Man is, beyond dispute, the most excellent of created beings, and the vilest animal is a dog; but the sages agree that a grateful dog is better than an ungrateful man. Saadi.
Man is born not to solve the problems of the 5 universe, but to find out where the problem begins, and then to restrain himself within the limits of the comprehensible. Goethe.
Man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward. Bible.
Man is but a little thing in the midst of the objects of nature, yet, by the moral quality radiating from his countenance, he may abolish all considerations of magnitude, and, in his manners, equal the majesty of the world. Emerson.
Man is but a reed, the weakest thing in nature, but he is a reed that thinks. Pascal.
Man is created free, is free, even if he were born in chains. Schiller.
Man is created to fight; he is perhaps best of 10 all definable as a born soldier; his life "a battle and a march" under the right generals. Carlyle.
Man is emphatically a proselytising creature. Carlyle.
Man is ever the most interesting object to man, and perhaps should be the only one to interest him. Goethe.
Man is explicable by nothing less than all his history. Emerson.
Man is fire and woman tow; the devil comes and sets them in a blaze. Pr.
Man is first a spirit, bound by invisible bonds 15 to all men; and secondly, he wears clothes, which are the visible emblems of that fact. Carlyle, the two main ideas emphasised in "Sartor."
Man is for ever the born thrall of certain men, born master of certain other men, born equal of certain others, let him acknowledge the fact or not. Carlyle.
Man is for ever the brother of man. Carlyle.
Man is free as the bird is in its cage: he can move about within certain limits. Lavater.
Man is God's image; but a poor man is / Christ's stamp to boot: both images regard. / God reckons for him, counts the favour His. George Herbert.
Man is greater than a world, than systems of 20 worlds; there is more mystery in the union of soul with the physical than in the creation of a universe. H. Giles.
Man is his own star, and the soul that can / Render an honest and a perfect man, / Commands all light, all influence, all fate; / Nothing to him falls early or too late. Beaumont and Fletcher.
Man is intended for a limited condition; objects that are simple, near, determinate, he comprehends, and he becomes accustomed to employ such means as are at hand; but on entering a wider field he now knows neither what he would nor what he should. Goethe.
Man is like the worker at Gobelins, who weaves on the wrong side a tapestry of which he does not see the design. Renan.
Man is made great or little by his own will. Schiller.
Man is man by virtue of willing, not by virtue 25 of knowing and understanding; and as he is, so he sees. Emerson.
Man is man everywhere. Carlyle.
Man is man only as he makes life and nature happier to us. Emerson.
Man is more often injured than helped by the means he uses. Emerson.
Man is more than constitutions. Whittier.
Man is neither an angel nor a brute, and it is 30 his evil destiny if he aspires to be the former, to sink into the latter. Pascal.
Man is neither the vile nor the excellent being which he sometimes imagines himself to be. Disraeli.
Man is not a piece of clay to be moulded, but a plant to be cultivated. Garve.
Man is not as God, / But then most godlike, being most a man. Tennyson.
Man is not born to be free, and for the noble there is no fairer fortune than to serve a prince whom he honours. Goethe.
Man is not God, but hath God's end to serve, / 35 A master to obey, a course to take, / Somewhat to cast off, somewhat to become. Browning.
Man is not made to question, but adore. Young.
Man is not the creature of circumstances; circumstances are the creatures of men. We are free agents, and man is more powerful than matter. Disraeli.
Man is nothing but contradiction; the less he knows it the more dupe he is. Amiel.
Man is of the earth, but his thoughts are with the stars. A pigmy standing on the outward crest of this small planet, his far-reaching spirit stretches outward to the infinite, and there alone finds rest. Carlyle.
Man is often a wolf to man, a serpent to God, 40 and a scorpion to himself. Spurgeon.
Man is one, and he hath one great heart. Bailey.
Man is one world, and hath / Another to attend him. George Herbert.
Man is only truly great when he acts from his passions; never irresistible but when he appeals to the imagination. Disraeli.
Man is only what he becomes, but he becomes only what he is. Amiel.
Man is physically as well as metaphysically a 45 thing of shreds and patches, borrowed unequally from good and bad ancestors, and a misfit from the start. Emerson.
Man is placed in this world as a spectator; when he is tired with wondering at all the novelties about him, and not till then, does he desire to be made acquainted with the causes that create those wonders. Goldsmith.
Man is properly an incarnated word; the word that he speaks is the man himself. Carlyle.
Man is, properly speaking, based upon Hope, he has no other possession but Hope; this world of his is emphatically the Place of Hope. Carlyle.
Man is quite sufficiently saddened by his own passions and destiny, and need not make himself more so by the darkness of a barbaric past. He needs enlightening and cheering influences, and should therefore turn to those eras in art and literature during which remarkable men obtained perfect culture. Goethe.
Man is so inconsistent a creature that it is impossible to reason from his belief to his conduct, or from one part of his belief to another. Macaulay.
Man is so prone to occupy himself with what is most common, the soul and the senses are so easily blunted to the impressions of the beautiful and perfect, that one ought by all means to preserve the capability of feeling it. We ought every day at least to hear a little song, read a good poem, see an excellent painting, and, if possible, speak a few reasonable words. Goethe.
Man is that noble endogenous plant which grows, like the palm, from within outward. Emerson.
Man is the arch-machine of which all these 5 shifts drawn from himself are toy models. He helps himself on each emergency by copying or duplicating his own structure, just so far as the need is. Emerson.
Man is the circled oak, woman the ivy. Aaron Hill.
Man is the dwarf of himself. Emerson.
Man is the end towards which all the animal creation has tended. Agassiz.
Man is the favourite (Günstling) of Nature, not in the sense that Nature has done everything for him, but that she has given him the power of doing everything for himself. Zachariae.
Man is the higher sense of our planet, the 10 star which connects it with the upper world, the eye which it turns towards heaven. Novalis.
Man is the jewel of God, who has created this material world to keep his treasure in. Theo. Parker.
