Molesta et importuna salutantium frequentia—A troublesome and annoying crowd of visitors.
Molle meum levibus cor est violabile telis—My tender heart is vulnerable by his (Cupid's) light arrows. Ovid.
Mollis educatio nervos omnes et mentis et 15 corporis frangit—An effeminate education weakens all the powers both of mind and body. Quinct.
Mollissima corda / Humano generi dare se natura fatetur, / Quæ lachrymas dedit: hæc nostri pars optima sensus—Nature confesses that she gives the tenderest of hearts to the human race when she gave them tears. This is the best part of our sensations. Juv.
Mollissima tempora fandi—The most fitting moment for speaking, or addressing, one. Hor.
Molliter austerum studio fallente laborem—The interest in the pursuit gently beguiling the severity of the toil. Hor.
Molliter ossa cubent—Let his bones softly rest. Ovid.
Momento mare vertitur; / Eodem die ubi 20 luserunt, navigia sorbentur—In a moment the sea is agitated, and on the same day ships are swallowed up where they lately sported gaily along.
Mon âme a son secret, ma vie a son mystère—My soul has a secret of its own, my life its mystery. Arvers.
Mon cœur aux dames, / Ma vie au roi, / A Dieu mon âme, / L'honneur pour moi—My heart to the ladies, my life to the king, and my soul to God, but my honour is my own. On a shield in the Royal Schloss, Berlin.
Mon Dieu est ma roche—My God is my rock. M.
Mon frère a mis son bonnet de travers—My brother is cross (lit. has put on his cap the wrong way). Fr. Pr.
Monarchy is a merchantman, which sails well, 25 but will sometimes strike on a rock and go to the bottom; whilst a republic is a raft, which would never sink, but then your feet are always in water. Fisher Ames.
Monday is the key of the week. Gael. Pr.
Monday religion is better than Sunday profession. Pr.
Mone sale—Advise with salt, i.e., with discretion. M.
Money answers everything, / Save a guilty conscience sting. Pr.
Money begets money. Pr. 30
Money borrowed is soon sorrowed. Pr.
Money calls, but does not stay: / It is round and rolls away. Pr.
Money is a bottomless sea, in which honour, conscience, and truth may be drowned. Kazlay.
Money is a good servant, but a dangerous master. Bouheurs.
Money is human happiness in the abstract; 35 he, then, who is no longer capable of enjoying human happiness in the concrete, devotes his heart entirely to money. Schopenhauer.
Money is like an icicle, soon found at certain seasons, and soon melted under other circumstances. Spurgeon.
Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul. Thoreau.
Money is the fruit of evil as often as the root of it. Fielding.
Money is the god of our time, and Rothschild is his prophet. Heine.
Money is the most envied, but the least enjoyed; 40 health is the most enjoyed, but the least envied. Colton.
Money is the ruin of many. Pr.
Money is the sinew of love as well as of war. Pr.
Money, like manure, does no good till it is spread. (?)
Money makes the mare to go. Pr.
Money masters all things. Pr. 45
Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more a man has, the more he wants. Ben. Franklin.
Money often costs too much. Emerson.
Money often unmakes the men who make it. Pr.
Money refused loses its brightness. Pr.
Money spent on the brain is never spent in 50 vain. Pr.
Moniti, meliora sequamur—Admonished, let us follow better counsels. Virg.
Monkeys, as soon as they have brought forth their young, keep their eyes fastened on them, and never weary of admiring their beauty; so amorous is Nature of whatever she produces. Dryden.
Monstro quod ipse tibi possis dare: semita certe / Tranquillæ per virtutem patet unica vitæ—I show you what you can do for yourself; the only path to a tranquil life lies through virtue. Juv.
Monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens, cui lumen ademptum—A monster horrible, misshapen, huge, and bereft of his one eye. Virgil, of Polyphemus.
Monstrum nulla virtute redemptum / A vitiis—A 55 monster whose vices are not redeemed by a single virtue. Juv.
Mont de piété—Pawnshop; originally store of money to lend without interest to poor people. Fr.
Montes auri pollicens—Promising mountains of gold. Ter.
Montesquieu, with his cause-and-effect philosophy, is but a clever infant spelling letters from a hieroglyphical prophetic Book, the lexicon of which lies in eternity, in Heaven. Carlyle.
Monuments, like men, submit to fate. Pope.
Monuments themselves memorials need. Crabbe.
Mony an honest man needs that hasna the 5 face to seek it. Sc. Pr.
Mony ane speirs the gate (inquires the way) they ken fu' weel. Sc. Pr.
Mony kinsfolk, but few freends. Sc. Pr.
Moonlight is sculpture. Hawthorne.
Moping melancholy. Milton.
Mora omnis odio est, sed facit sapientiam—All 10 delay is hateful, but it produces wisdom. Pub. Syr.
Moral culture must begin with a change (Umwandlung) in the way of thinking, and with the founding of a character. Kant.
Moral education begins in making the creature to be educated clean and obedient; and it is summed up when the creature has been made to do its work with delight, and thoroughly. Ruskin.
Moral inability aggravates our guilt. Scott.
Moral prejudices are the stopgaps of virtue; and, as is the case with other stopgaps, it is often more difficult to get either out or in through them than through any other part of the fence. Hare.
Moral qualities rule the world, but at short 15 distances the senses are despotic. Emerson.
Morality is a curb, not a spur. Joubert.
Morality is but the vestibule of religion. Chapin.
Morality sticks faster when presented in brief sayings than when presented in long discourses. Immermann.
Morals are generated as the atmosphere is. 'Tis a secret the genesis of either; but the springs of justice and courage do not fail any more than salt or sulphur springs. Emerson.
Morceau—A morsel; a bit. Fr. 20
Morceau d'ensemble—Piece of music harmonised for several voices. Fr.
More are drowned in the beaker than in the sea. Ger. Pr.
More are made good by exercitation than by nature. Democritus.
