Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources. Rev. James Wood
and fruits are always fit presents—flowers, because they are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities of man. Emerson.
Flowers are the beautiful hieroglyphics of 50 Nature, by which she indicates how much she loves us. Goethe.
Flowers are the pledges of fruit. Dan. Pr.
Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made and forgot to put a soul into. Ward Beecher.
Flowers never emit so sweet and strong a fragrance as before a storm. Jean Paul.
Flowers of rhetoric in sermons and serious discourses are like the blue and red flowers in corn, pleasing to those who come only for amusement, but prejudicial to him who would reap profit from it. Pope.
Fluctus in simpulo exitare—To raise a tempest 55 in a teapot. Cic.
Fluvius cum mari certas—You but a river, and contending with the ocean. Pr.
Fly idleness, which yet thou canst not fly / By dressing, mistressing, and compliment. / If these take up thy day, the sun will cry / Against thee; for his light was only lent. George Herbert.
Fœdum inceptu, fœdum exitu—Bad in the beginning, bad in the end. Livy.
Fœnum habet in cornu, longe fuge, dummodo risum / Excutiat sibi, non hic cuiquam parcit amico—He has (like a wild bull) a wisp of hay on his horn: fly afar from him; if only he raise a laugh for himself, there is no friend he would spare. Hor.
Foliis tantum ne carmina manda; / Ne turbata volent rapidis ludibria ventis—Only commit not thy oracles to leaves, lest they fly about dispersed, the sport of rushing winds. Virg.
Folk canna help a' their kin (relatives). Sc. Pr. 5
Folk wi' lang noses aye tak' till themsels. Sc. Pr.
Folks as have no mind to be o' use have always the luck to be out o' the road when there's anything to be done. George Eliot.
Folks must put up with their own kin as they put up with their own noses. George Eliot.
Folle est la brébis qui au loup se confesse—It is a silly sheep that makes the wolf her confessor. Fr. Pr.
Follow love and it will flee, flee love and it 10 will follow thee. Pr.
Follow the copy though it fly out of the window. Printer's saying.
Follow the customs or fly the country. Dan. Pr.
Follow the devil faithfully, you are sure to go to the devil. Carlyle.
Follow the river, and you will get to the sea. Pr.
Follow the road, and you will come to an inn. 15 Port. Pr.
Follow the wise few rather than the vulgar many. It. Pr.
Folly, as it grows in years, / The more extravagant appears. Butler.
Folly ends where genuine hope begins. Cowper.
Folly is its own burden. Sen.
Folly is the most incurable of maladies. 20 Sp. Pr.
Folly, letting down buckets into empty wells, and growing old with drawing nothing up. Cowper.
Folly loves the martyrdom of fame. Byron.
Fond fools / Promise themselves a name from building churches. Randolph.
Fond gaillard—A basis of joy or gaiety. Fr.
Fons et origo mali—The source and origin of the 25 mischief.
Fons malorum—The origin of evil.
Fons omnium viventium—The fountain of all living things.
Fontes ipsi sitiunt—Even the fountains complain of thirst. Pr.
Food can only be got out of the ground, or the air, or the sea. Ruskin.
Food fills the wame and keeps us livin'; / 30 Though life's a gift no worth receivin', / When heavy dragg'd wi' pine and grievin'; / But oil'd by thee, the wheels o' life gae doonhill scrievin' / Wi' rattlin' glee. Burns, on Scotch drink.
Food for powder. 1 Hen. IV., iv. 2.
Fool before all is he who does not instantly seize the right moment; who has what he loves before his eyes, and yet swerves (schweift) aside. Platen.
Fool not; for all may have, / If they dare try, a glorious life or grave. George Herbert.
Fool, not to know that love endures no tie, / And Jove but laughs at lovers' perjury. Dryden.
Fool of fortune. King Lear, iv. 6. 35
Fooled thou must be, though wisest of the wise; / Then be the fool of virtue, not of vice. Persian saying.
Foolish legislation is a rope of sand, which perishes in the twisting. Emerson.
Foolish people are a hundred times more averse to meet with wise people than wise people are to meet with foolish. Saadi.
Fools and bairns shouldna see things half done. Sc. Pr.
Fools and obstinate men make lawyers rich. 40 Pr.
Fools are apt to imitate only the defects of their betters. Swift.
Fools are aye fond o' flittin', and wise men o' sittin'. Sc. Pr.
Fools are aye seeing ferlies (wonderful things). Sc. Pr.
Fools are known by looking wise. Butler.
Fools are my theme; let satire be my song. 45 Byron.
Fools ask what's o'clock, but wise men know their time. Pr.
Fools build houses, and wise men buy them. Ger. Pr.
Fools can indeed find fault, but cannot act more wisely. Langbern.
Fools for arguments use wagers. Butler.
Fools grant whate'er ambition craves, / And 50 men, once ignorant, are slaves. Pope.
Fools grow of themselves without sowing or planting. Rus. Pr.
Fools grow without watering. Pr.
Fools invent fashions and wise men follow them. Fr. Pr.
Fools learn nothing from wise men, but wise men much from fools. Dut. Pr.
Fools make a mock at sin. Bible. 55
Fools mak' feasts, and wise men eat them. / Wise men mak' jests, and fools repeat them. Sc. Pr.
Fools may our scorn, not envy raise, / For envy is a kind of praise. Gay.
Fools measure actions after they are done by the event; wise men beforehand,