Man is the maker of expedients, but not of laws. In his solicitude as to his approaching lot, he has neither time nor desire to raise his eyes to the heavens to watch and record their phenomena; no leisure to look upon himself and consider what and where he is. In the imperious demand for a present support, he dare not venture on speculative attempts at ameliorating his state; he is doomed to be a helpless, isolated, spellbound savage, or, if not isolated, the companion of other savages as careworn as himself. Draper.
Man is the merriest species of the creation. Addison.
Man is the Messiah of Nature. Novalis.
Man is the meter of all things; the hand is 15 the instrument of instruments, and the mind is the form of forms. Arist.
Man is the Missionary of Order; he is the servant not of the devil and chaos, but of God and the universe. Carlyle.
Man is the nobler growth our realms supply, / And souls are ripened in our northern sky. Mrs. Barbauld.
Man is the slave of beneficence. Arab. Pr.
Man is the sum-total of all the animals. Oken.
Man is the sun of the world; more than the 20 real sun. The fire of his wonderful heart is the only light and heat worth gauge or measure. Where he is, are the tropics; where he is not, the ice-world. Ruskin.
Man is the weeping animal born to govern all the rest. Pliny.
Man is the whole encyclopedia of facts. The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn; and Egypt, Greece, Rome, Gaul, Britain, America, lie enfolded already in the first man. Emerson.
Man is the will and woman is the sentiment. In this ship of humanity, Will is the rudder and Sentiment the sail; when woman affects to steer, the rudder is only a masked sail. Emerson.
Man is to man the sorest, surest ill.... / Earth trembles ere her yawning jaws devour; / And smoke betrays the wide-consuming fire; / Ruin from man is most conceal'd when near, / And sends the dreadful tidings in the blow. Young.
Man is too near all kinds of beasts—a fawning 25 dog, a roaring lion, a thieving fox, a robbing wolf, a dissembling crocodile, a treacherous decoy, a rapacious vulture. Cowley.
Man ist nur eigentlich lebendig, wenn man sich des Wohlwollens Anderer freut—A man is only truly alive when he enjoys the goodwill of others. Goethe.
Man, it's surely a pity that thou should'st sit yonder, with nothing but the eye of Omniscience to see thee, and thou with such gift to speak. James Carlyle to his son, when he first discovered this gift in him.
Man kan geen loopend paard beslaan—One cannot shoe a running-horse. Dut. Pr.
Man kann den Menschen nicht verwehren, / Zu denken, was sie wollen—There is no hindering people from thinking what thoughts they like. Schiller.
Man kann ein klarer Denker ohne Gefühl, 30 aber kein starker, kühner Denker ohne dasselbe sein—Without feeling one may be a clear thinker, but not a powerful and a bold. Klinger.
Man kann in wahrer Freiheit leben / Und doch nicht ungebunden sein—One may enjoy true freedom, and yet be in chains. Goethe.
Man kann nicht stets das Fremde meiden, / Das Gute liegt uns oft so fern. / Ein echter deutscher Mann mag keinen Franzen leiden, / Doch ihre Weine trinkt er gern—We cannot always avoid what is foreign; what is good often lies so far off. A true German cannot abide the French, and yet he will drink their wines with the most genuine relish. Goethe.
Man kann nicht wider sein Geshick—There is no striving against one's fate. Schiller.
Man knows nothing but what he has learned from experience. Wieland.
Man kommt zu schaun, Man will am liebsten 35 sehn—People come to look; their greatest pleasure is to feast their eyes. Goethe.
Man lebt nur einmal in der Welt—Only once is it given us to live in the world. Goethe.
Man, like the gen'rous vine, supported, lives;/ The strength he gains is from the embrace he gives. Pope.
Man little knows what calamities are beyond his patience to bear till he tries them. Goldsmith.
Man lives in Time, has his whole earthly being, endeavour, and destiny shaped for him by Time; only in the transitory Time-symbol is the ever-motionless eternity we stand on made manifest. Carlyle.
Man lives where he acts. Renan.
Man, living, feeling man, is the easy sport of the overmastering present. Schiller.
Man lobt den Künstler dann erst recht, wenn 5 man über sein Werk sein Lob vergisst—We first truly praise an artist when the merit of his work is such as to make us forget himself. Lessing.
Man löst sich nicht allmählich von dem Leben!—It is by no gradual process we detach ourselves from (lose our hold of) life. Schiller.
Man loves before he sees; his heart is open before his eyes; love must irradiate his world for him before he well knows he is in it, what it is made of, and what to make of it. Ed.
Man loves little and often, woman much and rarely. Basta.
Man, made of the dust of the world, does not forget his origin; and all that is yet inanimate will one day speak and reason. Emerson.
Man mag Amphion sein und Fels und Wald 10 bewegen, / Deswegen kann man doch nicht Bauern widerlegen—One may be a very Amphion and be able to move trees and rocks, and yet be unable to reduce peasants to reason. Gellert.
Man may doubt here and there, but mankind does not doubt. H. R. Haweis.
Man muss die Menschen nur mit dem Krämergewicht, keinesweges mit der Goldwage wiegen—We must weigh men with merchant's scales, and by no means with the goldsmith's. Goethe.
Man muss handeln können, wie man will, um zu handeln, wie man soll—We must be able to act as we would in order to act as we should. Zachariæ.
Man muss keinem Menschen trauen, der bei seinen Versicherungen die Hand auf's Herz legt—We should trust no man who in his protestations lays his hand on his heart. Lichtenberg.
Man muss nicht reicher scheinen wollen, als 15 man ist—We must not wish to appear richer than we are. Lessing.
Man muss seine Irrthümer theuer bezahlen, wenn man sie los werden will, und dann hat man noch von Glück zu sagen—Men must pay dearly for their errors, if they would be free from them, and then they may regard it a happiness to do so. Goethe.
Man muss, will man ein Glück geniessen, / Die Freiheit zu behaupten wissen—If we would enjoy what fortune gives us, we must know how to maintain our freedom. Gellert.
