James Wood, comp. Dictionary of Quotations. 1899.
Forbid a fool to Fronti nulla fides
Forbid a fool do a thing, and that he will do.Scotch Proverb.
Forbidden fruit is sweetest.Proverb.
Force and right rule everything in this world; force till right is ready.Joubert. (?)
Force can never annul right.Berryer.
Force is no argument.John Bright.
Forced love does not last.Dutch Proverb.
Forced prayers are no gude for the soul.Scotch Proverb.
Force n’a pas droit—Might knows no right.French Proverb.
Force rules the world, and not opinion, but opinion is that which makes use of force.Pascal.
Force without forecast is of little avail.Proverb.
Foresight is indeed necessary in trusting, but still more necessary in distrusting.Cötvös.
Forewarned, forearmed.Cervantes.
Forget the hours of thy distress, but never forget what they taught thee.Gessner.
Forget thyself to marble.Milton.
Forgetting of a wrong is a mild revenge.Proverb.
Forgetting one’s self, or knowing one’s self, around these everything turns.Auerbach.
Forgiveness is better than revenge; for forgiveness is the sign of a gentle nature, but revenge the sign of a savage nature.Epictetus.
Forgiveness is commendable, but apply not ointment to the wound of an oppressor.Saadi.
Forgiveness is the divinest of victories.Schiller.
Forgiveness to the injured does belong, / But they ne’er pardon who have done the wrong.Dryden.
Forgiven is not forgotten.German Proverb.
Forgotten pains, when follow gains.Scotch Proverb.
Forma bonum fragile est—Beauty is a fragile good.Ovid.
Forma viros neglecta decet—Neglect of appearance becomes men.Ovid.
Formerly it was the fashion to preach the natural; now it is the ideal.Schlegel.
Formerly the richest countries were those in which Nature was most bountiful; now the richest countries are those in which man is most active.Buckle.
Formerly when great fortunes were only made in war, war was business; but now when great fortunes are only made by business, business is war.Bovee.
Formidabilior cervorum exercitus, duce leone, quam leonum cervo—An army of stags would be more formidable commanded by a lion, than one of lions commanded by a stag.Proverb.
Formosa facies muta commendatio est—A handsome face is a mute recommendation.Publius Syrus.
Formosos sæpe inveni pessimos, / Et turpi facie multos cognovi optimos—I have often found good-looking people to be very base, and I have known many ugly people most estimable.Phædrus.
Forms which grow round a substance will be true, good; forms which are consciously put round a substance, bad.Carlyle.
Formulas are the very skin and muscular tissue of a man’s life; and a most blessed indispensable thing, so long as they have vitality withal, and are a living skin and tissue to him.Carlyle.
Forsake not God till you find a better maister.Scotch Proverb.
Forsan et hæc olim meminisse juvabit; Durate, et vosmet rebus servate secundis—Perhaps it will be a delight to us some day to recall these misfortunes. Bear them, therefore, and reserve yourselves for better times.Virgil.
Forsan miseros meliora sequentur—Perhaps a better fortune awaits the unhappy.Virgil.
Fors et virtus miscentur in unum—Fortune and valour are blended into one.Virgil.
Forte è l’aceto di vin dolce—Strong is vinegar from sweet wine.Italian Proverb.
Forte et fidele—Strong and loyal.Motto.
Fortem facit vicina libertas senem—The approach of liberty makes even an old man brave.Seneca.
Fortem posce animum mortis terrore carentem, / Qui spatium vitæ extremum inter munera ponat Naturæ—Pray for a strong soul free from the fear of death, which regards the final period of life among the gifts of Nature.Juvenal.
Fortes creantur fortibus et bonis; / Est in juvencis, est in equis patrum / Virtus, nec imbellem feroces / Progenerant aquilæ columbam—Brave men are generated by brave and good: there is in steers and in horses the virtue of their sires, nor does the fierce eagle beget the unwarlike dove.Horace.
Forte scutum salus ducum—The safety of leaders is a strong shield.Motto.
