Mein Wille ist rein, das weitere gebe ich der 30 Vorsehung anheim!—My intention is pure; the rest I leave in the hands of Providence. Frederick William II. of Prussia.
Meine Herren, did you never hear of the man that vilified the sun because it would not light his cigar? Carlyle's challenge to certain canting pietistic depreciators of Goethe.
Meine Zeit in Unruhe, meine Hoffnung in Gott!—The time I live in is a time of turmoil; my hope is in God. Frederick William III. of Prussia.
Meiner Idee nach ist Energie die erste und einzige Tugend des Menschen—In my regard energy is the first and only virtue of man. W. v. Humboldt.
Meines Lebens Wunsch ist stiller Friede—The wish of my life is a tranquil peace. Seume.
Mel in ore, verba lactis, / Fel in corde, fraus in 35 factis—Honey in his mouth, words of milk; gall in his heart, deceit in his deeds.
Melancholy advanceth men's conceits more than any humour whatever. Burton.
Melancholy attends on the best joys of a merely ideal life. Margaret Fuller.
Melancholy is the pleasure of being sad. Victor Hugo.
Melancholy spreads itself betwixt heaven and earth, like envy between man and man, and is an everlasting mist. Byron.
[Greek: Meletê to pan]—Practice is everything. Periander. 40
Melior est conditio possidentis—The condition of the party in possession, or the defendant, is the better of the two. L.
Melior tutiorque est certa pax, quam sperata victoria—A certain peace is better and safer than an expected victory. L.
Meliora sunt ea quæ natura, quam quæ arte perfecta sunt—The things which are perfect by nature are better than those which are perfect by art. Cic.
Meliores priores—The better first. L.
Melioribus auspiciis—Under more favourable 45 auspices.
Melius est pati semel, quam cavere semper—It is better to suffer once than to be in perpetual apprehension. Jul. Cæs.
Melius est peccata cavere quam mortem fugere—It is better to avoid sin than to fly from death. Thomas à Kempis.
Melius, pejus, prosit, obsit, nil vident nisi quod libuerit—Better or worse, for good or for harm, they see nothing but what they please. Ter.
Mellitum venenum, blanda oratio—A flattering speech is honied poison. Pr.
Membra reformidant mollem quoque saucia tactum; / Vanaque sollicitis incutit umbra metum—The wounded limb shrinks from even a gentle touch, and the unsubstantial shadow strikes the timid with alarm. Ovid.
Même quand l'oiseau marche, on sent qu'il a des ailes—Even when a bird walks, we may see that it has wings. Fr. Pr.
Meminerunt omnia amantes—Lovers remember 5 everything. Ovid.
Memini etiam quæ nolo: oblivisci non possum quæ volo—I remember what I would not, and I cannot forget what I would. Themistocles.
Memor et fidelis—Mindful and faithful. M.
Memorabilia—Things to be remembered or recorded.
Memorem immemorem facit, qui monet quod memor meminit—He who reminds a man with a good memory of what he remembers, makes him forget. Plaut.
Memoria in æterna—In eternal remembrance. 10 M.
Memoria minuitur, nisi eam exerceas—Your power of recollection will wax feeble unless you exercise it. Cic.
Memoriter—By rote.
Memory always obeys the commands of the heart. Rivarol.
Memory, and thou, Forgetfulness, not yet / Your powers in happy harmony I find; / One oft recalls what I would fain forget, / And one blots out what I would bear in mind. Macedonius.
Memory is a Muse in herself; or rather the 15 mother of the Muses. (?)
Memory is like a purse: if it be over-full, that it cannot be shut, all will drop out of it. Fuller.
Memory is not so brilliant as hope, but it is more beautiful, and a thousand times more true. G. D. Prentice.
Memory is the cabinet of imagination, the treasury of reason, the registry of conscience, and the council-chamber of thought. Basile.
Memory is the conservative faculty. Sir Wm. Hamilton.
Memory is the friend of wit, but the treacherous 20 ally of invention. Colton.
Memory is the golden thread linking all the mental gifts and excellencies together. E. P. Hood.
Memory (Erinnerung) is the only paradise out of which we cannot be driven. Jean Paul.
Memory is the primary and fundamental power, without which there could be no other intellectual operation. Johnson.
Memory is the scribe of the soul. Arist.
Memory, of all things good remind us still: / 25 Forgetfulness, obliterate all that's ill. Macedonius.
Memory tempers prosperity, mitigates adversity, controls youth, and delights old age. Lactantius.
Memory, the warder of the brain. Macb., i. 7.
Men and communities in this world are often in the position of Arctic explorers, who are making great speed in a given direction, while the ice-floe beneath them is making greater speed in the opposite. John Burroughs.
Men and cucumbers are worth nothing as soon as they are ripe. Jean Paul.
Men and pyramids are not made to stand on 30 their head. G. K. Pfeffel.
Men and women who "grill" over the petty annoyances incident to existence, and inseparable from it, go to ruin like a careworn cat. C. J. Dunphie.
Men apt to promise are apt to forget. Pr.
Men are April when they woo, December when they wed. As You Like It, iv. 1.
Men are as the time is. Lear, v. 3.
Men are at best only stewards, and they are 35 very select men indeed who are elected of heaven to this honour. The most want the necessary discrimination, and are in their place only when, like Athenian maidens, "bearers of the basket." Ed.
Men are but children of a larger growth; / Our appetites are apt to change as theirs, / And full as craving too, and full as vain. Dryden.
Men are content to be brushed like flies from the path of a great person, so that justice shall be done by him to that common nature which it is the dearest desire of all to see enlarged and glorified. Emerson.
Men are contented to be laughed at for their wit, but not for their folly. Swift.
Men are enlisted for the labour that kills; let them be enlisted for the labour that feeds; and let the captains of the latter be held as much gentlemen as the captains of the former. Ruskin.