Man must hold fast by the belief that the incomprehensible is comprehensible, otherwise he would not search. Goethe.
Man must serve his time to every trade / Save censure; critics all are ready made. Byron.
Man never comprehends how anthropomorphic 20 he is. Goethe.
Man, never so often deceived, still watches for the arrival of a brother who can hold him steady to a truth until he has made it his own. Emerson.
Man, on the dubious waves of error tost. Cowper.
Man only can create music, for nothing is perfect until, in some way, it touches or passes through man. T. T. Munger.
Man only mars kind Nature's plan, / And turns the fierce pursuit on man. Scott.
Man ought always to have something which 25 he prefers to life. Seume.
Man partly is and wholly hopes to be. Browning.
Man perfected by society is the best of all animals; he is the most terrible of all when he lives without law and without justice. Arist.
Man proposes, God disposes. Pr.
Man, proud man, / Dress'd in a little brief authority; / Most ignorant of what he's most assur'd, / His glassy essence, like an angry ape, / Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven, / As make the angels weep. Meas. for Meas., ii. 2.
Man reconciles himself to almost every event, 30 however trying, if it happens in the ordinary course of nature. It is the extraordinary that he rebels against. W. v. Humboldt.
Man rettet gern aus trüber Gegenwart / Sich in das heitere Gebiet der Kunst, / Und für die Kränkungen der Wirklichkeit / Sucht man sich Heilung in des Dichters Träumen—We are fain to escape out of the distracted present into the untroubled sphere of art, and for the miseries of real life we seek healing in the dreams of the poet. Uhland.
Man schont die Alten, wie man die Kinder schont—We bear with old people as we do with children. Goethe.
Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Bible.
Man should let alone other's prejudices and examine his own. Locke.
Man should not be over-anxious for a subsistence, 35 for it is provided by the Creator. The infant no sooner droppeth from the womb than the breasts of the mother begin to stream. Hitopadesa.
Man sieht sich, lernt sich kennen, / Liebt sich, muss sich trennen—We greet each other, learn to know each other, love each other, and then—we part.
Man soll die Stimmen wägen und nicht zählen—Votes ought to be weighed, not counted. Schiller.
Man soll kein Buch nach dem Titelblatt beurtheilen—We should not judge of a book from the title-page. Ger. Pr.
Man soll nicht mehr Teufel rufen, als man bannen kann—One should raise no more devils than one can lay. Ger. Pr.
Man spends his life in reasoning on the past, 40 complaining of the present, and trembling for the future. Rivarol.
Man spricht selten von der Tugend, die man hat; aber desto öfter von der, die uns fehlt—We seldom boast (lit. speak) of the virtue which we have, but oftener of that which we have not. Lessing.
Man spricht vergebens viel, nur zu versagen, / Der and're hört von allem nur das Nein!—In vain we speak much only to refuse; the other, of all we say, hears only the "No!" Goethe.
Man spricht vom vielen Trinken stets, / Doch nie vom vielen Durste—They make much of our drinking, but never think of our thirst. Scheffel.
Man steigt den grünen Berg des Lebens hinauf, um oben auf dem Eisberge zu sterben—We ascend the green mountain of life in order to die up there upon the glaciers. (?)
Man steigt nicht ungestraft vom Göttermahle / Herunter in den Kreis der Sterblichen—One does not descend from a banquet with the gods into a company of common mortals without suffering for it. Grillparzer.
Man supposes that he directs his life and 5 governs his actions, when his existence is irretrievably under the control of destiny. Goethe.
Man, that is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble. Bible.
Man, the aristocrat amongst the animals. Heine.
Man, the little god of this world, is still ever of the same stamp, and is as whimsical as on the first day. Mephisto in Goethe.
Man the peasant is a being of more marked national character than man the educated and refined. Ruskin.
Man thee for the high endeavour, / Shun the 10 crowd's ignoble ease! / Fails the noble spirit never, / Wise to think and prompt to seize. Goethe.
Man thereby (by his fantasy as the organ of the godlike), though based to all seeming on the small visible, does nevertheless extend down into the infinite deeps of the Invisible, of which Invisible, indeed, his life is properly the bodying forth. Carlyle.
Man thinks he has an estate of reputation, and is glad to see one that will bring any of it home to him; it is no matter how dirty a bag it is conveyed to him in, or by how clownish a messenger, so the money is good. Steele.
Man! / Thou pendulum betwixt a smile and a tear. Byron.
Man, though, as Swift has it, "a forked straddling animal with bandy legs," yet is also a spirit, and unutterable mystery of mysteries. Carlyle.
Man unconnected is at home everywhere, 15 unless he may be said to be at home nowhere. Johnson.
Man verändert sich oft und bessert sich selten—People change often enough, but seldom for the better. Ger. Pr.
Man wants but little here below, / Nor wants that little long. Goldsmith.
Man was created to work—not to speculate, or feel, or dream. Carlyle.
Man were better relate himself to a statue or picture than to suffer his thoughts to pass in smother. Bacon.
Man, while he loves, is never quite depraved. 20 Lamb.
Man, who lives to die, dies to live well, / So if he guide his ways by blamelessness / And earnest will to hinder not, but help, / All things both great and small which suffer life. Sir Edwin Arnold.
Man wird nie betrogen; man betrügt sich selbst—We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves. Goethe.
Man without patience is the lamp without oil, and pride in a rage is a bad counsellor. A. de Musset.
Man without self-restraint is like a barrel without hoops, and tumbles to pieces. Ward Beecher.
Man yields to custom as he bows to fate, / 25 In all things ruled—mind, body, and estate; / In pain, in sickness, we for cure apply / To them we know not, and we know not why. Crabbe.
Man's activity is all too fain to relax; he soon gets fond of unconditional repose. Goethe.
Man's best candle is his understanding. Pr.
Man's body and his mind are exactly like a jerkin and a jerkin's lining—rumple the one, you rumple the other. Sterne.