More credit may be thrown down in a moment than can be built up in an age. Pr.
More hearts pine away in secret anguish for 25 unkindness from those who should be their comforters than for any other calamity in life. Young.
More helpful than all wisdom is one draught of simple human pity that will not forsake us. George Eliot.
More is got from one book on which the thought settles for a definite end in knowledge, than from libraries skimmed over by a wandering eye. A cottage flower gives honey to the bee, a king's garden none to the butterfly. Bulwer Lytton.
More knave than fool. Marlowe.
More light, more life, more love. Pr.
More majorum—After the manner of our ancestors. 30
More matter with less art. Ham., ii. 2.
More meat and less mustard. Pr.
More pleased we are to see a river lead / His gentle streams along a flowery mead, / Than from high banks to hear loud torrents roar, / With foamy waters on a muddy shore. Dryden.
More potatoes and fewer potations. Motto for Working-men.
More servants wait on man / Than he'll take 35 notice of. George Herbert.
More sinn'd against than sinning. Lear, iii. 2.
More springs up in the garden than the gardener sows there. Pr.
More suo—After his usual manner; as is his wont.
More than all things, avoid fault-finding and a habit of criticism. Prof. Blackie to young men.
More than kisses letters mingle souls. Donne. 40
More than we use is more than we want. Pr.
More things are wrought by prayer / Than this world dreams of. Tennyson.
More water glideth by the mill / Than wots the miller of. Tit. Andron., ii. 1.
Mores amici noveris, non oderis—Know well, but take no offence at the manners of a friend. Pr.
Mores multorum vidit—He saw the manners of 45 many men. Hor. of Ulysses.
Morgen können wir's nicht mehr, / Darum lasst uns heute leben!—To-morrow is no longer in our power, therefore let us live to-day. Schiller.
Morgen, morgen, nur nicht heute! / Sprechen immer träge Leute—To-morrow, to-morrow, only not to-day, is the constant song of the idle. C. F. Weisse.
Morgenstunde hat Gold im Munde—The morning hour has gold in its mouth. Gr. Pr.
Moriamur, et in media arma ruamus—Let us die, and rush into the thick of the fight. Virg.
Moribus antiquis res stat Romana virisque—The 50 Roman commonwealth stands by its ancient manners and men. Enn.
Moribus et forma conciliandus amor—Pleasing manners and a handsome figure conciliate love. Ovid.
Morituri morituros salutant—The dying salute the dying.
Morose thoughts one should never send to a distance. Goethe.
Moroseness is the evening of turbulence. Landor.
Mors et fugacem persequitur virum—Death 55 pursues the man as he flees from it. Hor.
Mors ipsa refugit sæpe virum!—Death itself often takes flight at the presence of a man. Lucan.
Mors janua vitæ—Death is the gate of life.
Mors laborum ac miseriarum quies est!—Death is repose from all our toils and miseries. Cic.
Mors potius macula—Death rather than disgrace. M.
Mors sola fatetur / Quantula sint hominum 60 corpuscula—Death alone discloses how insignificant are the puny bodies of us men. Juv.
Mors ultima linea rerum est—Death is the farthest limit of our changing life. Hor.
Mortales inimicitias, sempiternas amicitias—Be our enmities for time, our friendships for eternity. Cic.
Mortalia acta nunquam Deos fallunt—The deeds of man never can be hid from the gods.
Mortalia facta peribunt, / Nedum sermonum stet honos et gratia vivax—All man's works must perish; how much less shall the power and grace of language long survive! Hor.
Mortality is beset on every side with crosses, and exposed to suffering every moment. Thomas à Kempis.
Mortalium rerum misera beatitudo—The miserable 5 bliss of all moral things. Boëthius.
Morte carent animæ, semperque priore relicta / Sede novis domibus vivunt habitantque receptæ—Souls are immortal; and admitted, after quitting their first abode, into new homes, they live and dwell in them for ever. Ovid.
Mortem effugere nemo potest!—No one can escape death.
Mortuo leoni et lepores insultant—Even hares insult a dead lion. Pr.
Mos pro lege—Usage, or custom, for law. L.
Moses and Mahomet were not men of speculation, 10 but men of action; and it is the stress they laid upon the latter that has given them the power they wield over the destinies of mankind. Renan.
Most authors steal their works, or buy. Pope.
Most dangerous / Is that temptation that doth goad us on / To sin in loving virtue. Meas. for Meas., ii. 2.
Most felt, least said. Pr.
Most joyful let the poet be; / It is through him that all men see. W. E. Channing.
Most men and most women are merely one 15 couple more. Emerson.
Most men do not know what is in them till they receive the summons from their fellows; their hearts die within them, sleep settles upon them—the lethargy of the world's miasmata; there is nothing for which they are so thankful as for that cry, "Awake, thou that sleepest." Ruskin.
Most men forget God all day, and ask Him to remember them at night. (?)
Most men I ask little from; I try to render them much, and to expect nothing in return, and I get very well out of the bargain. Fénelon.
Most men make the voyage of life as if they carried sealed orders which they were not to open till they were fairly in mid-ocean. Lowell.
Most men never reach the glorious epoch, that 20 middle stage between despair and deification, in which the comprehensible appears to us common and insipid. Goethe.
Most men of action incline to fatalism, and most men of thought believe in Providence. Balzac.
Most men take no notice of what is plain, as if that were of no use; but puzzle their thoughts to be themselves in those vast depths and abysses which no human understanding can fathom. Sherlock.
Most men think indistinctly, and therefore cannot speak with exactness. Johnson.
Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness: but a faithful man who can find? Bible.
Most men write now as if they expected that 25 their works should live no more than a month. Lord Orford.
Most natures are insolvent; cannot satisfy their own wants, have an ambition out of all proportion to their practical force, and so do lean and beg day and night continually. Emerson.
Most of our evils come from our vices. Pr.
Most of the appearing mirth in the world is not mirth, but art; the wounded spirit is not seen, but walks under a disguise. South.
Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances, to the elevation of mankind. Thoreau.
Most of the mischief in the world would never 30 happen if men would only be content to sit still in their parlours. Pascal.
Most people think now-a-days the only hopeful way of serving your neighbour is to make a profit out of him; whereas, in my opinion, the hopefulest way of serving him is to let him make a profit out of me. Ruskin.
Most people, when they come to you for advice, come to have their own opinions strengthened, not corrected. Billings.
Most people who ask advice of others have already resolved to act as it pleases them. Knigge.
Most potent, effectual for all work whatsoever, is wise planning, firm combining and commanding among men. Carlyle.
Most powerful is he who has himself in his 35 power. Seneca.
Most religion-mongers have bated their paradises with a bit of toasted cheese. They have tempted the body with large promises of possessions in their transmortal El Dorado. Lowell.
Most strange that men should fear, / Seeing that death, a necessary end, / Will come when it will come. Jul. Cæs., ii. 2.
Most subject is the fattest soil to weeds. 2 Hen. IV., iv. 4.
Most terrors are but spectral illusions. Helps.
Most things have two handles, and a wise 40 man takes hold of the best. Pr.
Most women have no characters at all. Pope.
Most wretched men / Are cradled into poetry by wrong; / They learn in suffering what they teach in song. Shelley.
Mot à mot—Word for word.
Mot à mot on fait les gros livres—Word by word big books are made. Fr. Pr.
Mot d'ordre—Watchword. Fr. 45
Mot pour rire—A jest. Fr.
Mother, a maiden is a tender thing, / And best by her that bore her understood. Tennyson.
Mother's darlings are but milksop heroes. Pr.
Mother's love is the cream of love. Pr.
Mother's truth keeps constant youth. Pr. 50
Motives are better than actions. Bovee.
Motives are symptoms of weakness, and supplements for the deficient energy of the living principle, the law within us. Coleridge.
Motley's the only wear. As You Like It, ii. 7.
Mots d'usage—Phrases in common use. Fr.
Motu proprio—Of his own accord. 55
Mountains interposed / Make enemies of nations, who had else / Like kindred drops been mingled into one. Cowper.
Mountains never shake hands. Their roots may touch; they may keep company some way up; but at length they part company, and rise into individual, isolated peaks. So it is with great men. Hare.
Mourning only lasts till morning with the children of the morning. Saying.
Mourning tendeth to mending. Pr.
Movet cornicula risum / Furtivis nudata coloribus—The 5 crow, stript of its stolen colours, provokes our ridicule. Hor.
Moving accidents by flood and field. Othello, i. 3.
Mrs. Chatterbox is the mother of mischief. Pr.
Much bruit, little fruit. Pr.
Much corn lies under the straw that is not seen. Pr.
Much debating goes on about the good that 10 has been done and the harm by the free circulation of the Bible. To me this is clear: it will do harm, as it has done, if used dogmatically and fancifully; and do good, as it has done, if used didactically and feelingly. Goethe.
Much exists under our very noses which has no name, and can get none. Carlyle.
Much food is in the tillage of the poor. Bible.
Much in the world may be done by severity, more by love, but most of all by discernment and impartial justice. Goethe.
Much learning is a weariness of the flesh. Pr.
Much learning shows how little mortals know; 15 much wealth, how little worldlings can enjoy. Young.
Much lies among us convulsively, nay, desperately, struggling to be born. Carlyle.
Much meat, much disease. Pr.
Much might be said on both sides. Addison.
Much of the good or evil that befalls persons arises from the well or ill managing of their conversation. Judge Hale.
Much of the pleasure, and all the benefit of 20 conversation, depends upon our own opinion of the speaker's veracity. Paley.
Much of this world's wisdom is still acquired by necromancy—by consulting the oracular dead. Hare.
Much of what is great, and to all men beneficial, has been wrought by those who neither intended nor knew the good they did; and many mighty harmonies have been discoursed by instruments that had been dumb and discordant but that God knew their stops. Ruskin.
Much reading makes one haughty and pedantic; much observation (Sehen) makes one wise, sociable, and helpful. Lichtenberg.
Much religion, but no goodness. Pr.
Much rust needs a rough file. Pr. 25
Much there is that appears unequal in our life, yet the balance is soon and unexpectedly restored. In eternal alternation a weal counterbalances the woe, and swift sorrows our joys. Nothing is constant. Many an incongruity (Missverhältniss) as the days roll on, is gradually and imperceptibly dissolved in harmony. And ah! love knows how to reconcile the greatest discrepancy and unite earth with heaven. Goethe.
Mucho sabe la zorra, pero mas el que la toma—The fox is cunning, but he is more cunning who takes him. Sp. Pr.
Mud chokes no eels. Pr.
Mudar costumbre a par de muerte—To change a custom is next to death. Sp. Pr.
Muddy spring, muddy stream. Pr. 30
Mugitus labyrinthi—The bellowing of the labyrinth (a threadbare theme among weak poets). Juv.
Mules deliver great discourses because their ancestors were horses. Pr.
Mulier cupido quod dicit amanti, / In vento et rapida scribere oportet aqua—What a woman says to an ardent lover ought to be written on the winds and the swiftly flowing water. Catull.
Mulier profecto nata est ex ipsa mora—Woman is surely born of tardiness itself. Plaut.
Mulier quæ sola cogitat male cogitat—The 35 thoughts of a woman when alone tend to mischief. Pr.
Mulier recte olet ubi nihil olet—A woman smells sweetest when she smells not at all. Plaut.
Multa cadunt inter calicem supremaque labra—Many things fall between the cup and the lip. Laber.
Multa dies, variusque labor mutabilis ævi, / Retulit in melius—Many a thing has time and the varying sway of changeful years altered for the better. Virg.
Multa docet fames—Hunger (i.e., necessity) teaches us many things. Pr.
Multa fero ut placeam genus irritabile vatum—Much 40 I endure to appease the irritable race of poets. Hor.