Men are eternally divided into the two classes 40 of poet (or believer, maker, and praiser), and dunce (or unbeliever, unmaker, and dispraiser). Ruskin.
Men are everything, measures are comparatively nothing. Canning.
Men are generally more careful of the breed of their horses and dogs than of their children. W. Penn.
Men are happy in proportion as their range of vision, their sphere of action, and their points of contact with the world are restricted and circumscribed. Schopenhauer.
Men are impatient and for precipitating things; but the Author of Nature appears deliberate throughout his operations, accomplishing his natural ends by slow successive steps. Bishop Butler.
Men are in general so tricky, so envious, and 45 so cruel, that when we find one who is only weak, we are too happy. Voltaire.
Men are led by trifles. Napoleon.
Men are less afraid of injuring one who awakens love than one who inspires fear. Machiavelli.
Men are like flies—for men are insects too, / Little in mind, howe'er our bodies run!—/ We're all in sects: in sects that hate each other, / And deem it love of God to hate one's brother. Edward Irwin.
Men are like sheep, of which a flock is more easily driven than a single one. Whately.
Men are made by nature unequal: it is vain, therefore, to treat them as if they were equal. Froude.
Men are men; the best sometimes forget. Othello, ii. 3.
Men are more inclined to ask curious questions than to obtain necessary instruction. Pasquier Quesnel.
Men are most apt to believe what they least understand. Pliny.
Men are mostly so slow, their thoughts overrun 5 'em, an' they can only catch 'em by the tail. George Eliot.
Men are much in disposition and feelings according to the nature of the country which they inhabit. Polybius.
Men are much more prone (the greater is the pity) both to speak and believe ill than well of their neighbours. Thomas à Kempis.
Men are never so easily deceived as while they are endeavouring to deceive others. La Roche.
Men are never wise but returning from law. Pr.
Men are not always what they seem to be. 10 Lessing.
Men are not influenced by things, but by their thoughts about things. Epictetus.
Men are not leaning willows, but can and must detach themselves. Emerson.
Men are not put into this world to be everlastingly fiddled on by the fingers of joy. Ward Beecher.
Men are not so ungrateful as they are said to be. If they are often complained of, it generally happens that the benefactor claims more than he has given. Napoleon.
Men are not to be measured by inches. Pr. 15
Men are often capable of greater things than they perform. They are sent into the world with bills of credit, and seldom draw to their full extent. Walpole.
Men are oftener treacherous through weakness than design. La Roche.
Men are readier to forgive calumny than admonition (Ermahnung). Jean Paul.
Men are respectable only as they respect. Emerson.
Men are seldom blessed with good fortune and 20 good sense at the same time. Livy.
Men are seldom more innocently employed than when they are making money. Johnson.
Men are so constituted that everybody would rather undertake himself what he sees done by others, whether he has aptitude for it or not. Goethe.
Men are solitary among each other; no one will help his neighbour; each has even to assume a defensive attitude lest his neighbour should hinder him. Carlyle.
Men are tatooed with their special beliefs like so many South Sea islanders; but a real human heart, with divine love in it, beats with the same glow under all the patterns of all earth's thousand tribes. Holmes.
Men are the sport of circumstances, when 25 the circumstances seem the sport of men. Byron.
Men are unwiser than children; they do not know the hand that feeds them. Carlyle.
Men are very generous with that which costs them nothing. Pr.
Men are we, and must grieve when even the shade / Of that which once was great is passed away. Wordsworth.
Men are what their mothers made them. Emerson.
Men are wiser than they know. Emerson. 30
Men at most differ as heaven and earth, / But women, worst and best, as heaven and hell. Tennyson.
Men at some time are masters of their fate. Jul. Cæs., i. 2.
Men blush less for their crimes than for their weaknesses and vanities. La Bruyère.
Men can be estimated by those who know them not, only as they are represented by those who know them. Johnson.
Men / Can counsel, and speak comfort to that 35 grief / Which they themselves not feel; but, tasting it, / Their counsel turns to passion, which before / Would give preceptial medicine to rage, / Fetter strong madness in a silken thread, / Charm ache with air and agony with words. Much Ado, v. 1.
Men can make an idol of the Bible. Ward Beecher.
Men can see through a barn-door, they can. Perhaps that's the reason they can see so little o' this side on't. George Eliot.
Men cannot be well educated without the Bible. Dr. Nott.
Men cannot benefit those that are with them as they can benefit those that come after them; and of all the pulpits from which the human voice is ever sent forth, there is none from which it reaches so far as from the grave. Ruskin.
Men cannot live by lending money to each 40 other. Ruskin.
Men cannot live isolated; we are all bound together, for mutual good or else for mutual misery, as living nerves in the same body. No highest man can disunite himself from any lowest. Carlyle.
Men carry the head erect indeed, yet how mean and cringing are the thoughts within. Heine.
Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations. Emerson.
Men chew not when they have no bread. Pr.
Men commonly think according to their inclinations, 45 speak according to their learning and imbibed opinions, but generally act according to custom. Bacon.
Men complain of not finding a place of repose. They are in the wrong; they have it for seeking. What they indeed should complain of is, that the heart is an enemy to that very repose they seek. Goldsmith.
Men contemplate distinctions because they are stupefied with ignorance (viz., of the substantial identity of things). Eastern saying, quoted by Emerson.
Men deal with life as children with their play, / Who first misuse, then cast their toys away. Cowper.
Men deride what they do not understand, and snarl at the good and beautiful because it lies beyond their sympathies. Goethe.
Men descend to meet. Emerson.
Men do not make their homes unhappy because they have genius, but because they have not enough genius. Wordsworth.
Men don't and can't live by exchanging articles, but by producing them: they don't live by trade but by work. Ruskin.
Men dream in courtship, but in wedlock wake. Pope.
Men, elevated above all states, are now the 5 educators of states—dead men, for instance, like Plato. Jean Paul.