Man's conviction should be strong, and so well timed that worldly advantages may seem to have no share in it. Addison.
Man's extremity is God's opportunity. Pr. 30
Man's first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart; his next, to escape the censures of the world. Addison.
Man's grand fault is, and remains, that he has so many small ones. Jean Paul.
Man's grief is but his grandeur in disguise, and discontent is immortality. Young.
Man's gullability is not his worst blessing. Carlyle.
Man's heart eats all things, and is hungry 35 still. Young.
Man's highest merit always is as much as possible to rule external circumstances, and as little as possible to let himself be ruled by them. Goethe.
Man's history is little else than a narrative of designs that have failed and hopes that have been disappointed. Johnson.
Man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn. Burns.
Man's liberty ends, and it ought to end, when that liberty becomes the curse of his neighbours. Farrar.
Man's life and nature is as it was, and as it 40 will ever be. Carlyle.
Man's life is a progress, and not a station. Emerson.
Man's life is an appendix to his heart. South.
Man's life is filed by his foe. Pr.
Man's life is never anything but an ever-vanishing present. Schopenhauer.
Man's life is not an affair of mere instinct, but 45 of steady self-control. Goethe.
Man's life never was a sport to him; it was a stern reality—altogether a serious matter to be alive. Carlyle.
Man's life now, as of old, is the genuine work of God; wherever there is a man, a God also is revealed, and all that is godlike; a whole epitome of the Infinite, with its meanings, lies enfolded in the life of every man. Carlyle.
Man's love is of man's life a thing apart; / 'Tis woman's whole existence. Byron.
Man's obligations do not tend toward the past. We know of nothing that binds us to what is behind: our duty lies ahead. C. Richet.
Man's only true happiness is to live in Hope of something to be won by him, in Reverence of something to be worshipped by him, and in Love of something to be cherished by him, and cherished—for ever. Ruskin.
Man's own heart must be ever given to gain that of another. Goldsmith.
Man's own judgment is the proper rule and measure of his actions. Thomas à Kempis.
Man's philosophies are usually the "supplement 5 of his practice;" some ornamental logic-varnish, some outer skin of articulate intelligence, with which he strives to render his dumb instinctive doings presentable when they are done. Carlyle.
Man's second childhood begins when a woman gets hold of him. J. M. Barrie.
Man's spiritual nature is essentially one and indivisible. Carlyle.
Man's true, genuine estimate, / The grand criterion of his fate, / Is not—Art thou high or low? / Did thy fortune ebb or flow? Burns.
Man's unhappiness, as I construe, comes of his greatness; it is because there is an Infinite in him, which, with all his cunning, he cannot quite bury under the finite. Carlyle.
Man's walk, like all walking, is a series of 10 falls. Carlyle.
Man's word is God in man. Tennyson.
Man's work lasts till set of sun; / Woman's work is never done. Pr.
Manche gingen nach Licht und stürzten in tiefere Nacht nur; sicher im Dämmerschein wandelt die Kindheit dahin—Many have gone in quest of light and fallen into deeper darkness; whereas childhood walks on secure in the twilight. Schiller.
Mancher wähnt sich frei, und siehet / Nicht die Bande, die ihn schnüren—Many a one thinks himself free and sees not the bands that bind him. Rückert.
Mandamus—We enjoin. A writ issuing from the 15 Queen's Bench, commanding certain things to be done. L.
Manebant vestigia morientis libertatis—There still remained traces of expiring liberty. Tac.
Manège—Riding-house; horsemanship. Fr.
Manet alta mente repostum, / Judicium Paridis spretæque injuria formæ—Deep seated in her mind remains the judgment of Paris, and the wrong done to her slighted beauty. Virg., of Juno's vengeance.
Mange-tout—A spendthrift (lit. eat-all). Fr.
Manhood begins joyfully and hopefully, not 20 when we have made a truce with necessity, or even surrendered to it, but only when we have reconciled ourselves to it, and learned to feel that in necessity we are free. Carlyle.
Manhood, when verging into age, grows thoughtful, / Full of wise saws and modern instances. As You Like It, ii. 7.
Manibus pedibusque—With hands and feet; with tooth and nail.
Manibus victoria dextris—Victory by my right hand. M.
Manifold is human strife, / Human passion, human pain; / Yet many blessings still are rife, / And many pleasures still remain. Goethe.
Mankind are earthen jugs with spirits in them. 25 Hawthorne.
Mankind are unco' weak, / And little to be trusted; / If self the wavering balance shake, / It's rarely right adjusted. Burns.
Mankind at large alway resemble frivolous children; they are impatient of thought, and wish to be amused. Emerson.
"Mankind follow their several bell-wethers; and if you hold a stick before the wether, so that he is forced to vault in his passage, the whole flock will do the like when the stick is withdrawn; and the thousandth sheep will be seen vaulting impetuously over air, as the first did over an otherwise impassable barrier." Carlyle, quoting Jean Paul.
Mankind in general agree in testifying their devotion, their gratitude, their friendship, or their love, by presenting whatever they hold dearest. Burns.
Mankind is a science that defies definitions. 30 Burns.
Mankind suffer to this hour, and will for long, as is like, because they do not know what to make of the fire of Prometheus. He dared to purloin from the gods and commit into the hands of ordinary men an element (fire), which, as the result has shown, only gods and their wise-hearted offspring can with safety handle. Ed.
Mankind will never lack obstacles to give it trouble, and the pressure of necessity to develop its powers. Goethe.
Manliana—A Manlian, i.e., a harsh and severe sentence, such as that of Titus Manlius, who ordered his son to be scourged and beheaded for fighting contrary to orders.
Männer richten nach Gründen; des Weibes Urteil ist seine Liebe; wo es nicht liebt, hat schon gerichtet das Weib—Men judge on rational grounds; the woman's judgment is her love; where the woman does not love, she has judged. Schiller.
Manners are not idle, but the fruit / Of loyal 35 nature and of noble mind. Tennyson.