Multa ferunt anni venientes commoda secum; / Multa recedentes adimunt—The coming years bring with them many advantages; as they recede they take many away. Hor.
Multa gemens—Groaning deeply. Virg.
Multa me docuit usus, magister egregius—Necessity, that excellent master, hath taught me many things. Pliny the younger.
Multa novit vulpis, sed felis unam magnum—The fox knows many shifts, the cat only one great one, viz., to run up a tree. Pr.
Multa paucis—Much in little. 45
Multa petentibus / Desunt multa—Those who crave much want much. Hor.
Multa quidem scripsi; sed quæ vitiosa putavi, / Emendaturis ignibus ipse dedi—Much have I written; but what I considered faulty I myself committed to the correcting flames. Ovid.
Multa renascentur quæ jam cecidere, cadentque / Quæ nunc sunt in honore vocabula, si volet usus, / Quem penes arbitrium est, et jus, et norma loquendi—Many words now in disuse will revive, and many now in vogue will be forgotten, if usage wills it, in whose hands is the choice and the right to lay down the law of language. Hor.
Multa rogant utenda dari; data reddere nolunt—They ask many a sum on loan, but they are loath to repay. Ovid.
Multa senem circumveniunt incommoda—Many 50 are the discomforts that gather round old age. Hor.
Multa tacere loquive paratas—Ready to suppress much or speak much.
Multa tulit, fecitque puer, sudavit et alsit—Much from early years has he suffered and done, sweating and chilled. Hor.
Multæ manus onus levius faciunt—Many hands make light work. Pr.
Multæ regum aures et oculi—Kings have many ears and eyes.
Multæ terricolis linguæ, cœlestibus una—The inhabitants of earth have many tongues, those of heaven have but one.
Multarum palmarum causidicus—A pleader who has gained many causes.
Multas amicitias silentium diremit—Silence, or 5 neglect, dissolves many friendships. Pr.
Multi adorantur in ara qui cremantur in igne—Many are worshipped at the altar who are burning in flames. St. Augustine.
Multi / Committunt eadem diverso crimina fato, / Ille crucem sceleris pretium tulit, hic diadema—Many commit the same crimes with a different destiny; one bears a cross as the price of his villany, another wears a crown. Juv.
Multi mortales, dediti ventri atque somno, indocti incultique vitam sicuti peregrinantes transiere; quibus profecto contra naturam corpus voluptati, anima oneri—Many men bave passed through life like travellers in a strange land, without spiritual or moral culture, and given up to the lusts of appetite and indolence, whose bodies, contrary to their nature, were enslaved to indulgence, and their souls a burden. Sall.
Multi multa, nemo omnia novit—Many know many things, no one everything. Coke.
Multi nil rectum nisi quod placuit sibi ducunt—Many 10 deem nothing right but what suits their own conceit. Hor.
Multi te oderint si teipsum ames—Many will detest you if you spend all love on yourself.
Multis ille bonis flebilis occidit / Nulli flebilior quam tibi—He fell lamented by many good men, by none more lamented than by thee (Virgil). Hor., of Quinctilius.
Multis minatur, qui uni facit injuriam—He who wrongs one threatens many. Pub. Syr.
Multis parasse divitias non finis miseriarum fuit, sed mutatio; non est in rebus vitium sed in animo—The acquisition of riches has been to many, not the end of their miseries, but a change in them; the fault is not in the riches, but in the disposition. Sen.
Multis terribilis caveto multos—If you are a 15 terror to many, then beware of many. Auson.
Multitudinem decem faciunt—Ten constitute a crowd. Coke.
Multo plures satietas quam fames perdidit viros—Many more die of surfeit than of hunger.
Multos castra juvant, et lituo tubæ / Permistus sonitus, bellaque matribus / Detestata—The camp and the clang of the trumpet mingled with the clarion, and wars detested by mothers, have delights for many. Hor.
Multos in summa pericula misit / Venturi timor ipse mali—The mere apprehension of coming evil has driven many into positions of great peril. Pr.
Multos ingratos invenimus, plures facimus—We 20 find many men ungrateful; we make more. Pr.
Multos qui conflictari adversis videantur, beatos; ac plerosque, quanquam magnas per opes, miserrimos—We may see many struggling against adversity who yet are happy; and more, although abounding in wealth, who are most wretched. Tac.
Multum abludit imago—The picture is outrageously unlike. Hor.
Multum demissus homo—A modest reserved man. Hor.
Multum in parvo—Much in little.
Multum, non multa—Much, not many. Pliny. 25
Multum sapit qui non diu desipit—He is very wise who does not long persist in folly. Pr.
Mundæque parvo sub lare pauperum / Cœnæ, sine aulæis et ostro, / Sollicitam explicuere frontem—A neat, simple meal under the humble roof of the poor, without hangings and purple, has smoothed the wrinkles of an anxious brow. Hor.
Munditiæ, et ornatus, et cultus hæc feminarum insignia sunt, his gaudent et gloriantur—Neatness, ornament, and dress, are peculiar badges of women; in these they delight and glory. Livy.
Munditiis capimur—We are captivated by neatness. Ovid.
Mundus est Dei viva statua!—The world is the 30 living image of God. T. Campanella.
Mundus universus exercet histrionem—All men practise the actor's art. Petron.
Mundus vult decipi; ergo decipiatur—The world wishes to be deceived; therefore let it be deceived.
Munera accipit frequens, remittit nunquam—He often receives presents, but never gives any. Plaut.
Munera, crede mihi, capiunt hominesque deosque; / Placatur donis Jupiter ipse datis!—Gifts, believe me, captivate both men and gods; Jupiter himself is won over and appeased by gifts. Ovid.
Munificence is not quantity, but quality. 35 Pascal.
Munit hæc, et altera vincit—This defends, and the other conquers. M.
Munus Apolline dignum—A present worthy of Apollo. Hor.