Men err from selfishness, women because they are weak. Mme. de Staël.
Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark. Bacon.
Men fear only him who does not know them, and he who shuns them will soon misjudge them. Goethe.
Men feed themselves rather upon illusion than upon truth. Amiel.
Men find it more easy to flatter than to praise. 10 Jean Paul.
Men have been wise in very different modes; but they have always laughed the same way. Johnson.
Men have but too much cause to secure themselves from men. Goethe.
Men have come to speak of the revelation as somewhat long ago given and done, as if God were dead. Emerson.
Men have many faults; / Poor women have but two; / There's nothing good they say, / And nothing right they do. Anon.
Men have their metal, as of gold and silver. 15 Koran.
Men in all ways are better than they seem. Emerson.
Men in general experience a great joy in colour. The eye needs it as much as it does light. Let any one recall the refreshing sensation one experiences when on a gloomy day the sun shines out on a particular spot on the landscape, and makes the colours of it visible. That healing powers were ascribed to coloured precious stones may have arisen out of the deep feeling of this inexpressible pleasure. Goethe.
Men in great place are thrice servants—servants of the sovereign or state, servants of fame, and servants of business. Bacon.
Men, in spite of all their failings, best deserve our affections of all that exists. Goethe.
Men learn behaviour, as they take diseases, 20 one of another. Emerson.
Men like advising the women better than doing right themselves. Spurgeon.
Men, like bullets, go farthest when they are smoothest. Jean Paul.
Men, like musical instruments, seem made to be played upon. Bovee.
Men, like peaches and pears, grow sweet a little while before they begin to decay. Holmes.
Men look to what people think of them; 25 women to what they say. Hippel.
Men love at first, and most warmly; women love last and longest. This is natural enough, for nature makes women to be won, and men to win. G. W. Curtis.
Men love in haste, but they detest at leisure. Byron.
Men love things best; women love persons best. Jean Paul.
Men love to nurse their cares, and seem as uneasy without some fret, as an old friar would be without his hair-girdle. Ward Beecher.
Men love us, or they need our love. Keble. 30
Men make the best friends. La Bruyère.
Men may live fools, but fools they cannot die. Young.
Men may rise on stepping-stones / Of their dead selves to higher things. Tennyson.
Men might live quiet and easy enough, if they would be careful not to give themselves trouble, and forbear meddling with what other people do and say, in which they are in no way concerned. Thomas à Kempis.
Men more easily renounce their interests than 35 their tastes. La Roche.
Men must be taught as though you taught them not. Pope.
Men must endure / Their going hence, even as their coming hither: / Ripeness is all. Lear, v. 2.
Men must have righteous principles in the first place, and then they will not fail to perform virtuous actions. Luther.
Men must leave the ingle-nook, / And for a larger wisdom brook / Experience of a harder law, / And learn humility and awe. Dr. Walter Smith.
Men must work, and women must weep, / 40 Though storms be sudden, and waters deep, / And the harbour bar be moaning. Charles Kingsley.
Men no longer wholly believe; in this age of blindness and scientific pride, no one is any longer seen bowing before his god on both his knees. Victor Hugo.
Men no sooner find their appetites unanswered than they complain the times are injurious. Raleigh.
Men of age object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too soon, and seldom drive business home to the full period, but content themselves with a mediocrity of success. Bacon.
Men of courage, men of sense, and men of letters are frequent; but a true gentleman is what one seldom sees. Steele.
Men of few words are the best men. Henry 45 V., iii. 2.
Men of genius are dull and inert in society; as the blazing meteor, when it descends to the earth, is only a stone. Longfellow.
Men of genius are rarely much annoyed by the company of vulgar people, because they have a power of looking at such persons as objects of amusement of another race altogether. Coleridge.
Men of genius do not excel in any profession because they labour in it, but they labour in it because they excel. Hazlitt.
Men of genius have acuter feelings than common men; they are like the wind-harp, which answers to the breath that touches it, now low and sweet, now rising into wild swell or angry scream, as the strings are swept by some passing gust. Froude.
Men of God have always, from time to time, walked among men, and made their commission felt in the heart and soul of the commonest hearer. Emerson.
Men of great gifts you will easily find, but symmetrical men never. Emerson.
Men of great intellect live in the world without really belonging to it. Schiller.
Men of great learning or genius are too full to be exact, and therefore choose to throw down their pearls in heaps before the reader, rather than be at the pains of stringing them. Spectator.
Men of great parts are often unfortunate in 5 the management of public business, because they are apt to go out of the common road by the quickness of their imagination. Swift.
Men of humour are always in some degree men of genius; wits are rarely so, although a man of genius may, amongst other gifts, possess wit, as Shakespeare. Coleridge.
Men of most renowned virtue have sometimes by transgressing most truly kept the law. Milton.
Men of science should leave controversy to the little world below them. Goldsmith.
Men of sense esteem wealth to be the assimilation of nature to themselves, the converting of the sap and juices of the planet to the incarnation and nutriment of their design. Emerson.
Men of sense often learn from their enemies. 10 Aristophanes.
Men of the first quality learn nothing, and become wise; men of the second rank become sensible (klug), and learn long; men of the third sort remain stupid, and learn words. Rückert.
Men of the greatest abilities are most fired with ambition, and, on the contrary, mean and narrow minds are the least actuated by it. Addison.
Men of true wisdom and goodness are contented to take persons and things as they are, without complaining of their imperfections or attempting to amend them. Fielding.
Men of uncommon abilities generally fall into eccentricities when their sphere of life is not adequate to their powers. Goethe.
Men only associate in parties by sacrificing 15 their opinions, or by having none worth sacrificing; and the effect of party government is always to develop hostilities and hypocrisies, and to extinguish ideas. Ruskin.
Men only rightly know themselves as far as they have experimented on things. Emerson.
Men ought to find the difference between saltness and bitterness. Bacon.