Manners are of more importance than laws; upon them in a great measure laws depend. Burke.
Manners are stronger than laws. Pr.
Manners are the happy ways of doing things; each once a stroke of genius or of love, now repeated and hardened into a usage. Emerson.
Manners are the root, laws only the branches. Horace Mann.
Manners are the shadows of virtues, the 40 momentary display of those qualities which our fellow-creatures love and respect. Sydney Smith.
Manners carry the world for the moment, character for all time. A. B. Alcott.
Manners easily and rapidly mature into morals. Horace Mann.
Manners make laws, manners likewise repeal them. Johnson.
Manners must adorn knowledge, and smooth its way through the world. Like a great rough diamond, it may do very well in a closet by way of curiosity, and also for its intrinsic value. Chesterfield.
Männliche, tüchtige Geister werden durch Erkennen eines Irrthums erhöht und gestärkt—Sturdy manly souls are exalted and strengthened in the presence of (lit. by the knowledge of) an error. Goethe.
[Greek: Mantis d' aristos hostis eikazei kalôs]—He is the best diviner who conjectures well. Eurip.
Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc / Parthenope. Cecini pascua, rura, duces—Mantua bore me, Calabria carried me off, Naples holds me now. I sang of pastures, fields and heroes. Virgil's epitaph.
Mantua, væ! miseræ nimium vicina Cremonæ—Mantua, 5 alas! too near the unhappy Cremona. Quoted by Dean Swift on seeing a lady sweep a violin off a table with her dress.
Manu forti—With a strong hand. M.
Manu scriptum—Written by the hand.
Manufacture is intelligible but trivial; creation is great and cannot be understood. Carlyle.
Manum de tabula!—Hand off the picture! i.e., leave off touching up.
Manum non verterim, digitum non porrexerim—I 10 would not turn my hand or stretch out my finger. Cic.
Manus e nubibus—Hand from the clouds.
Manus hæc inimica tyrannis—This hand is hostile to tyrants. M.
Manus manum lavat—One hand washes the other.
Many a cow stands in the meadow and looks wistfully at the common. Pr.
Many a dangerous temptation comes to us 15 in fine gay colours that are but skin-deep. Henry.
Many a discord betwixt man and man the returning seasons soften by degrees into sweetest harmony; but that which bridges over the greatest gap is Love, whose charm unites the earth with heaven above. Goethe.
Many a father might say, ... "I put in gold into the furnace, and there came out this calf." Spurgeon.
Many a fine dish has nothing on it. Pr.
Many a genius has been of slow growth. Oaks, that flourish for a thousand years, do not spring up into beauty like a reed. G. H. Lewis.
Many a good cow hath a bad calf. Pr. 20
Many a good drop of broth may come out of an old pot. Pr.
Many a good father hath but a bad son. Pr.
Many a hand moulded by Nature to give elegance of form to a kid glove is "stinted of its fair proportion" by grubbing toil. S. Lover.
Many a man is mad in certain instances, and goes through life without having perceived it. Johnson.
Many a man settleth more by an inch of his 25 will than by an ell of his thrift. Pr.
Many a man's vices have at first been nothing worse than good qualities run wild. Hare.
Many a meandering discourse one hears, in which the preacher aims at nothing, and—hits it. Whately.
Many a one is good because he can do no mischief. Pr.
Many a one labours for the day he will never live to see. Dan. Pr.
Many a one threatens while he quakes for 30 fear. It. and Ger. Pr.
Many a seeming farce played on the great stage of the world is in reality a tragedy, if we could but see into the heart of it. Anon.
Many a true word is spoken in jest. Pr.
Many a young damsel has been ruined by a fine copy of verses, which she would have laughed at if she had known it had been stolen from Mr. Waller. Lady Montagu.
Many acquaintances, but few friends. Johnson.
Many acres will not make a wiseacre. Pr. 35
Many an honest man stands in need of help that has not the face to beg it. Pr.
Many an irksome noise, when a long way off, is heard as music. Thoreau.
Many and many a heart of woman, who has not uttered a word during her whole life, has felt more truly and intensely than the poet that has sung most sweetly. Renan.
Many are called but few chosen. Jesus.
Many are idly busy. Domitian was busy, but 40 then it was catching flies. Jeremy Taylor.
Many are wise in jest but fools in earnest. Pr.
Many arrive at second masters / Upon their first lord's neck. Tim. of Athens, iv. 3.
Many beat the sack, and mean the miller. Pr.
Many books owe their success to the good memories of their authors and the bad memories of their readers. Colton.
Many by-walks, many balks; many balks, 45 much stumbling. Latimer.
Many can argue, not many converse. A. B. Alcott.
Many can bear adversity, but few contempt. Pr.
Many can brook the weather that love not the wind. Love's L. Lost, iv. 2.
Many can make bricks, but cannot build. Pr.
Many causes that can plead well for themselves 50 in the courts of Westminster, have yet in the general court of the universe and free soul of man no word to utter. Carlyle.
Many children, many cares; no children, no felicity. Bovee.
Many commit sin and blame Satan. Pr.
Many cooks spoil the broth. Pr.
Many cut broad thongs out of other people's leather. Pr.
Many deceive themselves, imagining to find 55 happiness in change. Thomas à Kempis.
Many delight more in giving of presents than in paying their debts. Sir P. Sidney.
Many estates are spent in the getting, / Since women, for tea, forsook spinning and knitting, / And men, for their punch, forsook hewing and splitting. Pr.
Many find fault without any end, / And yet do nothing at all to mend. Pr.
Many flowers open to the sun, but only one follows him constantly. Heart, be thou the sunflower, not only open to receive God's blessing, but constant in looking to Him. Jean Paul.
Many get into a dispute well that cannot get out well. Pr.
Many go in quest of wool, and come back shorn. Ger. Pr.
Many go out for clothes, and come home stript. Pr.
Many good purposes lie in the churchyard. Philip Henry.
Many hands make light work. Pr. 5
Many have been harmed by speech; through thinking, few or none. Lord Vaux.
