Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources. Rev. James Wood
plurimum virtutem revereri, qui semper secunda fortuna sit usus—It is difficult for one who has enjoyed uninterrupted good fortune to have a due reverence for virtue. Cic.
Difficile est proprie communia dicere—It is difficult to handle a common theme with originality. Hor.
Difficile est satiram non scribere—It is difficult not to indulge in (lit. to write) satire. Juv.
Difficile est tristi fingere mente jocum—It is 30 difficult to feign mirth when one is in a gloomy mood. Tibulle.
Difficilem oportet aurem habere ad crimina—One should be slow in listening to criminal accusations. Pub. Syr.
Difficilia quæ pulchra—The really good is of difficult attainment. L. Pr.
Difficilis, facilis, jucundus, acerbus es idem; / Nec tecum possum vivere, nec sine te—Cross but easy-minded, pleasant and sour together; I can neither live with thee nor yet without thee. Mart.
Difficilis in otio quies—Tranquillity is difficult if one has nothing to do.
Difficilius est sarcire concordiam quam rumpere—It 35 is more difficult to restore harmony than sow dissension.
Difficult to sweep the intricate foul chimneys of law. Carlyle.
Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. Channing.
Difficulties are things that show what men are. Epictetus.
Difficulties may surround our path, but if the difficulties be not in ourselves, they may generally be overcome. Jowett.
Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labour does the body. Sen.
Difficulty, abnegation, martyrdom, death, are the allurements that act on the heart of man. Kindle the inner genial life of him, you have a flame that burns up all lower considerations. Carlyle.
Diffugiunt, cadis / Cum fæce siccatis, amici, / Ferre jugum pariter dolosi—When the wine-casks are drained to the lees, our friends soon disperse, too faithless to bear as well the yoke of misfortune. Hor.
Diffused knowledge immortalises itself. Sir J. 5 Macintosh.
Dignity and love do not blend well, nor do they continue long together. Ovid.
Dignity consists not in possessing honours, but in deserving them. Arist.
Dignity is often a veil between us and the real truth of things. Whipple.
Dignity of position adds to dignity of character, as well as dignity of carriage. Bovee.
Dignum laude virum Musa vetat mori—The 10 Muse takes care that the man who is worthy of honour does not die. Hor.
Digressions in a book are like foreign troops in a state, which argue the nation to want a heart and hands of its own; and often either subdue the natives, or drive them into the most unfruitful corners. Swift.
Digressions incontestably are the sunshine; they are the life, the soul of reading. Sterne.
Dii laboribus omnia vendunt—The gods sell all things to hard labour. Pr.
Dii majores et minores—Gods of a higher and lower degree.
Dii majorum gentium—The twelve gods of the 15 highest order.
Dii penates—Household gods.
Di irati laneos pedes habent—The gods when angry have their feet covered with wool. Pr.
Dii rexque secundent—May God and the king favour us. M.
Diis aliter visum—The gods have decreed otherwise. Virg.
Diis proximus ille est / Quem ratio, non ira 20 movet—He is nearest to the gods whom reason, not passion, impels. Claud.
Dilationes in lege sunt odiosæ—Delays in the law are odious. L.
Dilettantism, hypothesis, speculation, a kind of amateur-search for truth, toying and coquetting with truth; this is the sorest sin, the root of all imaginable sins. Carlyle.
Dilexi justiciam et odi iniquitatem, propterea morior in exilio—I have loved justice and hated injustice, therefore die I an exile. Gregory VII. on his death-bed.
Diligence increases the fruits of labour. Hesiod.
Diligence is the mother of good fortune. Cervantes. 25
Diligentia, qua una virtute omnes virtutes reliquæ continentur—Diligence, the one virtue that embraces in it all the rest. Cic.
Diligent, that includes all virtues in it a student can have. Carlyle, to the Students of Edinburgh University.
Diligent working makes an expert workman. Dan. Pr.
Diligitur nemo, nisi cui fortuna secunda est—Only he is loved who is the favourite of fortune. Ovid.
Dimidium facti, qui cœpit, habet—He who has 30 begun has half done. Hor.
Ding (knock) down the nests, and the rooks will flee awa. Sc. Pr., used to justify the demolition of the religious houses at the Reformation.
Dinna curse him, sir; I have heard a good man say that a curse was like a stone flung up to the heavens, and maist like to return on his head that sent it. Scott.
Dinna gut your fish till you get them. Sc. Pr.
Dinna lift me before I fa'. Sc. Pr.
Dinna scald your ain mou' wi ither folk's kail 35 (broth). Sc. Pr.
Di nos quasi pilas homines habent—The gods treat us mortals like so many balls to play with. Plaut.
Diogenes has well said that the only way to preserve one's liberty was being always ready to die without pain. Goethe.
Dios es el que sana, y el médico lleva la plata—Though God cures the patient, the doctor pockets the fee. Sp. Pr.
Dios me dé contienda con quien me entienda—God grant me to argue with such as understand me. Sp. Pr.
Di picciol uomo spesso grand' ombra—A little 40 man often casts a long shadow. It. Pr.
Dira necessitas—Cruel necessity. Hor.
Dirigo—I direct. M.
Dirt is not dirt, but only something in the wrong place. Palmerston.
Diruit, ædificat, mutat quadrata rotundis—He pulls down, he builds up, he changes square into round. Hor.
Dir war das Unglück eine strenge Schule—Misfortune 45 was for thee a hard school. Schiller.
Disappointment is often the salt of life. Theodore Parker.
Disasters, do the best we can, / Will reach both great and small; / And he is oft the wisest man / Who is not wise at all. Wordsworth.
Disce aut discede—Learn