Men possessed with an idea cannot be reasoned with. Froude.
Men possessing small souls are generally the authors of great evils. Goethe.
Men prize the thing ungained more than it is. 20 Troil. and Cress., i. 2.
Men rate the virtues of the heart at almost nothing, while they idolise endowments of body and intellect. La Bruyère.
Men rattle their chains to show that they are free. Pr.
Men run away to other countries because they are not good in their own, and run back to their own because they pass for nothing in the new places. Emerson.
Men say their pinnacles point to heaven. Why, so does every tree that buds, and every bird that rises as it sings. Men say their aisles are good for worship. Why, so is every mountain glen and rough seashore. But this they have of distinct and indisputable glory,—that their mighty walls were never raised, and never shall be, but by men who love and aid each other in their weakness. Ruskin.
Men seek within the short span of life to 25 satisfy a thousand desires, each of which alone is insatiable. Goldsmith.
Men seem to be led by their noses, but in reality it is by their ears. Carlyle.
Men should be prized, not for their exemption from fault, but the size of those virtues they are possessed of. Goldsmith.
Men should be what they seem; / Or those that be not, would they might seem none. Othello, iii. 3.
Men should keep their eyes wide open before marriage, and half-shut afterwards. Mme. Scudéri.
Men should not be told of the faults which 30 they have mended. Johnson.
Men show their character in nothing more clearly than by what they think laughable. Goethe.
Men, some to business, some to pleasure take; / But every woman is at heart a rake; / Men, some to quiet, some to public strife; / But every lady would be queen for life. Pope.
Men speak but little when vanity does not induce them to speak. La Roche.
Men spend their lives in the service of their passions instead of employing their passions in the service of their lives. Steele.
Men still are what they always have been, a 35 medley (Gemisch) of strength and weakness, often obedient to reason, and oftener to passion; so have they come down the stream of time for six thousand years, and mostly in such shape as the moment has fashioned them. Seume.
Men that are ruined are ruined on the side of their natural propensities. Burke.
Men that hazard all / Do it in hope of fair advantages. Mer. of Ven., ii. 7.
Men that make / Envy and crooked malice nourishment / Dare bite the best. Hen. VIII., v. 3.
Men think highly of those who rise rapidly in the world; whereas nothing rises quicker than dust, straw, and feathers. Hare.
Men think they are quarrelling with one 40 another, and both sides feel that they are in the wrong. Goethe.
Men think to mend their condition by a change of circumstances. They might as well hope to escape their shadows. Froude, Carlyle.
Men tire themselves in pursuit of rest. Sterne.
Men trust rather to their eyes than to their ears; the effect of precepts is therefore slow and tedious, whilst that of examples is summary and effectual. Seneca.
Men understand not what is among their hands; as calmness is the characteristic of strength, so the weightiest causes may be the most silent. Carlyle.
Men use, if they have an evil turn, to write it in marble, and whoso doth us a good turn we write it in dust. Sir T. More.
Men, who are knaves individually, are in the mass very honourable people. Montesquieu.
Men who begin by losing their independence will end by losing their energy. Buckle.
Men who, being always bred in affluence, 5 see the world only on one side, are surely improper judges of human nature. Goldsmith.
Men who earn nothing but compliments are not likely to be very diligent in so unprofitable a service. Spurgeon.
Men who form their judgment upon sense often err. Thomas à Kempis.
Men who know the same things are not long the best company for each other. Emerson.
Men who make money rarely saunter; men who save money rarely swagger. Bulwer Lytton.
Men who their duties know, / But know their 10 rights, and, knowing, dare maintain. Sir W. Jones.
Men will always act according to their passions. Therefore the best government is that which inspires the nobler passions and destroys the meaner. Jacobi.
Men will blame themselves for the purpose of being praised. Pr.
Men will die for an opinion as soon as for anything else. Hazlitt.
Men will face powder and steel, because they cannot face public opinion. Chapin.
Men will forget what we suffer, and not what 15 we do. Tennyson.
Men will marry a fool that sings, sooner than one that has learned to scoff. Dr. Walter Smith.
Men will wrangle for religion, write for it, fight for it, die for it—anything but live for it. Colton.
Men work themselves into atheistical judgments by atheistical practice. Whichcote.
Men would be angels, angels would be gods. Pope.
Men would not live long in society, were they 20 not the mutual dupes of each other. La Roche.
Men's actions are not to be judged of at first sight. Pr.
Men's actions are too strong for them. Show me a man who has acted, and who has not been the victim and slave of his action. Emerson.
Men's best successes come after their disappointments. Ward Beecher.
Men's evil manners live in brass; their virtues / We write in water. Henry VIII., iv. 2.
Men's hearts ought not to be set against one 25 another, but set with one another, and all against the evil thing only. Carlyle.
Men's ignorance makes the priest's pot boil. Fr. Pr.
Men's muscles move better when their souls are making merry music. George Eliot.
Men's natures wrangle with inferior things, / Though great ones are their object. Othello, iii. 4.
Men's prosperity is in their own hands, and no forms of government are, in themselves, of the least use. Ruskin.
Men's souls 'twixt sorrow and love are cast. 30 O. M. Brown.
Men's thoughts and opinions are, in a great degree, vassals of him who invents a new phrase or reapplies an old epithet. Lowell.
Men's thoughts are much according to their inclinations; their discourses and speeches, according to their learning and infused opinions. Bacon.
Men's vows are women's traitors. Cymbeline, iii. 4.
Menace-moi de vivre et non pas de mourir—Threaten me with life and not with death. Fr.
Ménage—Housekeeping. Fr. 35
Mendacem memorem esse oportet—A liar ought to have a good memory. Quinct.
Mendaces, ebriosi, verbosi—Liars, drunkards, and wordy people.
Mendaci homini, ne verum quidem dicenti credere solemus—We give no credit to a liar, even when he speaks the truth. Cic.