Many have been ruined by buying good penny-worths. Pr.
Many have been ruined by their fortunes; many have escaped ruin by the want of fortune. To obtain it, the great have become little, and the little great. Zimmermann.
Many have come to port after a great storm. Pr.
Many have genius, / But, wanting art, are for 10 ever dumb. Longfellow.
Many have the talents which would make them poets if they had the genius; a few have the genius yet want the talents. J. Sterling.
Many have too much, but none enough. Dan. Pr.
Many hope that the tree may be felled who expect to gather chips by the fall. Fuller.
Many indifferent things which men originally did from a motive of some sort, they continue to do from habit. J. S. Mill.
Many kinds of books are permissible, but 15 there is one kind that is not permissible, the kind that has nothing in it—le genre ennuyeux (the kind that bore you). Carlyle.
Many kiss the hand they wish cut off. Pr.
Many lick before they bite. Pr.
Many littles make a mickle. Pr.
Many are fain to praise what is right and do what is wrong. Dan. Pr.
Many men and women spend their lives in 20 unsuccessful attempts to spin the flax God sends them upon a wheel they can never use. J. G. Holland.
Many men attain a knowledge of what is perfect, and of their own insufficiency, and go on doing things by halves to the end of their days. Goethe.
Many men fancy that what they experience they also understand. Goethe.
Many men have been capable of doing a wise thing, more a cunning thing, but very few a generous thing. Alex. Pope.
Many men, in all ages, have triumphed over death, and led it captive; converting its physical victory into a moral victory for themselves, into a zeal and immortal consecration for all that their past life had achieved. Carlyle.
Many men involve themselves deeper in temptations 25 by being too solicitous to decline them. Thomas à Kempis.
Many men know how to flatter; few men know how to praise. Wendell Phillips.
Many men love in themselves what they hate in others. Benzel Sternan.
Many men spend their lives in gazing at their own shadows, and so dwindle away into shadows thereof. Hare.
Many of our troubles are God dragging us, and they would end if we would stand upon our feet, and go whither He would have us. Ward Beecher.
Many of sounding name from Jamblicus down 30 to Aubrey have wasted their time in devising imaginary remedies for non-existing diseases. Scott.
Many of the supposed increasers of knowledge have only given a new name, and often a worse, to what was well known before. Hare.
Many old camels carry the skins of the young ones to the market. Pr.
Many people are sincere without being simple. They do not wish to be taken for other than they are; and they always fear lest they should be taken for what they are not. Fénelon.
Many people place virtue more in regretting than in amendment. Lichtenberg.
Many people take no care of their money till 35 they have come nearly to an end of it, and others do just the same with their time. Goethe.
Many people think of knowledge as of money. They would like knowledge, but cannot face the perseverance and self-denial that go to the acquisition of it. John Morley.
Many readers judge of the power of a book by the shock it gives their feelings. Longfellow.
Many rendings need many mendings. Pr.
Many sacrifices have been made just to enjoy the feeling of vengeance, without any intention of causing an amount of injury equivalent to what one has suffered. Schopenhauer.
Many see more with one eye than others with 40 two. Ger. Pr.
Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. Bible.
Many so spend their whole term, and in ever-new expectation, ever-new disappointment, shift from enterprise to enterprise, and from side to side, till at length, as exasperated striplings of threescore and ten, they shift into their last enterprise, that of getting buried. Carlyle.
Many speak the truth when they say that they despise riches and preferment; but they mean the riches and preferment possessed by other men. Colton.
Many strokes, though with a little axe, / Hew down and fell the hardest timber'd oak. 3 Hen. VI., ii. 1.
Many talk like philosophers and live like fools. 45 Pr.
Many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first. Jesus.
Many there be that buy nothing with their money but repentance. Pr.
Many things are too delicate to be thought; many more to be spoken. Novalis.
Many things difficult to design prove easy of performance. Johnson.
Many things there are / That we may hope to 50 win with violence; / While others only can become our own / Through moderation and wise self-restraint. / Such is virtue; such is love. Goethe.
Many times death passeth with less pain than the torture of a limb; for the most vital parts are not the quickest of sense. Bacon.
Many ventures make a full freight. Pr.
Many walk into the battle and are carried out of it. Fielding.
Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it. Bible.
Many words hurt more than swords. Pr. 5
Many would be cowards if they had courage enough. Pr.
Many would have been worse if their estates had been better. Pr.
Many young persons believe themselves natural when they are really ill-mannered and coarse. La Roche.
Mar not what, marred, cannot be mended. Pr.
March dust is a thing / Worth ransom of a 10 king. Old saw.
March winds and April showers. Pr.
Marchand qui perd ne peut rire—The dealer who loses is not the one to laugh. Dandin.
Marchandise de rencontre—Second-hand goods. Fr.
Marchandise qui plait est à demie vendue—Goods which please are half sold. Fr. Pr.
Mare apertum—A sea open to commerce. 15
Mare clausum—A sea closed to commerce.
Mare cœlo miscere—To confound sea and sky.
Mare ditat, rosa decorat—The sea enriches, the rose adorns. M.
Mare quidem commune certo est omnibus—The sea surely is common to all. Plaut.
Margarita e stercore—A pearl from a dunghill. 20 Pr.
Maria montesque polliceri cœpit—He began to promise seas and mountains. Sall.
Mariage de convenance—A marriage from considerations of advantage. Fr.
Marie ton fils quand tu voudras, mais ta fille quand tu pourras—Marry your son when you like, your daughter when you can. Fr. Pr.
Mark if his birth makes any difference, if to his words it adds one grain of sense. Dryden.
Mark what another says; for many are / 25 Full of themselves, and answer their own notion. / Take all into thee; then with equal care / Balance each chain of reason, like a potion. George Herbert.
