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The wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds. AddisonCato. Act V. Sc. 1. | 1 |
This restless world Is full of chances, which by habits power To learn to bear is easier than to shun. John ArmstrongArt of Preserving Health. Bk. II. L. 453. | 2 |
Wandering between two worlds, one dead, The other powerless to be born, With nowhere yet to rest my head, Like these, on earth I wait forlorn. Matthew ArnoldStanzas from the Grande Chartreuse. | 3 |
Securus judicat orbis terrarum. The verdict of the world is conclusive. St. AugustineContra Epist. Parmen. III. 24. | 4 |
This worlds a bubble. Ascribed to Bacon by Thomas Farnaby. (1629). Appeared in his Book of Epigrams; and by Joshua SylvesterPanthea. Appendix. (1630). See also Wottonianæ. P. 513. Attributed to Bishop Usher. See Miscellanes. H. W. Gent. (1708). | 5 |
Earth took her shining station as a star, In Heavens dark hall, high up the crowd of worlds. BaileyFestus. Sc. The Centre. | 6 |
Dieu est le poète, les hommes ne sont que les acteurs. Ces grandes pièces qui se jouent sur la terre ont été composées dans le ciel. God is the author, men are only the players. These grand pieces which are played upon earth have been composed in heaven. BalzacSocrate Chrétien. | 7 |
Fly away, pretty moth, to the shade Of the leaf where you slumbered all day; Be content with the moon and the stars, pretty moth, And make use of your wings while you may. * * * * * * But tho dreams of delight may have dazzled you quite, They at last found it dangerous play; Many things in this world that look bright, pretty moth, Only dazzle to lead us astray. Thos. Haynes BaylyFly away, pretty Moth. | 8 |
Let the world slide. Beaumont and FletcherWit Without Money. Act V. Sc. 2. Taming of the Shrew. Induction. Sc. 1. L. 5. Also Sc. 2. L. 146. (Slip in folio.) | 9 |
The world is like a board with holes in it, and the square men have got into the round holes, and the round into the square. Bishop Berkeley, as quoted by Punch. | 10 |
Renounce the devil and all his works, the vain pomp and glory of the world. Book of Common Prayer. Public Baptism of Infants. | 11 |
The pomps and vanity of this wicked world. Book of Common Prayer. Catechism. | 12 |
He sees that this great roundabout, The world, with all its motley rout, Church, army, physic, law, Its customs and its businesses, Is no concern at all of his, And sayswhat says he?Caw. Vincent BourneThe Jackdaw. Cowpers trans. | 13 |
Tis a very good world we live in To spend, and to lend, and to give in; But to beg, or to borrow, or ask for our own; Tis the very worst world that ever was known. J. Bromfield. As given in The Mirror, under The Gatherer. Sept. 12, 1840. Quoted by Irving in Tales of a Traveller. Prefixed to Pt. II. Another similar version attributed to Earl of Rochester. | 14 |
This is the best world, that we live in, To lend and to spend and to give in: But to borrow, or beg, or to get a mans own, It is the worst world that ever was known. From A Collection of Epigrams. (1737). | 15 |
The severe schools shall never laugh me out of the philosophy of Hermes, that this visible world is but a picture of the invisible, wherein as in a portrait, things are not truly, but in equivocal shapes, and as they counterfeit some real substance in that invisible fabric. Sir Thomas BrowneReligio Medici. | 16 |
In this bad, twisted, topsy-turvy world, Where all the heaviest wrongs get uppermost. E. B. BrowningAurora Leigh. Bk. V. L. 981. | 17 |
O world as God has made it! All is beauty. Robert BrowningGuardian Angel. A Picture at Fano. | 18 |
The wide world is all before us But a world without a friend. BurnsStrathallans Lament. | 19 |
I have not loved the world, nor the world me; I have not flatterd its rank breath, nor bowd To its idolatries a patient knee. ByronChilde Harold. Canto III. St. 113. | 20 |
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Well, well, the world must turn upon its axis, And all mankind turn with it, heads or tails, And live and die, make love and pay our taxes, And as the veering winds shift, shift our sails. ByronDon Juan. Canto II. St. 4. | 21 |