Mendici, mimi, balatrones, et hoc genus omne—Beggars, actors in farces, buffoons, and all that sort of people. Hor.
Mendico ne parentes quidem amici sunt—To 40 a beggar not even his own parents show affection. Pr.
Mendings are honourable, rags are abominable. Pr.
Mens æqua rebus in arduis—Equanimity in arduous enterprises. M.
Mens agitat molem—A mind moves or informs the mass. Virg.
Mens bona regnum possidet—A good mind possesses a kingdom. Pr.
Mens conscia recti—A mind conscious of rectitude. 45
Mens cujusque est quisque—The mind of the man is the man. M.
Mens immota manet; lachrymæ volvuntur inanes—His resolve remains unshaken; tears are shed in vain. Virg.
Mens interrita lethi—A mind undaunted by death. Ovid.
Mens invicta manet—The mind remains unsubdued.
Mens peccat, non corpus, et unde consilium 50 abfuit culpa abest—It is the mind that sins, not the body, and where there was no intention there is no criminality. Liv.
Mens sana in corpore sano—A sound mind in a sound body. Juv.
Mens sine pondere ludit—The mind is playful when unburdened.
Mensa et toro—From bed and board. L.
Menschenkenntniss ist Unglaube an Tugend und Redlichkeit—A knowledge of mankind tends to induce a want of faith in virtue and probity. C. J. Weber.
Menschlich ist es bloss zu strafen, / Aber 55 göttlich zu verzeihn—To punish is merely human, but to forgive is divine. P. von Winter.
Mensque pati durum sustinet ægra nihil—A mind diseased cannot bear anything harsh. Ovid.
Mensuraque juris / Vis erat—And might was the measure of right. Lucan.
Mental courage, infinitely rarer than valour, presupposes the most eminent qualities. Diderot.
Mental pleasures never cloy: unlike those of the body, they are increased by repetition, approved of by reflection, and strengthened by enjoyment. Colton.
Mental prayer (mentale Gebet), which includes and excludes all religions, and only in a few God-favoured men permeates the whole course of life, develops itself in most men as only a blazing, beatific feeling of the moment, immediately after the vanishing of which the man, thrown in upon himself unsatisfied and unoccupied, lapses back into the most utter and absolute weariness. Goethe.
Mentally and bodily endowed men are the 5 most modest, while, on the other hand, all who have some peculiar mental defect think a great deal more of themselves. Goethe.
Mentis gratissimus error—A most delightful reverie of the mind. Hor.
Mentis penetralia—The inmost recesses of the mind; the secrets of the heart.
Menu—Bill of fare. Fr.
Menus plaisirs—Pocket-money. Fr.
Meo sum pauper in ære—I am poor, but I am 10 not in debt. Hor.
Merces virtutis laus est—Applause is the reward of virtue. Pr.
Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Bible.
Mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill. Rom. and Jul., iii. 1.
Mercy is above this sceptred sway, / It is enthronéd in the hearts of kings, / It is an attribute to God himself; / And earthly power doth then show likest God's / When mercy seasons justice. Mer. of Ven., iv. 1.
Mercy is not itself, that oft looks so; / Pardon 15 is still the nurse of second woe. Meas. for Meas., ii. 1.
Mercy, misericordia, does not in the least mean forgiveness of sins, but pity of sorrows. Ruskin.
Mercy to him that shows it is the rule. Cowper.
Mercy turns her back to the unmerciful. Quarles.
Mercy's gate opens to those who knock. Saying.
Mere bashfulness without merit is awkward, 20 and merit without modesty insolent; but modest merit has a double claim to acceptance. T. Hughes.
Mere family never made a man great. Thought and deed, not pedigree, are the passports to enduring fame. Skobeleff.
Mere madness, to live like a wretch and die rich. Burton.
Mere pleasure ought not to be the prime motive of action. Johnson.
Mere sensibility is not true taste, but sensibility to real excellence is. Hazlitt.
Mere wishes are bony fishes. Pr. 25
Merit and good works is the end of man's motion, and conscience of the same is the accomplishment of man's rest. Bacon.
Merit, however inconsiderable, should be sought for and rewarded. Napoleon.
Merit in appearance is oftener rewarded than merit itself. La Roche.
Merit is never so conspicuous as when coupled with an obscure origin, just as the moon never appears so lustrous as when it emerges from a cloud. Bovee.
Merit lives from man to man. Tennyson. 30
Merry be the first, / And merry be the last, / And merry be the first of August. Pr.
Merry larks are ploughmen's clocks. Love's L. Lost, v. 2.
Merx ultronea putret—Proffered service stinks (i.e. is despised). Pr.
Mésalliance—A marriage with one of inferior rank. Pr.
Messe tenus propria vive—Live within your 35 means (lit. harvest).
[Greek: Metabolê pantôn glyky]—There is always a pleasure in variety. Euripides.
Metaphysicians and philosophers are, on the whole, the greatest troubles the world has got to deal with.... Busy metaphysicians are always entangling good and active people, and weaving cobwebs among the finest wheels of the world's business, and are, as much as possible, by all prudent persons, to be brushed out of their way. Ruskin.
Metaphysics, with which physics cannot dispense, is that wisdom of thought which was before all physics, lives with it, and will endure after it. Goethe.
[Greek: Mête dikên dikasês, prin amphoin mythou akousês]—Don't pronounce sentence till you have heard the story of both parties. Pr.
Method is the very hinge of business. Hannah 40 More.
Method will teach you to win time. Goethe.
Methods are the masters of masters. Talleyrand.
Methought I heard a voice cry, Sleep no more! Macb., ii. 2.
Métier d'auteur, métier d'oseur—The profession of author is a daring profession. Fr.
Metiri se quemque suo modulo ac pede verum 45 est—It is meet that every man should measure himself by his own rule and standard. Hor.