Munus ornare verbis—To enhance the value of a present by words. Ter.
Murder, though it have no tongue, will speak / With most miraculous organ. Ham., ii. 2.
Murder will out. Chaucer. 40
Muras æneus conscientia sana—A sound conscience is a wall of brass. M.
Mus in pice—A mouse in pitch; "a fly wading through tar."
Mus non uni fidit antro—The mouse does not trust to one hole only. Plaut.
Music fills up the present moment more decisively than anything else, whether it awakens thought or summons to action. Goethe.
Music hath charms to soothe the savage 45 breast. Congreve.
Music in the best sense has little need of novelty (Neuheit); on the contrary, the older it is, the more one is accustomed to it, the greater is the effect it produces. Goethe.
Music, in the works of its greatest masters, is more marvellous, more mysterious, than poetry. H. Giles.
Music is a kind of inarticulate unfathomable speech, which leads us to the edge of the infinite, and lets us for moments gaze that. Carlyle.
Music is a language directed to the passions; but the rudest passions put on a new nature and become pleasing in harmony. James Usher.
Music is a prophecy of what life is to be, the rainbow of promise translated out of seeing into hearing. Mrs. Child.
Music is an invisible dance, as dancing is a silent music. Jean Paul.
Music is but wild sounds civilised into time and tune. Fuller.
Music is our fourth great material want—first 5 food, then raiment, then shelter, then music. Bovee.
Music is the art of the prophets, the only art which can calm the agitations of the soul. Luther.
Music is the crystallisation of sound. Thoreau.
Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life. Beethoven.
Music is the most immediate means possessed by the will for the manifestation of its inner impulses. A. R. Parsons.
Music is the only one of the fine arts in which 10 not only man, but all other animals, have a common property. Jean Paul.
Music is the only sensual gratification which mankind may indulge in to excess without injury to their moral and religious feelings. Addison.
Music is the poor man's Parnassus. Emerson.
Music is the true universal speech of mankind. Weber.
Music makes people milder and gentler, more moral and more reasonable. Luther.
Music, of all the arts, has the greatest influence 15 over the passions, and the legislator ought to give it the greatest encouragement. Napoleon.
Music of the spheres. Pericles, v. 1.
Music oft hath such a charm / To make bad good, and good provoke to harm. Meas. for Meas., iv. 1.
Music, once admitted into the soul, becomes a sort of spirit, and never dies. Bulwer Lytton.
Music so softens and disarms the mind, / That not an arrow does resistance find. Waller.
Music stands in a much closer connection with 20 pure sensation than any of the other arts. Helmholtz.
Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. Auerbach.
Music, when healthy, is the teacher of perfect order; and also when depraved, the teacher of perfect disorder. Ruskin.
Music will not cure the toothache. Pr.
Music wraps us in melancholy, and elevates in joy. James Usher.
Musik ist der Schlüssel vom weiblichen Herzen—Music 25 is the key to the female heart. Seume.
Musik ist die wahre allgemeine Menschensprache—Music is the true universal speech of mankind. C. J. Weber.
Muss ist eine harte Nuss—Must is a hard nut to crack. Ger. Pr.
Müsset im Naturbetrachen / Immer eins wie alles achten; / Nichts ist drinnen, nichts ist draussen, / Denn was innen, das ist aussen. / So ergreifet ohne Säumness / Heilig öffentlich Geheimniss—In the study of Nature you must ever regard one as all; nothing is inner, nothing is outer, for what is within that is without. Without hesitation, therefore, seize ye the holy mystery thus lying open to all. Goethe.
Müssiggang ist aller Laster Anfang—Idleness is the beginning of all vices.
Must is a hard nut to crack, but it has a sweet 30 kernel. Spurgeon.
"Must" is hard, but by "must" alone can man show what his inward condition is. Any one can live unrestrainedly. Goethe.
Must not a great history be always an epic? Dr. Walter Smith.
Mutability is the badge of infirmity. Charron.
Mutare vel timere sperno—I disdain either to change or to fear. M.
Mutatis mutandis—After making the necessary 35 changes. L.
Mutato nomine, de te / Fabula narratur—Change but the name, the story's told of you. Hor.
Mutum est pictura poema—A picture is a poem without words.
My alms-people are to be the ablest bodied I can find, the ablest minded I can make, and every day will be a duty ... shall stand with tools at work, mattock or flail, axe or hammer. Ruskin
My ancient but ignoble blood / Has crept through scoundrels ever since the Flood. (?)
My better half. Sir Philip Sidney. 40
My bounty is as boundless as the sea, / My love as deep; the more I give to thee, / The more I have, for both are infinite. Rom. and Jul., ii. 2.
My dame fed her hens on thanks, but they laid no eggs. Pr.
My days are in the yellow leaf; / The flowers and fruits of love are gone; / The worm, the canker, and the grief / Are mine alone. Byron.
"My family begins with me, yours ends with you." Iphicrates, when upbraided by a young aristocrat for his low birth.
My fate cries out, / And makes each petty 45 artery in this body / As hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve. Ham., i. 4.
My first and last secret of Art is to get a thorough intelligence of the fact to be painted, represented, or, in whatever way, set forth—the fact deep as Hades, high as heaven, and written so, as to the visual face of it on this poor earth. Carlyle.
My grief lies onward, and my joy behind. Lucrece.
"My hand," said Napoleon, "is immediately connected with my head," but the sacred courage is connected with the heart. Emerson.
My heart leaps up when I behold / A rainbow in the sky: / So was it when my life began, / So is it now I am a man; / So be it when I shall grow old, / Or let me die. Wordsworth.
My heart is true as steel. Mid. N. Dream, 50 ii. 2.
My heart resembles the ocean; has storm, and ebb, and flow; / And many a beautiful pearl / Lies hid in its depths below. Heine.
My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here. Burns.
My highest wish is to find within the God whom I find everywhere without. Kepler.
My house is my castle. Pr.
My house, my house, though thou art small, / Thou art to me the Escurial. Pr.