Fortes fortuna adjuvat—Fortune assists the brave.Terence.
Fortes in fine assequendo et suaves in modo assequendi simus—Let us be resolute in prosecuting our purpose and mild in the manner of attaining it.Aquaviva.
Forti et fideli nihil difficile—To the brave and true nothing is difficult.Motto.
Fortify courage with the true rampart of patience.Sir P. Sidney.
Fortify yourself with moderation; for this is an impregnable fortress.Epictetus.
Fortior et potentior est dispositio legis quam hominis—The disposition of the law is stronger and more potent than that of man.Law.
Fortis cadere, cedere non potest—A brave man may fall, but cannot yield.Motto.
Fortis et constantis animi est, non perturbari in rebus asperis—It shows a brave and resolute spirit not to be agitated in exciting circumstances.Cicero.
Fortis sub forte fatiscet—A brave man will yield to a brave.Motto.
Fortiter et recte—Courageously and honourably.Motto.
Fortiter ferendo vincitur malum quod evitari non potest—By bravely enduring it, an evil which cannot be avoided is overcome.Proverb.
Fortiter, fideliter, feliciter—Boldly, faithfully, successfully.Motto.
Fortiter geret crucem—He will bravely support the cross.Motto.
Fortiter in re, suaviter in modo—Vigorous and resolute in deed, gentle in manner.
Fortitude is the guard and support of the other virtues.Locke.
Fortitude is the marshal of thought, the armour of the will, and the fort of reason.Bacon.
Fortitude is to be seen in toils and dangers; temperance in the denial of sensual pleasures; prudence in the choice between good and evil; justice in awarding to every one his due.Cicero.
Fortitude rises upon an opposition; and, like a river, swells the higher for having its course stopped.Jeremy Collier.
Fortitudini—For bravery.Motto.
Fortuito quodam concursu atomorum—Certain fortuitous concourse of atoms.Cicero.
Fortunæ cætera mando—I commit the rest to fortune.Ovid.
Fortunæ filius—A child or favourite of fortune.Horace.
Fortunæ majoris honos, erectus et acer—An honour to his elevated station, upright and brave.Claudian.
Fortuna favet fatuis—Fortune favours fools.Proverb.
Fortuna favet fortibus—Fortune favours the brave.Proverb.
Fortuna magna magna domino est servitus—A great fortune is a great slavery to its owner.Publius Syrus.
Fortunam debet quisque manere suam—Every one ought to live within his means.Ovid.
Fortuna meliores sequitur—Fortune befriends the better man.Sallust.
Fortuna miserrima tuta est—A very poor fortune is safe.Ovid.
Fortuna multis dat nimium, nulli satis—To many fortune gives too much, to none enough.Martial.
Fortuna nimium quem fovet, stultum facit—Fortune makes a fool of him whom she favours too much.Publius Syrus.
Fortuna non mutat genus—Fortune does not change nature.Horace.
Fortuna obesse nulli contenta est semel—Fortune is not content to do one an ill turn only once.Publius Syrus.
Fortuna opes auferre, non animum potest—Fortune may bereave us of wealth, but not of courage.Seneca.
Fortuna parvis momentis magnas rerum commutationes efficit—Fortune in brief moments works great changes in our affairs.
Fortuna sequatur—Let fortune follow.Motto.
Fortunato omne solum patria est—To a favourite of fortune every land is his country.
Fortunatus et ille deos qui novit agrestes—Happy the man who knows the rural gods.Virgil.
Fortunatus’ purse—A purse which supplies you with all you wish.
Fortuna vitrea est, tum cum splendet frangitur—Fortune is like glass; while she shines she is broken.Publius Syrus.
Fortune brings in some boats that are ill-steered.Cymbeline, iv. 3.
Fortune can take from us nothing but what she gave.Proverb.
Fortune does not change men; it only unmasks them.Mme. Riccoboni.
Fortune favours the brave, as the old proverb says, but forethought much more.Cicero.
Fortune has rarely condescended to be the companion of genius.Isaac Disraeli.