Mettre les pieds dans le plat—To put one's foot in it. Fr. Pr.
Metuenda corolla draconis—The dragon's crest is to be feared.
Meum et tuum—Mine and thine.
Meus mihi, suus cuique est carus—Mine is dear to me, and dear is his own to every man. Plaut.
Mezzo termine—A middle course. It. 50
Micat inter omnes—It shines amongst all, i.e., it outshines all. Hor.
Mich dräng'st den Grundtext aufzuschlagen, / Mit redlichem Gefühl einmal / Das heilige Original / In mein geliebtes Deutsch zu übertragen—I must turn up the primitive text just to translate the sacred original with honest feeling into my dear German tongue. Faust, in Goethe.
Mich hat mein Glaube nicht betrogen!—My faith has not betrayed me. Schiller.
Mich plagen keine Scrupel noch Zweifel, / Fürchte mich weder vor Hölle noch Teufel—I am troubled by no scruples or doubts; I fear neither hell nor devil. Faust, in Goethe.
Mich schuf aus gröberm Stoffe die Natur, / Und zu der Erde zieht mich die Begierde—Out of coarser clay has Nature created me, and I am drawn by lust to the dust. Schiller.
Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, / Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home; / A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there, / Which, sought through the world, is ne'er met with elsewhere. J. H. Payne.
Midst the crowd, the hum, the shock of men, / To hear, to see, to feel, and to possess, / And roam along, the world's tired denizen, / With none who bless us, none whom we can bless; / ... This is to be alone; this, this is solitude! Byron.
Mieux nourri qu'instruit—Better fed than taught. Fr. Pr.
Mieux serra—Better times are coming. M. 5
Mieux vaut glisser du pied que de la langue—Better slip with the foot than the tongue. Fr. Pr.
Mieux vaut perdre la laine que la brebis—Better lose the wool than the sheep. Fr. Pr.
Mieux vaut un bon renom, que du bien plein la maison—Better a good name than a house full of riches. Fr. Pr.
Mieux vaut un "Tiens" que deux "Tu l'auras"—One "Take this" is better than two "You shall have it." Fr. Pr.
Mieux vaut une once de fortune qu'une livre 10 de sagesse—An ounce of fortune is better than a pound of wisdom. Fr. Pr.
Mieux vaut voir un chien enragé, qu'un soleil chaud en Janvier—Better see a mad dog than a hot sun in January.
Might and right do differ frightfully from hour to hour; but give them centuries to try it in, they are found to be identical. Carlyle.
Mightier far / Than strength of nerve or sinew, or the sway / Of magic, potent over sun and star, / Is Love, though oft to agony distrest, / And though his favourite seat be feeble woman's breast. Wordsworth.
Mightiest powers by deepest calms are fed, / And sleep, how oft, on things that gentlest be. B. M. Procter.
Mighty events turn on a straw; the crossing 15 of a brook decides the conquest of the world. Carlyle.
Migravit ab aure voluptas / Omnis—All pleasure has fled from the ear, (dumb show having taken the place of dialogue on the stage). Hor.
Mihi est propositum in taberna mori—I purpose to end my days in an inn.
Mihi forsan, tibi quod negarit, / Porriget hora—The hour will perhaps extend to me what it has denied to you. Hor.
Mihi istic nec seritur nec metitur—There is neither sowing nor reaping in that affair for my benefit. Plaut.
Mihi res, non me rebus, subjungere conor—My 20 aim is to subject circumstances to me, and not myself to them. Hor.
Mihi tarda fluunt ingrataque tempora—For me the time passes slowly and joyously away. Hor.
Mildness governs more than anger. Pr.
Militat omnis amans—Every lover is engaged in a war. Ovid.
Militiæ species amor est—Love is a kind of warfare. Ovid.
Mille hominum species et rerum discolor usus; / 25 Velle suum cuique est, nec voto vivitur uno—There are a thousand kinds of men, and different hues they give to things; each one follows his own inclination, nor do they all agree in their wishes. Pers.
Mille verisimili non fanno un vero—A thousand probabilities do not make one truth. It. Pr.
Millia frumenti tua triverit area centum, / Non tuus hinc capiet venter plus ac meus—Though your threshing-floor should yield a hundred thousand bushels of corn, will your stomach therefore hold more than mine? Hor.
Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth / Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep. Milton.
Minatur innocentibus qui parcit nocentibus—He threatens the innocent who spares the guilty. Coke.
Mind and body are intimately related; if the 30 former is joyful, the latter feels free and well; and many an evil flies before cheerfulness. Goethe.
Mind and body—that beauteous couple—exercise much and variously, but at home, at home, indoors, and about things indoors; for God is there too. Landor.
Mind is stronger than matter; mind is the creator and shaper of matter; not brute force, but only persuasion and faith is the king of this world. Carlyle.
Mind is the great lever of all things; human thought is the process by which human ends are ultimately answered. Webster.
Mind is the partial side of men; the heart is everything. Rivarol.
Mind not high things, but condescend to men 35 of low estate. St. Paul.
Mind unemployed is mind unenjoyed. Bovee.
Mind your P's and Q's. Pr.
Mind your work, and God will find your wages. Pr.
Minds are of celestial birth; / Make we then a heaven of earth. Montgomery.
Minds that have nothing to confer / Find little 40 to perceive. Wordsworth.
Minds that never rest are subject to many digressions. Joubert.
Mind the corner where life's road turns. Pr.
Mine honour my life is; both grow in one; / Take honour from me, and my life is done. Richard II., i. 1.
Minimæ vires frangere quassa valent—Very little avails to break a bruised thing. Ov.
Minima de malis—Of two evils choose the least. 45 Pr.
Minister flicken am Staate, / Die Richter flicken am Rate, / Die Pfarrer an dem Gewissen, / Die Aerzte an Händen und Füszen! O Jobsen! was flickest denn du? / Weit besser! Gerissene Schuh!—Ministers cobble away at the state, judges at the law, parsons at the conscience, doctors at our hands and feet; what cobblest thou at, friend Jobson? Far better—shoes that have been torn. Weisse.
