Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources. Rev. James Wood
maks an auld wife nimble. Sc. Pr.
Fire that's closest kept burns most of all. Two Gent. of Verona, i. 2.
Fire trieth iron, and temptation a just man. Thomas à Kempis.
Firmior quo paratior—The stronger the better 45 prepared. M.
Firmness, both in sufferance and exertion, is a character I would wish to possess. I have always despised the whining yelp of complaint and the cowardly feeble resolve. Burns.
First assay / To stuff thy mind with solid bravery; / Then march on gallant: get substantial worth: / Boldness gilds finely, and will set it forth. George Herbert.
First cast the beam out of thine own eye, and then thou shalt see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. Jesus.
First catch your hare. Mrs. Glass's advice to the housewife.
First come, first served. Pr. 50
First deserve and then desire. Sc. Pr.
First flower of the earth and first gem of the sea. Moore.
First keep thyself in peace, and then thou shalt be able to keep peace among others. Thomas à Kempis.
First must the dead letter of religion own itself dead, and drop piecemeal into dust, if the living spirit of religion, freed from its charnel-house, is to arise in us, new-born of heaven, and with new healing under its wings. Carlyle.
First resolutions are not always the wisest, but they are usually the most honest. Lessing.
First worship God; he that forgets to pray / Bids not himself good-morrow nor good day. T. Randolph.
Fishes live in the sea, … as men do on land—the great ones eat up the little ones. Pericles, ii. 1.
Fit cito per multas præda petita manus—The spoil that is sought by many hands quickly accumulates. Ovid.
Fit erranti medicina confessio—Confession is as 5 healing medicine to him who has erred.
Fit fabricando faber—A smith becomes a smith by working at the forge. Pr.
Fit in dominatu servitus, in servitute dominatus—In the master there is the servant, and in the servant the master (lit. in masterhood is servanthood, in servanthood masterhood). Cic.
Fit scelus indulgens per nubila sæcula virtus—In times of trouble leniency becomes crime.
Fit the foot to the shoe, not the shoe to the foot. Port. Pr.
Fit words are fine, but often fine words are 10 not fit. Pr.
Five great intellectual professions have hitherto existed in every civilised nation: the soldier's, to defend it; the pastor's, to teach it; the physician's, to keep it in health; the lawyer's, to enforce justice in it; and the merchant's, to provide for it; and the duty of all these men is, on due occasion, to die for it. Ruskin.
Five minutes of to-day are worth as much to me as five minutes in the next millennium. Emerson.
Fix'd to no spot is happiness sincere; / 'Tis nowhere to be found, or everywhere. Pope.
Fixed like a plant on his peculiar spot, / To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot. Pope.
Flagrante bello—During the war. 15
Flagrante delicto—In the very act.
Flames rise and sink by fits; at last they soar / In one bright flame, and then return no more. Dryden.
Flamma fumo est proxima—Where there is smoke there is fire (lit. flame is very close to smoke). Plaut.
Flatter not the rich; neither do thou appear willingly before the great. Thomas à Kempis.
Flatterers are cats that lick before, and scratch 20 behind. Ger. Pr.
Flatterers are the bosom enemies of princes. South.
Flatterers are the worst kind of traitors. Raleigh.
Flattery brings friends, but the truth begets enmity. Pr.
Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver, and adulation is not of more service to the people than to kings. Burke.
Flattery is a base coin, to which only our 25 vanity gives currency. La Roche.
Flattery is the bellows blows up sin; / The thing the which is flattered, but a spark, / To which that blast gives heat and stronger glowing; / Whereas reproof, obedient and in order, / Fits kings, as they are men, for they may err. Pericles, i. 2.
Flattery is the destruction of all good fellowship. Disraeli.
Flattery is the food of pride, and may be well assimilated to those cordials which hurt the constitution while they exhilarate the spirits. Arliss' Lit. Col.
Flattery labours under the odious charge of servility. Tac.
Flattery sits in the parlour when plain dealing 30 is kicked out of doors. Pr.
Flattery's the turnpike road to Fortune's door. Walcot.
Flebile ludibrium—A "tragic farce;" a farce to weep at.
Flebit, et insignis tota cantabitur urbe—He shall rue it, and be a marked man and the talk of the whole town. Hor.
Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo—If I cannot influence the gods, I will stir up Acheron. Virg.
Flecti, non frangi—To bend, not to break. M. 35
Flee sloth, for the indolence of the soul is the decay of the body. Cato.
Flee you ne'er so fast, your fortune will be at your tail. Sc. Pr.
Flesh will warm in a man to his kin against his will. Gael. Pr.
Flet victus, victor interiit—The conquered one weeps, the conqueror is ruined.
Fleur d'eau—Level with the water. Fr. 40
Fleur de terre—Level with the land. Fr.
Fleurs-de-lis—Lilies. Fr.
Fleying (frightening) a bird is no the way to catch it. Sc. Pr.
Flies are easier caught with honey than vinegar. Fr. Pr.
Fling away ambition; / By that sin fell the 45 angels; how can man, then, / The image of his Maker, hope to win by it? Hen. VIII., iii. 2.
Flints may be melted, but an ungrateful heart cannot; no, not by the strongest and noblest flame. South.
Floriferis ut apes in saltibus omnia libant—As bees sip of everything in the flowery meads. Lucret.
Flour cannot be sown and seed-corn ought not to be ground. Goethe.
Flowers