"My ideal of a society is one in which I would 5 be guillotined as a Conservative." Proudhon, to Prince Napoleon.
My inheritance how wide and fair! / Time is my seed-field, to Time I'm heir. Goethe.
My joy in friends, those sacred people, is my consolation. Emerson.
My joy is death;—/ Death, at whose name I oft have been afeared, / Because I wish'd this world's eternity. 2 Hen. VI., ii. 4.
My mind can take no hold on the present world, nor rest in it a moment, but my whole nature rushes onward with irresistible force towards a future and better state of being. Fichte.
My mind to me a kingdom is, / Such perfect joy 10 therein I find. Byrd.
My name is Norval; on the Grampian hills my father feeds his flock. Home.
My notions of life are much the same as they are about travelling; there is a good deal of amusement on the road, but, after all, one wants to be at rest. Southey.
My offence is rank; it smells to heaven. Ham., iii. 3.
My only books / Were woman's looks,—/ And folly's all they've taught me. Moore.
My opinion, my conviction, gains infinitely in 15 strength and sureness the moment a second mind has adopted it. Novalis.
My pen was never dipped in gall. Crébillon.
My perception of a fact is as much a fact as the sun. Emerson.
My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time, / And makes as healthful music. Ham., iii. 4.
My purposes lie in the churchyard. Philip Henry.
My rigour relents: I pardon something to the 20 spirit of liberty. Burke.
My son, be not now negligent, for the Lord hath chosen thee to stand before Him. Apoc.
My son is my son till he have got him a wife, / But my daughter's my daughter all the days of her life. Pr.
My soul, what's lighter than a feather? Wind. / Than wind? The fire. And what than fire? The mind. / What's lighter than the mind? A thought. Than thought? / This bubble world. What than this bubble? Nought. Quarles.
My strength is as the strength of ten, because my heart is pure. Tennyson.
My way of life / Is fall'n into the sere, the yellow 25 leaf; / And that which should accompany old age, / As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, / I must not look to have; but in their stead, / Curses, not loud, but deep, mouth-honour, breath / Which the poor heart would fain deny, but dare not. Macb., v. 3.
My words fly up, my thoughts remain below; / Words, without thoughts, never to heaven go. Ham., iii. 3.
My yoke is easy and my burden light. Jesus.
Myn leeren is spelen, myn spelen is leeren—My learning is play, and my play is learning. Van Alphen.
Mysteries are due to secrecy. Bacon.
Mysteries which must explain themselves are 30 not worth the loss of time which a conjecture about them takes up. Sterne.
Mysterious to all thought, / A mother's prime of bliss, / When to her eager lips is brought / Her infant's thrilling kiss. Keble.
Mystery magnifies danger, as a fog the sun; the hand that warned Belshazzar derived its horrifying influence from the want of a body. Colton.
Mystic, deep as the world's centre, are the roots a man has struck into his native soil; no tree that grows is rooted so. Carlyle.
Mysticism consists in the mistake of an accidental and individual symbol for a universal one. Emerson.
Mythology is not religion. It may rather be 35 regarded as the ancient substitute, the poetical counterpart, for dogmatic theology. Hare.
N'aboyez pas à la lune—Do not cry out to no purpose (lit. don't bark at the moon). Fr. Pr.
N'est on jamais tyran qu'avec un diadème?—Is a man never a tyrant except he wear a crown? Chénier.
N'importe—No matter. Fr.
N'oubliez—Do not forget. M.
Naboth was right to hold on to his home. 40 There were garnered memories that all the wealth of Ahab could not buy. Ward Beecher.
Nace en la huerta lo que no siembra el hortelano—More grows in the garden than the gardener ever sowed there. Sp. Pr.
Nach Canossa gehen wir nicht—We are not going to Canossa (where Henry IV. humbled himself before the Pope). Bismarck.
Nach Ehre geizt die Jugend; / Lass dich den Ehrgeiz nicht verführen—Youth is covetous of honour; let not this covetousness seduce thee. Schiller.
Nach Freiheit strebt der Mann, das Weib nach Sitte—The man strives after freedom, the woman after good manners. Goethe.
Nach Golde drängt, / Am Golde hängt, / Doch 45 alles. Ach, wir Armen!—Yet after gold every one presses, on gold everything hangs. Alas! we poor ones. Goethe.
Nach Gottes Wesenheit ist gar nicht dein Beruf zu forschen; forsche du nach Wesen, die er schuf—Thou art not required to search into the nature of God, but into the nature of the beings which he has created. Rückert.
Nacheifern ist beneiden—To emulate is to envy. Lessing.
Nachgeben stillt allen Krieg—Yielding stills all war. Ger. Pr.
Nacht muss es sein, wo Friedlands Sterne strahlen—It must be night where Friedland's stars shine. Schiller.
Næ amicum castigare ob meritam noxiam / Immune est facinus—Verily, it is a thankless office to censure a friend for a fault when he deserves it. Plaut.
Nae butter 'll stick to my bread, i.e., no good fortune ever comes my way. Sc. Pr.
Nae freen' like the penny. Sc. Pr.
Nae fules like auld fules. Sc. Pr.
Nae man can be happy without a friend, nor 5 be sure of him till he's unhappy. Sc. Pr.
Nae man can live at peace unless his neighbours let him. Sc. Pr.
Nae man can mak' his ain hap (destiny). Sc. Pr.
Nae man can tether time or tide. Burns.
Nae man can thrive unless his wife will let him. Sc. Pr.
Nae man has a tack (lease) o' his life. Sc. 10 Pr.
Nae man is wise at a' times, nor wise on a' things. Sc. Pr.
Nae treasures nor pleasures / Could mak' us happy lang, / The heart aye's the part aye / That mak's us right or wrang. Burns.
Nae wonder ye're auld like; ilka thing fashes (bothers) ye. Sc. Pr.
Naething is a man's truly but what he cometh by duly. Sc. Pr.