Such is the world. Understand it, despise it, love it; cheerfully hold on thy way through it, with thy eye on highest loadstars! CarlyleEssays. Count Cagliostro. Last lines. | 22 |
The true Sovereign of the world, who moulds the world like soft wax, according to his pleasure, is he who lovingly sees into the world. CarlyleEssays. Death of Goethe. | 23 |
Socrates, quidem, cum rogaretur cujatem se esse diceret, Mundanum, inquit; totius enim mundi se incolam et civem arbitrabatur. Socrates, indeed, when he was asked of what country he called himself, said, Of the world; for he considered himself an inhabitant and a citizen of the whole world. CiceroTusculanarum Disputationum. Bk. V. 37. 108. | 24 |
Such stuff the world is made of. CowperHope. L. 211. | 25 |
Tis pleasant, through the loopholes of retreat, To peep at such a world; to see the stir Of the Great Babel, and not feel the crowd. CowperTask. Bk. IV. L. 88. | 26 |
And for the few that only lend their ear, That few is all the world. Samuel DanielMusophilus. St. 97. | 27 |
Vien dietro a me, e lascia dir le genti. Come, follow me, and leave the world to its babblings. DantePurgatorio. V. 13. | 28 |
Quel est-il en effet? Cest un verre qui luit, Quun souffle peut detruire, et quun souffle a produit. What is it [the world], in fact? A glass which shines, which a breath can destroy, and which a breath has produced. De CauxLHorloge de Sable. (1745). In DIsraelis Curiosities of Literature. Imitations and Similarities. | 29 |
I am a citizen of the world. Diogenes Laertius. | 30 |
The world is a wheel, and it will all come round right. Benj. DisraeliEndymion. Ch. LXX. | 31 |
Since every man who lives is born to die, And none can boast sincere felicity, With equal mind, what happens let us bear, Nor joy nor grieve too much for things beyond our care. Like pilgrims, to th appointed place we tend; The worlds an inn, and death the journeys end. DrydenPalamon and Arcite. Bk. III. L. 2,159. | 32 |
The worlds a stage where Gods omnipotence, His justice, knowledge, love and providence, Do act the parts. Du BartasDivine Weekes and Workes. First Week. First Day. | 33 |
I take the world to be but as a stage, Where net-maskt men doo play their personage. Du BartasDivine Weekes and Workes. Dialogue Between Heraclitus and Democritus. The world is a stage; each plays his part, and receives his portion. Found in Winschootens Seeman. (1681). Bohns Collection, 1857. JuvenalSatires. III. 100. (Natio comda est.) | 34 |
But they will maintain the state of the world; And all their desire is in the work of their craft. Ecclesiasticus. XXXVIII. 34. | 35 |
Pythagoras said that this world was like a stage, Whereon many play their parts; the lookers-on the sage Philosophers are, saith he, whose part is to learn The manners of all nations, and the good from the bad to discern. Richard EdwardsDamon and Pythias. | 36 |
Good-bye, proud world! Im going home; Thou art not my friend; I am not thine. EmersonGood-bye, Proud World! (And I, in later Ed.) | 37 |
Shall I speak truly what I now see below? The World is all a carkass, smoak and vanity, The shadow of a shadow, a play And in one word, just Nothing. Owen FellthamResolves. P. 316. (Ed. 1696). From the Latin said to have been left by Lipsius to be put on his grave. | 38 |
Map me no maps, sir; my head is a map, a map of the whole world. FieldingRape upon Rape. Act I. Sc. 5. | 39 |
Long ago a man of the world was defined as a man who in every serious crisis is invariably wrong. Fortnightly Review. Armageddonand After. Nov., 1914. P. 736. | 40 |
Mais dons ce monde, il ny a rien dassure que le mort et les impots. But in this world nothing is sure but death and taxes. FranklinLetter to M. Leroy. (1789). | 41 |
Eppur si muove. (Epur.) But it does move. GalileoBefore the Inquisition. (1632). Questioned by Karl von Geble; also by Prof. Heis, who says it appeared first in the Dictionnaire Historique. Caen. (1789). Guisar says it was printed in the Lehrbuch der Geschichte. Wurtzburg. (1774). Conceded to be apocryphal. Earliest appearance in Abbé IrailhQuerelles Litteraires. | 42 |