Marmoreo Licinus tumulo jacet, at Cato parvo, / Pompeius nullo. Quis putet esse deos? / Saxa premunt Licinum, levat altum Fama Catonem, / Pompeium tituli. Credimus esse deos—Licinus lies in a marble tomb, Cato in a humble one, Pompey in none. Who can believe that the gods exist? Ans.—Heavy lies the stone on Licinus; Fame raises Cato on high; his glories, Pompey. We believe that the gods do exist.
Marriage, by making us more contented, causes us often to be less enterprising. Bovee.
Marriage comes unawares, like a soot-drop. Irish Pr.
Marriage, indeed, may qualify the fury of his passion, but it very rarely mends a man's manners. Congreve.
Marriage is a desperate thing. The frogs in 30 Æsop were extremely wise; they had a great mind to some water, but they would not leap into the well, because they could not get out again. Selden.
Marriage is the best state for man in general; and every man is a worse man in proportion as he is unfit for the married state. Johnson.
Marriage is the bloom or blight of all men's happiness. Byron.
Marriage is the feast where the grace is better than the dinner. Colton.
Marriage is the mother of the world, and preserves kingdoms, and fills cities and churches, and heaven itself. Jeremy Taylor.
Marriage must be a relation either of sympathy 35 or of conquest. George Eliot.
Marriage with peace is the world's paradise; with strife, this life's purgatory. Pr.
Marriages are best of dissimilar material. Theo. Parker.
Marriages are made in heaven. Pr.
Married couples resemble a pair of scissors, often moving in opposite directions, yet always punishing any one who comes between them. Sydney Smith.
Married in haste, we may repent at leisure. 40 Congreve.
Marry above your match, and you get a master. Pr.
Marry and grow tame. Sp. Pr.
Marry for love and work for siller. Sc. Pr.
Marry for love, but only love that which is lovely. Pr.
Marrying is easy, but housekeeping is hard. 45 Pr.
Mars gravior sub pace latet—A more serious war lies concealed under a show of peace. Claud.
Martem accendere cantu—To waken up the war-spirit by his note. Virg.
Mas vale buen amigo que pariente primo—A good friend is better than a near relation. Sp. Pr.
Masses are rude, lame, unmade, pernicious in their demands and influence, and need not to be flattered, but to be schooled. Emerson.
Mässigkeit und klarer Himmel sind Apollo 50 und die Musen—Moderation and a clear sky are Apollo and the Muses. Goethe.
Masters are mostly the greatest servants in the house. Pr.
Masters should be sometimes blind and sometimes deaf. Pr.
Masters two / Will not do. Pr.
Mastery passes often for egotism. Goethe.
Match-makers often burn their fingers. Pr. 55
Mater artium necessitas—Necessity is the mother of invention (lit. the arts).
Mater familias—The mother of a family.
Materia medica—Substances used in medicine; therapeutics.
Materia prima—The primary substance or substrate.
Materialism coarsens and petrifies everything; 60 makes everything vulgar, and every truth false. Amiel.
Materiem, qua sis ingeniosus, habes—You have a subject on which to show your ingenuity. Ovid.
Materiem superabat opus—The workmanship surpassed the material. Ovid.
Mathematic form is eternal in the reasoning memory; living form is eternal existence. Wm. Blake.
Mathematics can remove no prejudices and soften no obduracy. It has no influence in sweetening the bitter strife of parties, and in the moral world generally its action is perfectly null. Goethe.
[Greek: mathousin audô, kou mathousi lêthomai]—I speak to experts; those who are not I ignore. Æsch.
Matinée—A morning recital or performance. 5 Fr.
Matrimony, the high sea for which no compass has yet been invented. Heine.
Matter exists only spiritually, and to represent some idea and body it forth. Carlyle.
Matter, were it never so despicable, is spirit, the manifestation of spirit: were it never so honourable, can it be more? Carlyle.
Mature fieri senem, si diu velis esse senex—You must become an old man soon if you would be an old man long. Pr. in Cic.
Maulesel treiben viel Parlaren / Dass ihre 10 Voreltern Pferde waren—Mules boast much that their ancestors were horses. Ger. Pr.
Mauvaise honte—False shame. Fr.
Mauvaise langue—A slanderous tongue. Fr.
Mauvais pas—A scrape; a difficulty. Fr.
Mauvais sujet—A bad or worthless fellow. Fr.
Mauvais ton—Bad manners. Fr. 15
Maxim or aphorism, let us remember that this wisdom of life is the true salt of literature; that those books are most nourishing which are most richly stored with it, and that it is one of the main objects ... which men ought to seek in the reading of books. John Morley.
Maxima debetur pueris reverentia—The greatest respect is due to youth (lit. our boys). Juv.
Maxima illecebra est peccandi impunitatis spes—The greatest incitement to guilt is the hope of sinning with impunity. Cic.
Maxima quæque domus servis est plena superbis—Every great house is full of haughty servants. Juv.
Maximas virtutes jacere omnes necesse est, 20 voluptate dominante—Where pleasure prevails, all the greatest virtues must lie dormant. Cic.
Maxims are to the intellect what laws are to actions; they do not enlighten, but they guide and direct. Joubert.
Maximum remedium iræ dilatio est!—Deferring of anger is the best antidote to anger. Seneca.
Maximus in minimis—Very great in very little things.
Maximus novator tempus—Time is the greatest innovator. Pr.
"May-be" is very well, but "must" is the 25 master. Pr.
May cauld ne'er catch you but a hap, / Nor hunger but in plenty's lap. Burns.
May never wicked fortune touzle (tease) him! / May never wicked man bamboozle him! / Until a pow as auld's Methusalem / He canty (cheerily) claw. / Then to the blessed New Jerusalem / Fleet wing awa'! Burns.
May the idea of pureness, extending itself even to the very morsel which I take into my mouth, become ever dearer and more luminous within me. Goethe.
Me judice—In my opinion or judgment.
Me justum esse gratis oportet—It is my duty 30 to show justice without recompense. Sen.
[Greek: Mê kaka kerdainein; kaka kerdea is' atêsin]—Do not make evil gains; evil gains are equal to losses. Hesiod.
