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A little house well fill'd, a little land well till'd, and a
little wife well will'd, are great riches.
Topic: Wealth
Source: written in a copy of the "Grete Herbal"
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Where is the man who has the power and skill
To stem the torrent of a woman's will?
For if she will, she will, you may depend on't;
And if she won't, she won't; so there's an end on't.
Topic: Women
Source: from the pillar erected on the Mount in the Dane John Field, Canterbury, in the "Examiner", May 31,
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Man was made when Nature was but an apprentice, but woman when
she was a skilful mistress of her art.
Topic: Women
Source: Cupid's Whirligig
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What is lighter than the wind? A feather.
What is lighter than a feather? Fire.
What lighter than a fire? A woman.
What lighter than a woman? Nothing.
[Lat., Vente quid levius? fulgur. Quid fulgure? flamma
Flamma quid? mulier. Quid mulier? nihil.]
Topic: Women
Source: Harleian Manuscript (no. 3362, folio 47)
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I think Nature hath lost the mould
Where she her shape did take;
Or else I doubt if Nature could
So fair a creature make.
Topic: Women
Source: A Praise of his Lady, in "Tottel's Miscellany"
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It is a thing very displeasing to me when the hen speaks and the
cock is silent.
[Fr., C'est chose qui moult me deplaist,
Quand poule parle et coq se taist.]
Topic: Women
Source: Roman de la Rose, XIV century
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The virtue of her lively looks
Excels the precious stone;
I wish to have none other books
To read or look upon.
Topic: Women
Source: Song and Sonnets
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That blessed word Mesopotamia.
Topic: Words
Source: see Brewer's "Dictionary of Phrase and Fable"
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He speaketh to me the words of men. I listen to him and I repeat
to him the words of gods.
Topic: Words
Source: Egyptian Book of the Dead
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The tongue of a man is his sword and effective speech is stronger
than all fighting.
Topic: Words
Source: The Husia of Ancient Egypt, translation by Maulana Kaurenga
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How bething the, gentliman,
How Adam dalf, and Eve span.
Topic: Work
Source: from a manuscript of the fifteenth century in the British Museum
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This is the best world, that we live in,
To lend and to spend and to give in:
But to borrow, or beg, or to get a man's own,
It is the worst world that ever was known.
Topic: World
Source: A Collection of Epigrams
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Long ago a man of the world was defined as a man who in every
serious crisis is invariably wrong.
Topic: World
Source: Fortnightly Review--Armageddon--And After (p. 36)
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Thus the fable tells us, that the wren mounted as high as the
eagle, by getting upon his back.
Topic: Wrens
Source: in the "Tatler", no. 224
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And then the wren gan scippen and to daunce.
Topic: Wrens
Source: in the "Tatler", no. 224
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