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If thou art terrible to many, then beware of many.
[Lat., Multis terribilis, caveto multos.]
Author: Decimus Magnus Ausonius
Source: Septem Sapientum Sententioe Septenis Versibus Explicatoe (IV, 5)
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It is always good
When a man has two irons in the fire.
Author: Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher
Source: The Faithful Friends (act I, sc. 2)
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And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be
for a glorious throne to his father's house.
Author: Bible
Source: Isaiah (ch. XXIII, v. 23)
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Let your loins be girded about, and your light burning;
And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he
will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh,
they may open unto him immediately.
Author: Bible
Source: Luke (ch. XII, v. 35-36)
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Prudence is a rich, ugly old maid wooed by incapacity.
Author: Bible
Source: Luke (ch. XII, v. 35-36)
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And it is a common saying that it is best first to catch the
stag, and afterwards, when he has been caught, to skin him.
[Lat., Et vulgariter dicitur, quod primun oportet cervum capere,
et postea, cum captus fuerit, illum excoriare.]
Author: Henry de Bracton (Bratton or Bretton)
Source: Works (bk. IV, tit. I, c. 2, sec. IV)
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Look before you ere you leap.
Author: Samuel Butler (1)
Source: Hudibras (pt. II, canto I)
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'Tis true no lover has that pow'r
T' enforce a desperate amour,
As he that has two strings t' his bow,
And burns for love and money too.
Author: Samuel Butler (1)
Source: Hudibras (pt. III, canto I, l. 1)
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Let us not throw the rope after the bucket.
[Sp., No arrojemos la soga tras el caldero.]
Author: Cervantes (Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra)
Source: Don Quixote (II, 9)
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Archers ever
Have two strings to bow; and shall great Cupid
(Archer of archers both in men and women),
Be worse provided than a common archer?
Author: George Chapman
Source: Bussy d'Ambois (act II, sc. 1)
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Prudence is the knowledge of things to be sought, and those to be
shunned.
Author: Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero)
Source: De Officiis (I, 43)
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I prefer silent prudence to loquacious folly.
[Lat., Malo indisertam prudentiam, quam loquacem stultitiam.]
Author: Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero)
Source: De Oratore (III, 35)
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Precaution is better than cure.
[Lat., Praestat cautela quam medela.]
Author: Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero)
Source: De Oratore (III, 35)
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According to her cloth she cut her coat.
Author: John Dryden
Source: Fables--Cock and Fox (l. 20)
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. . . Therefore I am wel pleased to take any coulor to defend your
honour and hope you wyl remember that who seaketh two strings to
one bowe, he may shute strong but never strait.
Author: Elizabeth I
Source: Letter X, to James VI
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For chance fights ever on the side of the prudent.
Author: Euripides
Source: Pirithous, (adapted)
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Yes, I had two strings to my bow; both golden ones, egad! and
both cracked.
Author: Henry Fielding
Source: Love in Several Masques (act V, sc. 13)
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Get Estates may venture more. Little Boats must keep near Shore.
Author: Benjamin Franklin
Source: Poor Richard
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He who does not stretch himself according to the coverlet finds
his feet uncovered.
[Ger., Wer sich nicht nach der Decke streckt,
Dem bleiben die Fusse unbedeckt.]
Author: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Source: Spruche In Reimen (III)
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Better is to bow than breake.
Author: John Heywood
Source: Proverbs (pt. I, ch. IX)
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It is good the have a hatch before the durre.
Author: John Heywood
Source: Proverbs (pt. I, ch. XI)
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Yee have many strings to your bowe.
Author: John Heywood
Source: Proverbs (pt. I, ch. XI)
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So that every man lawfully ordained must bring a bow which hath
two strings, a title of present right and another to provide for
future possibility or chance.
Author: Richard Hooker
Source: Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity (bk. V, ch. LXXX, no. 9)
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He is a dangerous fellow, keep clear of him. (That is: he has
hay on his horns, showing he is dangerous.)
[Lat., Faenum habet in cornu, longe fuge.]
Author: Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Source: Satires (I, IV, 34)
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The first years of man must make provision for the last.
Author: Samuel Johnson
Source: Rasselas (ch. XVII)
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He that fights and runs away will live to fight another day.
Author: Old English Rhyme
Source: None
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One can't get diseases
of Mad Chicken or Mad Pig
by eating tomatoes or
almonds or figs.
Author: O Anna Niemus
Source: None
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Prudence is an attitude that keeps life safe, but does not often make it happy.
Author: Samuel Johnson
Source: None
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It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either.
Author: Mark Twain
Source: None
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The prudence of the best heads is often defeated by the tenderness of the best of hearts.
Author: Henry Fielding
Source: None
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There is nothing more imprudent than excessive prudence.
Author: Charles Caleb Colton
Source: None
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