[Greek: Mê kinei Kamarinan]—Don't stir Lake Camarina (otherwise pestilence).
Me miseram, quod amor non est medicabilis herbis!—Oh, unhappy me, that there should be no herbs to cure love!
Me nemo ministro / Fur erit—No one shall play the thief with my help. Juv.
Me non solum piget stultitiæ meæ, sed etiam 35 pudet—I am not only annoyed at my folly, I am ashamed of it. L.
Me, poor man, my library was dukedom large enough. Tempest, i. 1.
Me (they will kill) when they are mad, but you when they recover their reason. Phocion to Demosthenes, who had threatened him with death at the hands of his fellow-citizens.
Mea virtute me involvo—I wrap myself in my virtue. Hor.
Meal is finer than grain; women are finer than men. Gael. Pr.
Meals and matins minish never. Pr. 40
Mean spirits under disappointment, like small beer in a thunderstorm, always turn sour. Randolph.
Measure men around the heart. Pr.
Measure not by a scale of perfection the meagre product of reality. Schiller.
Measure three times before you cut once. Pr.
Measure your cloth ten times; you can cut 45 it but once. Russ. Pr.
Measures, not men, have always been my mark. Goldsmith.
Meat and matins hinder no man's journey. Pr.
Meat is devoured by the birds in the air, by the beasts in the fields, and by the fishes in the waters; so, in every situation, there is plenty. Hitopadesa.
Meat is more than its carving, and truth is more than oratory. Pr.
Mecum facile redeo in gratiam—I easily recover 50 my good-will myself. Phædr.
[Greek: mêden agan]—No excess. Anon.
[Greek: Mêdena kakêgoreito mêdeis]—Let nobody speak mischief of anybody. Plato.
Medici, causa morbi inventa, curationem inventam putant—Physicians, when they have found out the cause of a disease, consider they have found out the cure. Cic.
Medicines are not meant to feed on. Pr.
Medio de fonte leporam / Surgit amari aliquid 55 quod in ipsis floribus angat—From the midst of the very fountain of delight something bitter arises to vex us even amid the flowers themselves. Lucret.
Medio tutissimus ibis—You will go most safely in the middle. Ovid.
Médiocre et rampant, et l'on arrive à tout—Be second-rate and fawning, and you may attain to anything. Beaumarchais.
Mediocria firma—The middle station is the most secure. M.
Mediocribus esse poetis / Non Di, non homines, non concessere columnæ—Mediocrity in poets is condemned by gods and men, and booksellers too. Hor.
Mediocrity can talk, but it is for genius to observe. I. Disraeli.
Mediocrity is not allowed to poets either by gods or men. Hor.
Mediocrity of enjoyment only is allowed to 5 man. Blair.
Meditation has taught all men in all ages that this world is after all but a show—a phenomenon or appearance, no real thing. Carlyle.
Meditation is a busy search in the storehouse of phantasy for some ideas of matters to be cast in the moulds of resolution into some forms of words and action; in which search I find this is the best conclusion, that to meditate on the best is the best of meditations, and a resolution to make a good end is a good end of my resolutions. A. Warwick.
Meditation is the life of the soul; action, the soul of meditation; honour, the reward of action. Quarles.
Meditation is the soul's perspective glass, whereby in her long removes she discerneth God as if he were nearer at hand. Feltham.
Medium tenuere beati!—Happy they who 10 steadily pursue a middle course.
Meekness is not mere white-facedness, a mere contemplative virtue; it is maintaining peace and patience in the midst of pelting provocations. Ward Beecher.
Meekness is not weakness. Pr.
Meekness is the bridle of anger. Saying.
Meekness is the cherish'd bent / Of all the truly great and all the innocent. Wordsworth.
[Greek: Mega biblion mega kakon]—A great book is a 15 great evil. Callimachus.
Meglio amici da lontano che nemici d'appresso—Better be friends at a distance than enemies near each other. It. Pr.
Meglio solo che mal accompagnato—Better alone than in bad company. It. Pr.
Meglio tardi che mai—Better late than never. It. Pr.
Mehr Leute beten die aufgehende, als die untergehende Sonne an—More people pay homage to the rising than to the setting sun. Jean Paul.
Mehr Licht!—More light! Goethe's last words. (?) 20
Meikle crack fills nae sack. Sc. Pr.
Mein einz'ger Wunsch ist meiner Wünsche Ruhe—My only wish is that my wishes should be at rest. Rückert.
Mein erst Gesetz ist, in der Welt / Die Frager zu vermeiden—A first rule of mine is to avoid the inquiring class of people. Goethe.
Mein Herz gleicht ganz dem Meere, / Hat Sturm und Ebb' und Flut, / Und manche schöne Perle / In seiner Tiefe ruht—My heart altogether resembles the sea; it has its storms, its ebbs and floods, and far down in its quiet depths rests many a shining pearl. Heine.
Mein Leben ist für Gold nicht feil—My life is 25 not to be bartered away for gold. Bürger.
Mein Leipzig lob' ich mir! / Es ist klein Paris, und bildet seine Leute—Leipzig for me! It is quite a little Paris, and its people acquire an easy finished air (lit. it fashions its people). Goethe.
Mein Pathos brächte dich gewiss zum Lachen, / Hätt'st du dir nicht das Lachen abgewöhnt—My pathos would surely provoke you to mirth, if you had not long ago forborne to smile. Mephisto to the Lord, in Goethe's "Faust."
Mein Ruh' ist hin, / Mein Herz ist schwer; / Ich finde sie nimmer / Und nimmermehr—My peace is gone; my heart is heavy; I shall find it (peace) never and nevermore. Gretchen in Goethe's "Faust."
Mein Sohn, nichts in der Welt ist unbedeutend. / Das erste aber und Hauptsächlichste / Bei allem ird'schen Ding ist Ort und Stunde—My son, nothing in this world is without significance, but the first and most essential matter in every earthly thing is the place where and the hour when. Schiller.