Il mondo è un bel libro, ma poco serve a chi non lo sa leggere. The world is a beautiful book, but of little use to him who cannot read it. GoldoniPamela. I. 14. | 43 |
Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates, and men decay; Princes and Lords may flourish, or may fade A breath can make them, as a breath has made But a bold peasantry, their countrys pride, When once destroyd can never be supplied. GoldsmithDeserted Village. L. 51. | 44 |
Creations heir, the world, the world is mine! GoldsmithTraveller. L. 50. | 45 |
Earth is but the frozen echo of the silent voice of God. HagemanSilence. | 46 |
Let the world slide, let the world go; A fig for care and a fig for woe! If I cant pay, why I can owe, And death makes equal the high and low. John HeywoodBe Merry Friends. | 47 |
The worlds a theatre, the earth a stage, Which God and nature do with actors fill. HeywoodDramatic Works. Vol. I. The Author to His Book. Prefix to Apology for Actors. | 48 |
Nor is this lower world but a huge inn, And men the rambling passengers. James HowellThe Vote. Poem prefixed to his Familiar Letters. | 49 |
There are two worlds; the world that we can measure with line and rule, and the world that we feel with our hearts and imaginations. Leigh HuntMen, Women, and Books. Fiction and Matter of Fact. | 50 |
The nations are as a drop of a bucket. Isaiah. XL. 15. | 51 |
World without end. Isaiah. XLV. 17. | 52 |
The visible world is but man turned inside out that he may be revealed to himself. Henry James (the Elder). From J. A. KellogDigest of the Philosophy of Henry James. | 53 |
It takes all sorts of people to make a world. Douglas JerroldStory of a Feather. In Punch. Vol. V. P. 55. | 54 |
I never have sought the world; the world was not to seek me. Samuel JohnsonBoswells Life of Johnson. (1783). | 55 |
This world, where much is to be done and little to be known. Samuel JohnsonPrayers and Meditations. Against Inquisitive and Perplexing Thoughts. | 56 |
If there is one beast in all the loathsome fauna of civilization I hate and despise, it is a man of the world. Henry Arthur JonesThe Liars. Act I. | 57 |
Upon the battle ground of heaven and hell I palsied stand. Marie JosephineRosa Mystica. P. 231. | 58 |
The world goes up and the world goes down, And the sunshine follows the rain; And yesterdays sneer and yesterdays frown Can never come over again, Sweet wife. No, never come over again. Charles KingsleyDolcino to Margaret. | 59 |
For to admire an for to see, For to beold this world so wide It never done no good to me, But I cant drop it if I tried! KiplingFor to Admire. In The Seven Seas. | 60 |
If all the world must see the world As the world the world hath seen, Then it were better for the world That the world had never been. LelandThe World and the World. | 61 |
It is an ugly world. Offend Good people, how they wrangle, The manners that they never mend, The characters they mangle. They eat, and drink, and scheme, and plod, And go to church on Sunday And many are afraid of God And more of Mrs. Grundy. Frederick Locker-LampsonThe Jesters Plea. | 62 |
O what a glory doth this world put on For him who, with a fervent heart, goes forth Under the bright and glorious sky, and looks On duties well performed, and days well spent! LongfellowAutumn. | 63 |
Glorious indeed is the world of God around us, but more glorious the world of God within us. There lies the Land of Song; there lies the poets native land. LongfellowHyperion. Bk. I. Ch. VIII. | 64 |
One day with life and heart, Is more than time enough to find a world. LowellColumbus. Last lines. | 65 |
Flammantia mnia mundi. The flaming ramparts of the world. LucretiusDe Rerum Natura. I. 73. | 66 |
When the world dissolves, And every creature shall be purified, All places shall be hell that are not heaven. MarloweFaustus. L. 543. | 67 |
The world in all doth but two nations bear, The good, the bad, and these mixed everywhere. MarvellThe Loyal Scot. | 68 |
This world is full of beauty, as other worlds above, And if we did our duty, it might be as full of love. Gerald MasseyThis World. | 69 |