Minor est quam servus, dominus qui servos timet—A master who fears his servants is lower than a servant.
Minorities lead and save the world, and the world knows them not till long afterwards. John Burroughs.
Minuentur atræ / Carmine curæ—Black care will be soothed by song. Hor.
Minuit præsentia famam—Acquaintanceship lessens fame. Claud.
Minus afficit sensus fatigatio quam cogitatio—Bodily fatigue affects the mind less than intense thought. Quinct.
Minuti / Semper et infirmi est animi exiguique voluptas / Ultio—Revenge is ever the delight of a stinted and weak and petty mind. Juv.
Minutiæ—Trifles; minute details. 5
Mir gäb' es keine gröss're Pein, / Wär' ich im Paradies allein—There were for me no greater torment than to be in Paradise alone. Goethe.
Mir wird bei meinem kritischen Bestreben / Doch oft um Kopf und Busen bang—Often during my critical studies I fear as if I would lose both head and heart. Wagner in Goethe's "Faust."
Mira quædam in cognoscendo suavitas et delectatio—There is a certain wonderful sweetness and delight in gaining knowledge.
Mirabile dictu!—Wonderful to be told!
Mirabile visu!—Wonderful to behold! 10
Miracles are ceased, and therefore we must needs admit the means, how things are perfected. Hen. V., i. 1.
Miracles do not serve to convert, but condemn. Pascal.
Miramur ex intervallo fallentia—We admire at a distance things which deceive us. Pr.
Miremur te non tua—Let me have something to admire in yourself, not in what belongs to you. Juv.
Mirth is God's medicine. Ward Beecher. 15
Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity. Addison.
Mirth is short and transient, cheerfulness fixed and permanent. Addison.
Misce stultitiam consiliis brevem—Mix a little folly with your serious thoughts. Hor.
Miscellaneous reading avoid. Prof. Blackie to young men.
Mischief, thou art afoot; / Take thou what 20 course thou wilt. Jul. Cæs., iii. 2.
Mise en scène—The getting up or putting in preparation for the stage. Fr.
Misera contribuens plebs!—The poor tax-paying people. Verböczy.
Misera est magni custodia census—The custody of a large fortune is a wretched business. Juv.
Misera est servitus ubi jus est aut vagum aut incognitum—Obedience to the law is a hardship where the law is either unsettled or unknown. L.
Miserable beyond all names of wretchedness 25 is that unhappy pair who are doomed to reduce beforehand to the principles of abstract reason all the details of each domestic day. Johnson.
Miseram pacem vel bello bene mutari—An unhappy peace may be profitably exchanged for war. Tac.
Misericordia Domini inter pontem et fontem—Between bridge and stream the Lord's mercy may be found. St. Augustine.
Miseros prudentia prima relinquit—Prudence is the first thing to forsake the wretched. Ovid.
Miserrima est fortuna quæ inimico caret—Most wretched is the lot of him who has not an enemy. Pub. Syr.
Miserum est aliorum incumbere famæ / Ne 30 collapsa ruant subductis tecta columnis—It is a wretched thing to lean for support on the reputation of others, lest the roof should fall in ruins when the pillars are withdrawn. Juv.
Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows. Tempest, ii. 2.
Misery and ruin to thousands are in the blast that announces the destructive demon (war). Burns.
Misery doth part / The flux of company. As You Like It, ii. 1.
Misery is like love; to speak its language truly, the author must have felt it. Burns.
Misery is trodden down by many, / And, being 35 low, never relieved by any. Shakespeare.
Misery that I miss is a new mercy. Isaac Walton.
Misfortune is never mournful to the soul that accepts it; for such do always see that every cloud is an angel's face. Mrs. L. M. Child.
Misfortune sprinkles ashes on the head of the man, but falls like dew on the head of the woman, and brings forth germs of strength of which she herself had no conscious possession. Anna C. Mowatt.
Misfortune, when we look upon it with our eyes, is smaller than when our imagination sinks the evil down into the recesses of the soul. Goethe.
Misfortunes come on wings and depart on foot. 40 Pr.
Misfortunes have their dignity and their redeeming power. G. S. Hillard.
Misfortunes never come single. Pr.
Misfortunes when asleep are not to be wakened. Pr.
Mislike me not for my complexion, / The shadow'd livery of the burnish'd sun, / To whom I am a neighbour and near bred. Mer. of Ven., ii. 1.
Misreckoning is no payment. Pr. 45
Mist of words, / Like halos round the moon, though they enlarge / The seeming size of thoughts, make the light less / Doubly. Bailey.
Mistake not, man; the devil never sleeps. Thomas à Kempis.
Mistrust the man who finds everything good, and the man who finds everything evil, and still more the man who is indifferent to everything. Lavater.
Misunderstanding brings lies to town. Pr.
Misunderstanding goes on like a fallen stitch 50 in a stocking, which in the beginning might have been taken up with a needle. Goethe.
Mit deinem Meister zu irren ist dein Gewinn—To err with thy master is thy gain. Goethe.
Mit dem Genius steht die Natur im ewigen Bunde! / Was der eine verspricht, leistet die andre gewiss—Nature stands in eternal league with genius; what the one promises the other as surely performs. Schiller.
Mit dem Wissen wächst der Zweifel—Doubt ever grows alongside of knowledge. Goethe.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens—With stupidity the gods themselves fight in vain. Schiller.
Mit Frauen soll man sich nie unterstehn zu scherzen—One should never venture to joke with ladies. Mephisto in Goethe's "Faust."
Mit fremdem Gut ist leicht ein Prasser sein—It is easy to live riotously (be a rake) at another's expense. Platen.