Fortune hath something of the nature of a woman, who, if she be too closely wooed, goes commonly the farther off.Charles V.
Fortune is like a mirror—it does not alter men; it only shows men just as they are.Billings.
Fortune is like the market, where many times, if you can stay a little, the price will fall.Bacon.
Fortune is merry, and in this mood will give us anything.Julius Cæsar, iii. 2.
Fortune is not content to do a man one ill turn.Bacon.
Fortune is the rod of the weak, and the staff of the brave.Lowell.
Fortune makes folly her peculiar care.Churchill.
Fortune makes him a fool whom she makes her darling.Bacon.
Fortune often knocks at the door, but the fool does not invite her in.Danish Proverb.
Fortune reigns in the gifts of the world, not in the lineaments of nature.As You Like It, i. 2.
Fortune! There is no fortune; all is trial, or punishment, or recompense, or foresight.Voltaire.
Fortune turns round like a mill-wheel, and he that was yesterday at the top lies to-day at the bottom.Spanish Proverb.
Forward, forward let us range, / Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change.Tennyson.
Forwardness spoils manners.Gaelic Proverb.
Foster the beautiful, and every hour thou callest new flowers to birth.Schiller.
Foul cankering rust the hidden treasure frets; / But gold that’s put to use, more gold begets.Shakespeare.
Foul deeds will rise, / Though all the earth o’erwhelm them, to men’s eyes.Hamlet, i. 2.
Fou (full) o’ courtesy, fou o’ craft.Scotch Proverb.
Four eyes see more than two.Proverb.
Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.Napoleon.
Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head.Jesus.
Foy est tout—Faith is everything.Motto.
Foy pour devoir—Faith for duty.Old French.
Frae saving comes having.Scotch Proverb.
Fragili quærens illidere dentem / Offendet solido—Trying to fix her tooth in some tender part, / Envy will strike against the solid.Horace.
Fraile que pide por Dios pide por dos—The friar who begs for God begs for two.Spanish Proverb.
Frailty, thy name is woman.Hamlet, i. 2.
Frame your mind to mirth and merriment, / Which bars a thousand harms and lengthens life.Tam. of Shrew, Ind. 2.
Frangas, non flectes—You may break, but you will not bend me.
Frappe fort—Strike hard.Motto.
Fraternité ou la Mort—Fraternity or death.The watchword of the first French Revolution; French.
Frauen, richtet nur nie des Mannes einzelne Thaten; / Aber über den Mann sprechet das richtende Wort—Women, judge ye not the individual acts of the man; the word that pronounces judgment is above the man.Schiller.
Frauen und Jungfrauen soll man loben, es sei wahr oder erlogen—Truly or falsely, women and maidens must be praised.German Proverb.
Frans est celare fraudem—It is a fraud to conceal fraud.Law.
Frau und Mond leuchten mit fremden Licht—Madame and the moon shine with borrowed light.German Proverb.
Freedom and slavery, the one is the name of virtue, the other of vice, and both are acts of the will.Epictetus.
Freedom and whisky gang thegither! / Tak’ aff your dram.Burns.
Freedom consists not in refusing to recognise anything above us, but in respecting something which is above us.Goethe.
Freedom exists only with power.Schiller.
Freedom has a thousand charms to show, / That slaves, howe’er contented, never know.Cowper.
Freedom is a new religion—the religion of our time.Heine.
Freedom is not caprice, but room to enlarge.C. A. Bartol.
Freedom is only granted us that obedience may be more perfect.Ruskin.
Freedom is only in the land of dreams, and the beautiful only blooms in song.Schiller.
Freedom is the eternal youth of nations.Gen. Foy.
Freedom’s sun cannot set so long as smiths hammer iron.C. M. Arndt.
Free governments have committed more flagrant acts of tyranny than the most perfect despotic governments which we have ever known.Burke.
Free-livers on a small scale, who are prodigal within the compass of a guinea.W. Irving.
Freends are like fiddle-strings; they maunna be screwed ower tight.Scotch Proverb.