The worlds a stage on which all parts are played. Thos. MiddletonA Game of Chess. Act V. Sc. II. | 70 |
Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot Which men call Earth. MiltonComus. L. 5. | 71 |
Hanging in a golden chain This pendent world, in bigness as a star Of smallest magnitude close by the moon. MiltonParadise Lost. Bk. II. L. 1,051. | 72 |
A boundless continent, Dark, waste, and wild, under the frown of night Starless exposd. MiltonParadise Lost. Bk. III. L. 423. | 73 |
Then stayed the fervid wheels, and in his hand He took the golden compasses, prepared In Gods eternal store, to circumscribe This universe and all created things: One foot he centred, and the other turned Round through the vast profundity obscure, And said, Thus far extend, thus far thy bounds, This be thy just circumference, O World. MiltonParadise Lost. Bk. VII. L. 224. God is like a skillful Geometrician. Sir Thomas BrowneReligio Medici. Pt. I. Sect. XVI. Nature geometrizeth and observeth order in all things. Sir Thomas BrowneGarden of Cyrus. Ch. III. The same idea appears in ComberCompanion to the Temple. (Folio 1684). God acts the part of a Geometrician
. His government of the World is no less mathematically exact than His creation of it. (Quoting Plato.) John NorrisPractical Discourses. II. P. 228. (Ed. 1693). God Geometrizes is quoted as a traditional sentence used by Plato, in PlutarchSymposium. By a carpenter mankind was created and made, and by a carpenter mete it was that man should be repaired. ErasmusParaphrase of St. Mark. Folio 42. | 74 |
The world was all before them, where to choose Their place of rest, and Providence their guide. MiltonParadise Lost. Bk. XII. L. 646. | 75 |
Le monde nest quune bransloire perenne. The world is but a perpetual see-saw. MontaigneEssays. Bk. III. Ch. II. | 76 |
Is it not a noble farce wherein kings, republics, and emperors have for so many ages played their parts, and to which the vast universe serves for a theatre? MontaigneOf the Most Excellent Men. | 77 |
Or may I think when tossd in trouble, This world at best is but a bubble. Dr. Moor. MS. | 78 |
This world is all a fleeting show, For mans illusion given; The smiles of joy, the tears of woe, Deceitful shine, deceitful flow, Theres nothing true but Heaven. MooreThis World is all a Fleeting Show. | 79 |
This outer world is but the pictured scroll Of worlds within the soul; A colored chart, a blazoned missal-book, Whereon who rightly look May spell the splendors with their mortal eyes, And steer to Paradise. Alfred NoyesThe Two Worlds. | 80 |
Think, in this battered Caravanserai, Whose Portals are alternate Night and Day, How Sultán after Sultán with his Pomp Abode his destined Hour, and went his way. Omar KhayyamRubaiyat. St. 17. FitzGeralds trans. | 81 |
Love to his soul gave eyes; he knew things are not as they seem. The dream is his real life: the world around him is the dream. F. T. PalgraveDream of Maxim Wledig. | 82 |
Quod fere totus mundus exerceat histrionem. Almost the whole world are players. Petronius ArbiterAdapted from Fragments. No. 10. (Ed. 1790). Over the door of Shakespeares theatre, The Globe, Bankside, London, was a figure of Hercules; under this figure was the above quotation. It probably suggested All the worlds a stage. | 83 |
They who grasp the world, The Kingdom, and the power, and the glory, Must pay with deepest misery of spirit, Atoning unto God for a brief brightness. Stephen PhillipsHerod. Act III. | 84 |
Alexander wept when he heard from Anaxarchus that there was an infinite number of worlds, and his friends asking him if any accident had befallen him he returned this answer: Do you not think it is a matter worthy of lamentation that where there is such a vast multitude of them we have not yet conquered one? PlutarchOn the Tranquillity of the Mind. One world is not sufficient; he [Alexander the Great] fumes unhappy in the narrow bounds of this earth. Quoted from JuvenalSatires. X. | 85 |
But as the world, harmoniously confused, Where order in variety we see; And where, tho all things differ, all agree. PopeWindsor Forest. | 86 |
