Source: John Bartlett (1820-1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.
| 1 |
| To write a verse or two is all the praise That I can raise. |
| Praise. |
| 2 |
| Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright, The bridal of the earth and sky. |
| Virtue. |
| 3 |
| Sweet spring, full of sweet days and roses, A box where sweets compacted lie. |
| Virtue. |
| 4 |
| Only a sweet and virtuous soul, Like seasoned timber, never gives. |
| Virtue. |
| 5 |
| Like summer friends, Flies of estate and sunneshine. |
| The Answer. |
| 6 |
| A servant with this clause Makes drudgery divine; Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws Makes that and th’ action fine. |
| The Elixir. |
| 7 |
| A verse may find him who a sermon flies, And turn delight into a sacrifice. |
| The Church Porch. |
| 8 |
| Dare to be true: nothing can need a lie; A fault which needs it most, grows two thereby. 1 |
| The Church Porch. |
| 9 |
| Chase brave employment with a naked sword Throughout the world. |
| The Church Porch. |
| 10 |
| Sundays observe; think when the bells do chime, ’T is angels’ music. |
| The Church Porch. |
| 11 |
| The worst speak something good; if all want sense, God takes a text, and preacheth Pa-ti-ence. |
| The Church Porch. |
| 12 |
| Bibles laid open, millions of surprises. |
| Sin. |
| 13 |
| Religion stands on tiptoe in our land, Ready to pass to the American strand. |
| The Church Militant. |
| 14 |
| Man is one world, and hath Another to attend him. |
| Man. |
| 15 |
| If goodness lead him not, yet weariness May toss him to my breast. |
| The Pulley. |
| 16 |
| The fineness which a hymn or psalm affords If when the soul unto the lines accords. |
| A True Hymn. |
| 17 |
| Wouldst thou both eat thy cake and have it? 2 |
| The Size. |
| 18 |
| Do well and right, and let the world sink. 3 |
| Country Parson. Chap. xxix. |
| 19 |
| His bark is worse than his bite. |
| Jacula Prudentum. |
| 20 |
| After death the doctor. 4 |
| Jacula Prudentum. |
| 21 |
| Hell is full of good meanings and wishings. 5 |
| Jacula Prudentum. |
| 22 |
| No sooner is a temple built to God, but the Devil builds a chapel hard by. 6 |
| Jacula Prudentum. |
| 23 |
| God’s mill grinds slow, but sure. 7 |
| Jacula Prudentum. |
| 24 |
| The offender never pardons. 8 |
| Jacula Prudentum. |
| 25 |
| It is a poor sport that is not worth the candle. |
| Jacula Prudentum. |
| 26 |
| To a close-shorn sheep God gives wind by measure. 9 |
| Jacula Prudentum. |
| 27 |
| The lion is not so fierce as they paint him. 10 |
| Jacula Prudentum. |
| 28 |
| Help thyself, and God will help thee. 11 |
| Jacula Prudentum. |
| 29 |
| Words are women, deeds are men. 12 |
| Jacula Prudentum. |
| 30 |
| The mouse that hath but one hole is quickly taken. 13 |
| Jacula Prudentum. |
| 31 |
| A dwarf on a giant’s shoulders sees farther of the two. 14 |
| Jacula Prudentum. |
| Note 1. And he that does one fault at first, And lies to hide it, makes it two. Isaac Watts: Song xv. [back] |
| Note 2. See Heywood, Quotation 129. Isaac Bickerstaff: Thomas and Sally. [back] |
| Note 3. Ruat cœlum, fiat voluntas tua (Though the sky fall, let Thy will be done).—Sir Thomas Browne: Religio Medici, part ii. sect. xi. [back] |
| Note 4. After the war, aid.—Greek proverb. After me the deluge.—Madame de Pompadour. [back] |
| Note 5. Hell is paved with good intentions.—Dr. Samuel Johnson (Boswell’s Life of Johnson, Annus 1775). [back] |
| Note 6. See Burton, Quotation 80. [back] |
| Note 7. Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small.—Friedrich Von Logau (1614–1655): Retribution (translation). [back] |
| Note 8. They ne’er pardon who have done the wrong.—John Dryden: The Conquest of Grenada. [back] |
| Note 9. God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb.—Laurence Sterne: Sentimental Journey. [back] |
| Note 10. The lion is not so fierce as painted.—Thomas Fuller: Expecting Preferment. [back] |
| Note 11. God helps those who help themselves.—Sidney. Discourses on Government, sect. xxiii. Benjamin Franklin: Poor Richard’s Almanac. [back] |
| Note 12. Words are men’s daughters, but God’s sons are things.—Dr. Madden: Boulter’s Monument (supposed to have been inserted by Dr. Johnson, 1745). [back] |
| Note 13. See Chaucer, Quotation 30. [back] |
| Note 14. See Burton, Quotation 5. [back] |
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