Freethinkers are generally those who never think at all.Sterne.
Free will I be in thought and in poetry; in action the world hampers us enough.Goethe.
Freie Kirche im freien Staat—A free Church in a free State.Cavour.
Freilich erfahren wir erst im Alter, was uns in der Tugend begegnete—Not till we are old is it that we learn to know (lit. experience) what we met with when young.Goethe.
Frei muss ich denken, sprechen und atmen Gottes Luft, / Und wer die drei mir raubet, der legt mich in die Gruft—Freely must I think, speak, and breathe what God inspires in me, and he who robs me of these three entombs me.Chamisso.
Freits (prognostications) follow those who look to them.Scotch Proverb.
Frei von Tadel zu sein ist der niedrigste Grad und der höchste, / Denn nur die Ohnmacht führt oder die Grösse dazu—To be free from blame is to be of the lowest and highest grade, for only imbecility or greatness leads to it.Schiller.
Freiwillige Abhängigkeit ist der schönste Zustand, und wie wäre der möglich ohne Liebe?—Voluntary dependence is the noblest condition we can be in; and how were that possible without love?Goethe.
Fremde Kinder, wir lieben sie nie so sehr als die eignen; / Irrtum das eigne Kind, ist uns dem Herzen so nah—We never love the child of another so much as our own; for this reason error, which is our own child, is so near to our heart.Goethe.
Fremdes Pferd und eigene Sporen haben bald den Wind verloren—Another’s horse and our own spurs soon outstrip the wind.German Proverb.
Freno indorato non megliora il cavallo—A golden bit, no better a horse.Italian Proverb.
Frequent and loud laughter is the characteristic of folly and ill-manners.Chesterfield.
Fresh as a bridegroom, and his chin, new reap’d, / Show’d like a stubble-field at harvest-home; / He was perfuméd like a milliner, / And ’twixt his finger and his thumb he held / A pouncet-box, which ever and anon / He gave his nose, and took ’t away again.1 Henry IV., i. 3.
Fret not over the irretrievable, but ever act as if thy life were just begun.Goethe.
Fret not thyself because of evil men, neither be thou envious at the wicked; for there shall be no reward to the evil man; the candle of the wicked shall be put out.Bible.
Fretting cares make grey hairs.Proverb.
Freude hat mir Gott gegeben—God has to me given joy.Schiller.
Freud’ muss Leid, Leid muss Freude haben—Joy must have sorrow; sorrow, joy.Goethe.
Freundschaft ist ein Knotenstock auf Reisen, / Lieb’ ein Stäbchen zum Spazierengehn—Friendship is a sturdy stick to travel with; love a slender cane to promenade with.Chamisso.
Friar Modest never was prior.Italian Proverb.
Friend after friend departs; / Who hath not lost a friend? / There is no union here of hearts / That finds not here an end.J. Montgomery.
Friend, hast thou considered the “rugged, all-nourishing earth,” as Sophocles well names her; now she feeds the sparrow on the housetop, much more her darling, man?Carlyle.
Friend, however thou camest by this book, I will assure thee thou wert least in my thoughts when I writ it.Bunyan.
“Friend, I never gave thee any of my jewels!” “No, but you have let me look at them, and that is all the use you can make of them yourself; moreover, you have the trouble of watching them, and that is an employment I do not much desire.”Goldsmith.
Friends and acquaintances are the surest passports to fortune.Schopenhauer.
Friends are lost by calling often and calling seldom.Gaelic Proverb.
Friends are ourselves.Donne.
Friends are rare, for the good reason that men are not common.Joseph Roux.
Friends are the leaders of the bosom, being more ourselves than we are, and we complement our affections in theirs.A. B. Alcott.
Friends, like mushrooms, spring up in out-of-the-way places.Proverb.
Friends may meet, / But mountains never greet.Proverb.
Friends reveal to each other most clearly exactly that upon which they are silent.Goethe.
Friends should associate friends in grief and woe.Tit. Andron., v. 3.
Friends should be weighed, not told.Coleridge.
