr errors]

The motion of a muscle-this way or that.

WORDSWORTH, The Borderers.

Suit the ACTION to the word, the word to the action, with this special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature.-SHAKESPERE, Hamlet.

When our souls shall leave this dwelling, the glory of one fair and virtuous ACTION is above all the scutcheons on our tomb, or silken banners over us.--J. SHIRLEY, 1666.

Actions.-ACTIONS of the last age are like almanacs of the last year. -DENHAM, The Sophy.

Only the ACTIONS of the just

Smell sweet and blossom in the dust.-J. SHIRLEY, 1666.

Actor. As in a theatre, the eyes of men,

After a well-graced ACTOR leaves the stage,

Are idly bent on him that enters next,

Thinking his prattle to be tedious.--SHAKESPERE, Richard II. Acts.--That best portion of a good man's life,

His little, nameless, unremembered ACTS

of kindness and of love.--WORDSWORTH, Tintern Abbey. Adam.-ADAM, the goodliest man of men since born His sons, the fairest of her daughters Eve.

.

MILTON, Paradise Lost. Addle Parliament.-A name given to the English Parliament which assembled at London, April 5, 1614, and was dissolved on the 6th of the following June. It was so called because it remonstrated with the king on his levying " benevolences," and passed no Acts. Admirable Doctor.-[Lat. Doctor Mirabilis.] A title bestowed upon Roger Bacon (1214-1292), an English monk, who, by the power of his genius and the extent of his learning, raised himself above his time, made many astonishing discoveries in science, and contributed much to the extension of real knowledge.

Admire.-Where none ADMIRE, 'tis useless to excel;
Where none are beaux, 'tis vain to be a belle.

LYTTELTON, Soliloquy on a Beauty.

Adorn.-A Poet, Naturalist, and Historian,

Who left scarcely any style of writing untouched,
And touched nothing that he did not ADORN.

DR. JOHNSON, On Goldsmith.

66

Adullamites.-Politicians who combine to desert their Party at a crisis. This nickname originated in the discussions on a Reform Bill introduced by Earl Russell's Government in 1866, when Mr. Bright referred to the powerful opposition among the supporters of the Government as a cave of Adullam," into which went " everyone that was in distress, and everyone that was in debt, and everyone that was discontented," gathering themselves under the leadership of two of the ablest spirits in their party. This opposition from their "candid friends" wrecked the Government, which immediately resigned. The reference is to 1 Samuel xxii., 2.

Adversity. If thou faint in the day of ADVERSITY, thy strength is small.-Proverbs, xxiv. 10.

[ocr errors]

In the ADVERSITY of our best friends we often find something which does not displease us. -ROCHEFOUCAULD, Maxim 245.

In all cases of heart-ache, the application of another man's disappointment draws out the pain and allays the irritation. LYTTON'S Lady of Lyons.

Sweet are the uses of ADVERSITY,

Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,

Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;

And this our life, exempt from public haunt,

Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.

Advice.-ADVICE is often seen,

SHAKESPERE, As You Like It.

By blunting us, to make our wits more keen.

Ibid., Lover's Complaint.

Affections.-Alas! our young AFFECTIONS run to waste,
Or water but the desert.-BYRON, Childe Harold.

Affliction.-AFFLICTION is the wholesome soil of virtue;
Where patience, honour, sweet humanity,
Calm fortitude, take root, and strongly flourish.

MALLET AND THOMSON.

AFFLICTION's sons are brothers in distress;
A brother to relieve, how exquisite the bliss!

BURNS, A Winter's Night.

Age.-AGE cannot wither her, nor custom stale

Her infinite variety.-SHAKESPERE, Ant. and Cleo.

[blocks in formation]

And lovely as a Lapland night,

Shall lead thee to thy grave.-WORDSWORTH.

Crabbed AGE and youth

Cannot live together.-SHAKESPERE, Passionate Pilgrim.

Age. Good old AGE.-Genesis, xv. 15.

-

[ocr errors]

His hair just grizzled

As in a green old AGE.-DRYDEN, Edipus.

Me, let the tender office long engage

To rock the cradle of reposing AGE,

With lenient arts extend a mother's breath,

Make languor smile, and smooth the bed of death;

Explore the thought, explain the asking eye,

And keep awhile one parent from the sky.—POPE. To Arbuthnot

Ages.-Alike all AGES: dames of ancient days

Have led their children through the mirthful maze;
And the gay grandsire, skill'd in gestic lore,

Has frisk'd beneath the burden of threescore.

GOLDSMITH, Traveller.

Yet I doubt not through the AGES one increasing purpose runs,
And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the
TENNYSON, Locksley Hall.

suns.

Agree. Where they do AGREE on the stage, their unanimity is wonderful.—SHERIDAN, The Critic.

Aim.-Let all the ends thou AIM'ST at be thy country's,

Thy God's, and truth's.-SHAKESPERE, Henry VIII.

Aisle. Where, through the long-drawn AISLE and fretted vault,
The pealing anthem swells the note of praise.-GRAY, Elegy.

Ale. A quart of ALE is a dish for a king.

SHAKESPERE, Winter's Tale.

Allegory. As headstrong as an ALLEGORY on the banks of the Nile. (Mrs. Malaprop.)-SHERIDAN, The Rivals.

Alliteration.-Apt ALLITERATION's artful aid.

[ocr errors]

CHURCHILL, Prophecy of Famine. All-the-Talents Administration.-An ADMINISTRATION formed by Lord Grenville on the death of Mr. Pitt (June 23, 1806). The friends of this ministry gave it the appellation of All the Talents,' which, being echoed in derision by the opposition, became fixed upon it ever after. The death of Mr. Fox, one of the members, Sept. 13, 1806, led to various changes, and this ministry was finally dissolved in March, 1807.

Almighty Dollar.-A personification of the supposed object of American idolatry, intended as a satire upon the prevailng passion for gain. The expression originated with Washington Irving:-“THE ALMIGHTY DOLLAR, that great object of universal devotior throughout our land, seems to have no genuine devotees in these peculiar villages."-The Creole Village.

Alone.-ALONE, alone, all, all alone,

Alone on a wide, wide sea.-COLERIDGE, Ancient Mariner.

« AnteriorContinuar »