Naething is got without pains but an ill name. 15 Sc. Pr.
Naething is got without pains except dirt and long nails. Sc. Pr.
Naething is ill said if it's no ill ta'en. Sc. Pr.
Nager entre deux eaux—To waver between two parties. Fr.
Naiv muss jedes wahre Genie sein, oder es ist keines—Every true genius must be natural, or it is none. Schiller.
Naked truth is out of place before the eyes of 20 the profane vulgar; it can only make its appearance thickly veiled. Schopenhauer.
Nakedness is uncomely, as well in mind as body; and it addeth no small reverence to men's manners and actions if they be not altogether open. Bacon.
Nam de mille fabæ modiis dum surripis unum, / Damnum est, non facinus mihi pacto lenius isto—If from a thousand bushels of beans you steal one, my loss, it is true, is in this case less, but not your villany. Hor.
Nam dives qui fieri vult, / Et cito vult fieri—He who wishes to become rich wishes to become so quickly too. Juv.
Nam ego illum periisse duco, cui quidem periit pudor—I regard that man as lost who has lost his sense of shame. Plaut.
Nam et majorum instituta tueri, sacris cerimoniisque 25 retinendis, sapientis est—For it is the part of a wise man to protect the institutions of his forefathers by retaining the sacred rites and ceremonies.
Nam neque divitibus contingunt gaudia solis, / Nec vixit male qui natus moriensque fefellit—Joys do not fall to the rich alone; nor has he lived ill of whose birth and death no one took note. Hor.
Nam nunc mores nihil faciunt quod licet, nisi quod lubet—Nowadays it is the fashion to make nothing of what is proper, but only what is pleasant. Plaut.
Nam pro jucundis aptissima quæque dabunt Di. / Carior est illis homo quam sibi—The gods will give what is most suitable rather than what is most pleasing; man is dearer to them than he is to himself. Juv.
Nam quæ inscitia est adversum stimulum calces—It is the height of folly to kick against the pricks (lit. the goad). Ter.
Nam quum magna malæ superest audacia 30 causæ, / Creditur a multis fiducia—When great impudence comes to the help of a bad cause, it is taken by many for honest confidence. Juv.
Nam scelus intra se tacitum qui cogitat ullum / Facti crimen habet—He who secretly meditates a crime has all the guilt of the deed. Juv.
Nam tua res agitur, paries cum proximus ardet!—Your property is in peril surely if your neighbour's house is on fire! Hor.
Nam vitiis nemo sine nascitur; optimus ille est, / Qui minimis urgetur—No man is born without faults; he is the best who is influenced by the fewest. Hor.
Namen nennen dich nicht! Dich bilden Griffel und Pinsel sterblicher Künstler nicht nach!—Names do not name thee! Graver and pencil of mortal artist can give no idea of thee! Ueltzen.
Names alter, things never alter. Wm. Blake. 35
Nane are so weel but they hope to be better. Sc. Pr.
Napoleon affords us an example of the danger of elevating one's self to the Absolute, and sacrificing everything to the carrying out of an idea. Goethe.
Napoleon, for the sake of a great name, broke in pieces almost half a world. Goethe.
Narrative is linear, but Action, having breadth and depth as well as length, is solid. Carlyle.
Narratur et prisci Catonis / Sæpe mero caluisse 40 virtus—It is said that the virtue even of the elder Cato was often warmed by wine. Hor.
Nascentes morimur, finisque ab origine pendet—We are born but to die (lit. die in being born), and our end hangs on to our beginning. Manilius.
Nascimur poetæ, fimus oratores—We are born poets, we become orators. Cic.
Natales grate numeras? ignoscis amicis? / Lenior et melior fis accedente senecta?—Do you count your birthdays thankfully? forgive your friends? grow gentler and better with advancing age? Hor.
Natio comœda est—The nation is composed of actors. Juv.
National character varies as it fades under invasion 45 or corruption; but if ever it glows again into a new life, that life must be tempered by the earth and sky of the country itself. Ruskin. (?)
National enthusiasm is the great nursery of genius. Tuckermann.
National suffering is, if thou wilt understand the words, verily a judgment of God; it has ever been preceded by national crime. Carlyle.
Nations and empires flourish and decay, / By turns command, and in their turn obey. Dryden, after Ovid.
Nations and men are only the best when they are the gladdest, and deserve heaven when they enjoy it. Jean Paul.
Nations are only transitional forms of humanity; they must undergo obliteration, as do the transitional forms offered by the animal series. There is no more an immortality for them than there is an immobility for an embryo or any one of the manifold forms passed through in its progress of development. Draper.
Nations, like individuals, are born, proceed through a predestined growth, and die. One comes to its end at an early period and in an untimely way; another, not until it has gained maturity. One is cut off by feebleness in its infancy, another is destroyed by civil disease, another commits political suicide, another lingers in old age. But for every one there is an orderly way of progress to its final term, whatever that term may be. Draper.
Natur und Kunst, sie scheinen sich zu fliehen, / Und haben sich, eh' man es denkt, gefunden—Nature and art seem to shun each other, and have met (lit. found each other) ere one is aware. Goethe.
Natura beatis / Omnibus esse dedit, si quis cognoverit uti—Nature has granted to all to be happy, if we but knew how to use her gifts. Claud.
Natura il fece, e poi roppe la stampa—Nature 5 fashioned him, and then broke the mould. Ariost.
Natura ipsa valere, et mentis viribus excitari, et quasi quodam divino spiritu afflari—To be strong by nature, to be urged on by the native powers of the mind, and to be inspired by a divine spirit, as it were. Cic.
Natura naturans—Nature formative.
Natura naturata—Nature passive; nature formed.
Natura nihil agit frustra—Nature does nothing in vain.
Natura non facit saltus—Nature makes no 10 leaps.
Natura, quam te colimus inviti quoque—O Nature, how we bow to thee even against our will. Sen.
Natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Bacon.