Friends show me what I can do; foes teach me what I should do.Schiller.
Friends, such as we desire, are dreams and fables.Emerson.
Friends will be much apart. They will respect more each other’s privacy than their communion, for therein is the fulfilment of our high aims and the conclusion of our arguments…. The hours my friend devotes to me were snatched from a higher society.Thoreau.
Friendship can originate and acquire permanence only practically (pracktisch). Liking (Neigung), and even love, contribute nothing to friendship. True, active, productive friendship consists in this, that we keep the same pace (gleichen Schritt) in life, that my friend approves of my aims, as I of his, and that thus we go on steadfastly (unverrückt) together, whatever may be the difference otherwise between our ways of thinking and living.Goethe.
Friendship canna stand a’ on ae side.Scotch Proverb.
Friendship, in the old heroic sense of that term, no longer exists; except in the cases of kindred or other legal affinity, it is in reality no longer expected or recognised as a virtue among men.Carlyle.
Friendship is a plant which one must water often.German Proverb.
Friendship is a vase, which, when it is flawed by heat, or violence, or accident, may as well be broken at once; it never can be trusted after.Landor.
Friendship is but a name.Napoleon.
Friendship is communion.Aristotle.
Friendship is constant in all other things, / Save in the office and affairs of love; / Therefore, all hearts in love use their own tongues; / Let every eye negotiate for itself, / And trust no agent.Much Ado, ii. 1.
Friendship is infinitely better than kindness.Cicero.
Friendship is like a debt of honour; the moment it is talked of, it loses its real name, and assumes the more ungrateful form of obligation.Arliss’ Lit. Col.
Friendship is love with understanding.German Proverb.
Friendship is love without its flowers or veil.Hare.
Friendship is love without its wings.Byron.
Friendship is no plant of hasty growth.Joanna Baillie.
Friendship is one soul in two bodies.Porphyry.
Friendship is stronger than kindred.Publius Syrus.
Friendship is the greatest bond in the world.Jeremy Taylor.
Friendship is the ideal; friends are the reality; the reality always remains far apart from the ideal.Joseph Roux.
Friendship is the marriage of the soul.Voltaire.
Friendship is the shadow of the evening, which strengthens with the setting sun of life.La Fontaine.
Friendship is too pure a pleasure for a mind cankered with ambition or the lust of power and grandeur.Junius.
Friendship, like love, is but a name, / Unless to one you stint the flame.Gay.
Friendship, like love, is self-forgetful.H. Giles.
Friendship, like the immortality of the soul, is too good to be believed.Emerson.
Friendship made in a moment is of no moment.Proverb.
Friendship often ends in love; but love in friendship—never.Colton.
Friendship should be surrounded with ceremonies and respects, and not crushed into corners.Emerson.
Friendship, unlike love, which is weakened by fruition, grows up, thrives, and increases by enjoyment; and being of itself spiritual, the soul is reformed by the habit of it.Montaigne.
Friendships are discovered rather than made.Mrs. Stowe.
Friendship’s as it’s kept.Gaelic Proverb.
Friendship’s full of dregs.Timon of Athens, i. 2.
Friendships that are disproportioned ever terminate in disgust.Goldsmith.
Friendship’s the privilege / Of private men.N. Tate.
Friendship’s the wine of life; but friendship new is neither strong nor pure.Young.
Friendships which are born in misfortune are more firm and lasting than those which are formed in happiness.D’Urfey.
Frigidam aquam effundere—To throw cold water on a business.
Frisch gewagt ist halb gewonnen—Boldly ventured is half done (won).German Proverb.
From a bad paymaster get what you can.Proverb.
From a closed door the devil turns away.Portuguese Proverb.
From camp to camp, through the foul womb of night, / The hum of either army stilly sounds, / That the fix’d sentinels almost receive / The secret whispers of each other’s watch; / Fire answers fire, and through their paly flames / Each battle sees the other’s umber’d face; / Steed threatens steed in high and boastful neighs, / Piercing the night’s dull ear, and from the tents / The armourers, accomplishing the knights, / With busy hammers closing rivets up, / Give dreadful note of preparation.Henry V., iv. (chorus).