My soul, whats lighter than a feather? Wind. Than wind? The fire. And what than fire? The mind. Whats lighter than the mind? A thought. Than thought? This bubble world. What than this bubble? Nought. QuarlesEmblems. Bk. I. 4. | 87 |
All nations and kindreds and people and tongues. Revelation. VII. 9. | 88 |
Le monde est le livre des femmes. The world is womans book. Rousseau. | 89 |
The worlde bie diffraunce ys ynn orderr founde. RowleyThe Tournament. Same idea in PascalPensées. Bernardin de St. PierreEtudes de la Nature. BurkeReflections on the French Revolution. HoraceEpistle 12. LucanPharsalia. LonginusRemark on the Eloquence of Demosthenes. | 90 |
Es liebt die Welt, das Stralende zu schwärzen Und das Erhabne in den Staub zu ziehn. The world delights to tarnish shining names, And to trample the sublime in the dust. SchillerDas Mädchen von Orleans. | 91 |
Denn nur vom Nutzen wird die Welt regiert. For the world is ruled by interest alone. SchillerWallensteins Tod. I. 6. 37. | 92 |
Non sum uni angulo natus; patria mea totus hic est mundus. I am not born for one corner; the whole world is my native land. SenecaEpistles. 28. | 93 |
All the worlds a stage, And all the men and women merely players. As You Like It. Act II. Sc. 7. L. 139. | 94 |
This wide and universal theatre Presents more woful pageants than the scene Wherein we play in. As You Like It. Act II. Sc. 7. L. 137. | 95 |
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable Seem to me all the uses of this world! Hamlet. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 133. | 96 |
For some must watch, while some must sleep; So runs the world away. Hamlet. Act III. Sc. 2. L. 284. | 97 |
Would I were dead! if Gods good will were so: For what is in this world but grief and woe? Henry VI. Pt. III. Act II. Sc. 5. L. 19. | 98 |
Mad world. Mad kings. Mad composition. King John. Act II. Sc. 2. L. 561. | 99 |
The earth hath bubbles, as the water has, And these are of them. Macbeth. Act I. Sc. 4. L. 79. | 100 |
To be imprisoned in the viewless winds And blown with restless violence around about The pendent world. Measure for Measure. Act III. Sc. 1. L. 124. | 101 |
I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano: A stage where every man must play a part. Merchant of Venice. Act I. Sc. 1. L. 76. | 102 |
Why, then, the worlds mine oyster, Which I with sword will open. Merry Wives of Windsor. Act II. Sc. 2. L. 2. | 103 |
The world is grown so bad, That wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch. Richard III. Act I. Sc. 3. L. 70. | 104 |
Youll never have a quiet world till you knock the patriotism out of the human race. Bernard ShawOFlaherty, V. C. | 105 |
The worlds great age begins anew, The golden years return, The earth doth like a snake renew Her winter weeds outworn. ShelleyHellas. Last chorus. | 106 |
Making a perpetual mansion of this poor baiting place. Sir Philip SidneyArcadia. Same idea in MooreIrish Melodies. IrvingBracebridge Hall. Vol. I. P. 213. An adaptation of CiceroDe Senectute. 26; and SenecaEpistles. 120. | 107 |
If you choose to represent the various parts in life by holes upon a table, of different shapes,some circular, some triangular, some square, some oblong,and the persons acting these parts by bits of wood of similar shapes, we shall generally find that the triangular person has got into the square hole, the oblong into the triangular, and a square person has squeezed himself into the round hole. The officer and the office, the doer and the thing done, seldom fit so exactly that we can say they were almost made for each other. Sydney SmithSketches of Moral Philosophy. P. 309. | 108 |
O Earth! all bathed with blood and tears, yet never Hast thou ceased putting forth thy fruit and flowers. Madame de StaëlCorinne. Bk. XIII. Ch. IV. L. E. L.s trans. | 109 |
This world surely is wide enough to hold both thee and me. SterneTristram Shandy. Bk. II. Ch. XII. | 110 |
There was all the world and his wife. SwiftPolite Conversation. Dialogue III. AnsteyNew Bath Guide. P. 130. (1767). | 111 |