Natural abilities can almost make up for the want of every kind of cultivation, but no cultivation for want of natural abilities. Schopenhauer.
Natural knowledge is come at by the continuance and progress of learning and of liberty, and by particular persons attending to, comparing, and pursuing intimations scattered up and down it, which are overlooked and disregarded by the generality of the world. Bishop Butler.
Natural objects always did and do weaken, 15 deaden, and obliterate imagination in me. Wm. Blake.
Natural selection is the principle by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved. Darwin.
Naturalia non sunt turpia—Natural things are without shame.
Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque recurret—Drive Nature out with a pitchfork, she will every time come rushing back. Hor.
Nature abhors a vacuum. Pr.
Nature admits no lie. Carlyle. 20
Nature acts towards us like an Oriental potentate with Mamelukes under him, whom he employs for some mysterious purpose, but to whom he never shows himself in person. Renan.
Nature alone is antique, and the oldest art a mushroom. Carlyle.
Nature alone is permanent. Longfellow.
Nature alone knows what she means. Goethe.
Nature always leaps to the surface, and manages 25 to show what she is. Boileau.
Nature always speaks of spirit. Emerson.
Nature always wears the colours of the spirit. To a man labouring under calamity the heat of his own fire hath sadness in it. Emerson.
Nature and art are too grand to go forth in pursuit of aims; nor is it necessary that they should, for there are relations everywhere, and relations constitute life. Goethe.
Nature and books belong to the eyes that see them. It depends on the mood of the man whether he shall see the sunset or the fine poem. Emerson.
Nature and Heaven command you, at your 30 peril, to discern worth from unworth in everything, and most of all in man. Ruskin.
Nature and love cannot be concealed. Ger. Pr.
Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night; / God said, "Let Newton be!" and all was light. Pope.
Nature and truth, though never so low or vulgar, are yet pleasing when openly and artlessly represented. Pope.
Nature builds upon a false bottom, seeks herself what she values in others, and is oftentimes deceived and disappointed. Grace reposes her whole hope and love in God, and is never mistaken, never deluded by false expectations. Thomas à Kempis.
Nature cannot be surprised in undress. Beauty 35 breaks in everywhere. Emerson.
Nature cannot but always act rightly, quite unconcerned as to what may be the consequences. Goethe.
Nature counts nothing that she meets with base, / But lives and loves in every place. Tennyson.
Nature, crescent, does not grow alone / In thews and bulk; but, as this temple waxes, / The inward service of the mind and soul / Grows wide withal. Ham., i. 3.
Nature does more than supply materials; she also supplies powers. J. S. Mill.
Nature does not cocker us; we are children, 40 not pets; she is not fond; everything is dealt to us without fear or favour, after severe, universal laws. Emerson.
Nature does not like to be observed, and likes that we should be her fools and playmates. Emerson.
Nature does not make all great men, more than all other men, in the self-same mould. Carlyle.
Nature draws with greater force than seven oxen. Ger. Pr.
Nature ever provides for her own exigencies. Sen.
Nature fashions no creature without implanting in it the strength needful for its action and duration. Carlyle.
Nature forces on our heart a Creator; history, a Providence. Jean Paul.
Nature gives healthy children much; how much! Wise education is a wise unfolding of this; often it unfolds itself better of its own accord. Goethe.
Nature gives you the impression as if there were nothing contradictory in the world; and yet, when you return back to the dwelling-place of man, be it lofty or low, wide or narrow, there is ever somewhat to contend with, to battle with, to smooth and put to rights. Goethe.
Nature glories in death more than in life. The 5 month of departure is more beautiful than the month of coming.... Every green thing loves to die in bright colours. Ward Beecher.
Nature goes her own way; and all that to us seems an exception, is really according to order. Goethe.
Nature had made occupation a necessity; society makes it a duty; habit may make it a pleasure. Capelle.
Nature has directly formed woman to be a mother, only indirectly to be a wife; man, on the contrary, is rather made to be a husband than a father. Jean Paul.
Nature has given to each one all that as a man he needs, which it is the business of education to develop, if, as most frequently happens, it does not develop better of itself. Goethe.
Nature has lent us tears—the cry of suffering 10 when the man at last can bear it no longer. Goethe.
Nature has made man's breast no windows / To publish what he does within doors, / Nor what dark secrets there inhabit, / Unless his own rash folly blab it. Butler.
Nature has made provision for all her children; the meanest is not hindered in its existence even by that of the most excellent. Goethe.
Nature has no feeling; the sun gives his light to good and bad alike, and moon and stars shine out for the worst of men as for the best. Goethe.
Nature has no moods; they belong to man alone. Auerbach.
Nature has planted passions in the heart of 15 man for the wisest purposes both of religion and life. Fox.
Nature has sometimes made a fool, but a coxcomb is always of man's own making. Addison.
Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time. / Some that will evermore peep through their eyes / And laugh like parrots at a bagpiper; / And other of such vinegar aspect / That they'll not show their teeth in way of smile, / Though Nestor swear the jest be laughable. Mer. of Venice, i. 1.
Nature hath made nothing so base but can / Read some instruction to the wisest man. Aleyn.
Nature here shows art, / That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart. Mid. N. Dream, ii. 8.
Nature holds an immense uncollected debt 20 over every man's head. Ward Beecher.
Nature in women is so nearly allied to art. Goethe.
Nature in you stands on the very verge / Of her confine. King Lear, ii. 4.
Nature is a friend to truth. Young.
Nature is a frugal mother, and never gives without measure. Emerson.
Nature is a mutable cloud, which is always 25 and never the same. Emerson.
Nature is a Sibyl, who testifies beforehand to what has been determined from all eternity, and was not to be realised till late in time. Goethe.
Nature is a vast trope, and all particular natures are tropes. Emerson.
Nature is always kind enough to give even her clouds a humorous lining. Lowell.
Nature is always lavish, even prodigal. Goethe.
Nature is always like herself. Linnæus. 30