Mit Kleinen thut man kleine Thaten, / Mit Grossen wird der Kleine gross—With little people we do little deeds, with great people the little one becomes great. Goethe.
Mit seltsamen Geberden / Giebt man sich 5 viele Pein; / Kein Mensch will etwas werden, / Ein jeder will schon was sein—We are easily disconcerted by strange manners; no man is willing to become anything, every one gives himself out as already something. Goethe.
Mit vier Strangschlägern zu fahren ist gefährlich, aber ich werde es versuchen—It is risky to drive with four horses that kick over the traces, but I shall try. Bismarck.
Mit Worten lässt sich trefflich streiten / Mit Worten ein System bereiten, / An Worten lässt sich trefflich glauben, / Von einem Wort lässt sich kein Iota rauben—With words disputes may be effectively carried on; with words a system may be built up; on words one may rest religious belief; from a word must not one iota be taken. Mephisto in Goethe's "Faust."
Mit Worten nicht, mit Thaten lasst mich danken—Let me thank you with deeds, not with words. Körner.
Mitgefühl erweckt Vertrauen; / Und Vertrauen ist der Schlüssel / Der des Herzens Pforte öffnet—Sympathy awakens confidence, and confidence is the key which unlocks the doors of the heart. Bodenstedt.
Mittagsschlaf ist ein brennend Licht am Tage—Sleep 10 at midday is a candle burning in the daytime. Hippel.
Mitte hanc de pectore curam—Dismiss these anxieties from your breast. Virg.
Mittimus—We send. A writ for transferring records from one court to another; a precept committing an accused person to prison by a justice of the peace. L.
Mobilis et varia est ferme natura malorum—Misfortunes generally are of a variable and changeable nature. Juv.
Mobilitate viget, viresque acquirit eundo—It grows by moving, and gathers strength as it speeds on. Virg., of Fame.
Mobilium turba Quiritium—A crowd of fickle 15 citizens. Hor.
Mock me not with the name of free, when you have but knit up my chains into ornamental festoons. Carlyle.
Mockery is the fume of little hearts. Tennyson.
Moderari animo et orationi, cum sis iratus, non mediocris ingenii est—To be able to temper your indignation and language when you are angry is evidence of a chastened disposition. Cic.
Moderata durant—Things we use in moderation last long. Sen.
Moderate lamentation is the right of the dead, 20 excessive grief the enemy to the living. All's Well, i. 1.
Moderate riches will carry you; if you have more, you must carry them. Pr.
Moderation and judgment are, for most purposes, more than the flash and the glitter even of genius. J. Morley.
Moderation is good, but moderation alone is no virtue (Tugend). Rückert.
Moderation is the inseparable companion of wisdom, but with genius it has not even a nodding acquaintance. Colton.
Moderation is the silken string running through 25 the pearl chain of all virtues. Thomas Fuller.
Moderation is the virtue best adapted to the dawn of prosperity. Pitt.
Modern education has devoted itself to the teaching of impudence, and then we complain we can no more manage our mobs. Ruskin.
Modern education too often covers the fingers with rings, and at the same time cuts the sinews at the wrists. J. Sterling.
Modern poets put a great deal of water in their ink. Goethe.
Modern Protestantism sees in the cross, not a 30 furca to which it is to be nailed, but a raft on which it, and all its valuable properties, are to be floated into Paradise. Ruskin.
Modern revolution has nothing grand about it; it is merely the resolution of society into its component atoms. Froude.
Modern science gives lectures on botany, to show there is no such thing as a flower; on humanity, to show there is no such thing as a man; and on theology, to show there is no such thing as a God. No such thing as a man, but only a mechanism. No such thing as a God, but only a series of forces. Ruskin.
Modest demeanour's the jewel of a'! Burns.
Modest dogs miss much meat. Pr.
Modest doubt is called / The beacon of the 35 wise, the tent that searches / To the bottom of the worst. Troil. and Cres., ii. 2.
Modest expression is a beautiful setting to the diamond of talent and genius. Chapin.
Modest humility is beauty's crown, for the beautiful is a hidden thing, and shrinks from its own power. Schiller.
Modeste tamen et circumspecto judicio de tantis viris pronunciandum est, ne, quod plerisque accidit, damnent quæ non intelligunt—We should, however, pronounce our opinions with modesty and circumspect judgment of such men, lest, as is the case with many, we should be found condemning what we do not understand. Quinct.
Modesty and presumption are moral things of so spiritual a nature, that they have little to do with the body. Goethe.
Modesty is a quality in a lover more praised 40 by the women than liked. Sheridan.
Modesty is a very good thing, but a man in this country may get on very well without it. M. on a banner in the Far West.
Modesty is so pleased with other people's doings that she has no leisure to lament her own. Ruskin.
Modesty is the beauty of women. Gael. Pr.
Modesty is the colour of virtue. Diogenes.
Modesty is the sweet song-bird which no open 45 cage-door can tempt to flight. Hafiz.
Modesty is to merit what the shadows are to the figures on a picture; it imparts to it force and relief. La Bruyère.
Modesty ruins all that bring it to court. Pr.
Modesty seldom resides in a breast that is not enriched with nobler virtues. Goldsmith.
Modesty when she goes, is gone for ever. Landor.
Modo et forma—In manner and form. 5
Modo me Thebis, modo ponit Athenis—He sets me down now at Thebes, now at Athens, i.e., the poet does so by his magic art. Hor.
Modo vir, modo femina—Now as a man, now as a woman. Ovid.
Modus operandi—The manner of operation.
Mögt ihr Stück für Stück bewitzeln, / Doch das Ganze zieht euch an—You may jeer at it bit by bit, yet the whole fascinates you. Goethe.
Moi, moi, dis je, et c'est assez—I, I, say I, and 10 that is enough. Corneille.
Moins on pense plus on parle—The less people think, the more they talk. Fr.
Moles and misers live in their graves. Pr.