In this playhouse of infinite forms I have had my play, and here have I caught sight of him that is formless. Rabindranath TagoreGitanjali. 96. | 112 |
A mad world, my masters. John TaylorWestern Voyage. First line. Middleton. Title of a play. (1608). Nicholas Breton. Title of a pamphlet. (1603). Mundus furiosus. (a mad world.) Inscription of a book by JanseniusGallo-Belgicus. (1596). | 113 |
So many worlds, so much to do, So little done, such things to be. TennysonIn Memoriam. Pt. LXXIII. | 114 |
The world is a looking glass, and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face. Frown at it and it will in turn look sourly upon you; laugh at it and with it, and it is a jolly kind companion. ThackerayVanity Fair. | 115 |
Even the linked fantasies, in whose blossomy twist I swung the earth a trinket at my wrist. Francis ThompsonHound of Heaven. L. 126. | 116 |
Anchorite, who didst dwell With all the world for cell! Francis ThompsonTo the Dead Cardinal of Westminster. St. 5. | 117 |
For, if the worlds In worlds enclosed should on his senses burst * * * He would abhorrent turn. ThomsonSeasons. Summer. L. 313. | 118 |
Heed not the folk who sing or say In sonnet sad or sermon chill, Alas, alack, and well-a-day! This round worlds but a bitter pill. We too are sad and careful; still Wed rather be alive than not. Graham R. TomsonBallade of the Optimist. | 119 |
Tout est pour le mieux dans le meilleur des mondes. Everything is for the best in this best of possible worlds. VoltaireCandide. I. (A hit against Leibnitz Optimistic Doctrines.) | 120 |
Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view, That stand upon the threshold of the new. WallerDivine Poems. Works. P. 316. (Ed. 1729). | 121 |
The world is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel. Horace WalpoleLetter to Sir Horace Mann. (1770). | 122 |
If we suppose a sufficient righteousness and intelligence in men to produce presently, from the tremendous lessons of history, an effective will for a world peacethat is to say, an effective will for a world law under a world governmentfor in no other fashion is a secure world peace conceivablein what manner may we expect things to move towards this end?
It is an educational task, and its very essence is to bring to the minds of all men everywhere, as a necessary basis for world cooperation, a new telling and interpretation, a common interpretation, of history. H. G. WellsOutline of History. Ch. XLI. Par. 2. | 123 |
What is this world? A net to snare the soule. George Whetstone. In Tottles Miscellany. Erroneously attributed to Gascoigne. | 124 |
I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world. Walt WhitmanStarting from Pawmano. No. 52. | 125 |
Was ist ihm nun die Welt? ein weiter leerer Raum, Fortunens Spielraum, frei ihr Rad herum zu rollen. What is the world to him now? a vast and vacant space, for fortunes wheel to roll about at will. WielandOberon. VIII. 20. | 126 |
I have my beauty,you your Art Nay, do not start: One world was not enough for two Like me and you. Oscar WildeHer Voice. | 127 |
When the fretful stir Unprofitable, and the fever of the world Have hung upon the beatings of my heart. WordsworthLines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey. | 128 |
The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending we lay waste our powers; Little we see in Nature that is ours. WordsworthMiscellaneous Sonnets. Pt. I. XXXIII. | 129 |
The worlds a bubbleand the life of man Less than a span. In his conception wretched, and from the womb So to the tomb. Nurst from the cradle, and brought up to years With cares and fears. Who then to frail mortality shall trust, But limns in water, and but writes in dust. WottonThe World. Ode to Bacon. | 130 |
Man of the World (for such wouldst thou be called) And art thou proud of that inglorious style? YoungNight Thoughts. Night VIII. L. 8. | 131 |
They most the world enjoy who least admire. YoungNight Thoughts. Night VIII. L. 1,173. | 132 |
Let not the cooings of the world allure thee: Which of her lovers ever found her true? YoungNight Thoughts. Night VIII. L. 1,279. | 133 |
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