From every moral death there is a new birth; / in this wondrous course of his, man may indeed linger, but cannot retrograde or stand still.Carlyle.
From every spot on earth we are equally near heaven and the infinite.Amiel.
From grave to gay, from lively to severe.Pope.
From great folks great favours are to be expected.Cervantes.
From hand to mouth will never make a worthy man.Gaelic Proverb.
From hearing comes wisdom, from speaking repentance.Proverb.
From Helicon’s harmonious springs / A thousand rills their mazy progress take.Gray.
From his cradle / He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one; / Exceeding wise, fair-spoken, and persuading; / Lofty and sour to them that loved him not, / But to those men who sought him, sweet as summer; / And to add greater honours to his age / Than man could give; he died fearing God.Henry VIII., iv. 2.
From ignorance our comfort flows; / The only wretched are the wise.Prior.
From kings and priests and statesmen war arose, / Whose safety is man’s deep embittered woe, / Whose grandeur his debasement.Shelley.
From labour health, from health contentment springs.Beattie.
From lowest place where virtuous things proceed, / The place is dignified by the doer’s deed.As You Like It, ii. 3.
From obedience and submission spring all other virtues, as all sin does from self-opinion.Montaigne.
From our ancestors come our names, from our virtues our honours.Proverb.
From out the throng and stress of lies, / From out the painful noise of sighs, / One voice of comfort seems to rise, / It is the meaner part that dies.Lewis Morris.
From pillar to post—originally from whipping-post to pillory, i.e., from had to worse.Proverb.
From saying “No,” however cleverly, no good can come.Goethe.
From seeming evil still educing good.Thomson.
From servants hasting to be gods.Pollock.
From small beginnings come great things.Dutch Proverb.
From stratagem to stratagem we run, / And he knows most who latest is undone: / An honest man will take a knave’s advice, / But idiots only will be cozened twice.Dryden.
From the beginning and to the end of time, Love reads without letters and counts without arithmetic.Ruskin.
From the deepest desire oftentimes ensues the deadliest hate.Socrates.
From thee, great God, we spring, to thee we tend, / Path, motive, guide, original and end.Johnson.
“From the height of these pyramids forty centuries look down on you.”Napoleon to his troops in Egypt.
From the lowest depth there is a path to the loftiest height.Carlyle.
From the low prayer of want and plaint of woe / O never, never turn away thine ear! / Forlorn is this bleak wilderness below, / Ah! what were man should heaven refuse to hear!Beattie.
From the same flower the bee extracts honey and the wasp gall.Italian Proverb.
From the summit of power men no longer turn their eyes upward, but begin to look about them.Lowell.
From the sum / Of duty, blooms sweeter and more divine / The fair ideal of the race, than comes / From glittering gains of learning.Lewis Morris.
From time to time in history men are born a whole age too soon.Emerson.
From within or from behind, a light shines through us upon things, and makes us aware that we are nothing, but the light is all.Emerson.
From women’s eyes this doctrine I derive: / They sparkle still the right Promethean fire; / They are the books, the arts, the academes, / That show, contain, and nourish all the world; / Else none at all in aught proves excellent.Love’s L’s. Lost, iv. 3.
From yon blue heaven above us bent, / The grand old gardener and his wife / Smile at the claims of long descent.Tennyson.
Fromm, Klug, Weis, und Mild, gehört in des Adels Schild—The words pious, prudent, wise, and gentle are appropriately suitable on the shield of a noble.German Proverb.
Fromme Leute wohnen weit auseinander—Good people dwell far apart.German Proverb.
Frömmigkeit ist kein Zweck, sondern ein Mittel, um durch die reinste Gemüthsruhe zur höchsten Cultur zu gelangen—Piety is not an end, but a means to attain the highest culture through the purest peace of mind.Goethe.
Fronti nulla fides—There is no trusting external appearances (lit. features).Juvenal.