Familiar Quotations / A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs Traced to / Their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature

by Unknown

Potius sero quam nunquam (Rather late than never).—Livy: iv. ii. 11.

[13:6] Quant le cheval est emblé dounke ferme fols l'estable (When the horse has been stolen, the fool shuts the stable).—Les Proverbes del Vilain.

[13:7] Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.—Proverbs xvi. 18.

Pryde goeth before, and shame cometh behynde.—Treatise of a Gallant. Circa 1510.

[13:8] She looks as if butter would not melt in her mouth.—Swift: Polite Conversation.

[13:9] 'T is old, but true, still swine eat all the draff.—Shakespeare: Merry Wives of Windsor, act iv. sc. 2.

[13:10] Ewyl weed ys sone y-growe.—MS. Harleian, circa 1490.

An ill weed grows apace.—Chapman: An Humorous Day's Mirth.

Great weeds do grow apace.—Shakespeare: Richard III. act ii. sc. 4. Beaumont and Fletcher: The Coxcomb, act iv. sc. 4.

[14:1] God knows thou art a collop of my flesh.—Shakespeare: 1 Henry VI. act v. sc. 4.