"There are some defeats more triumphant than victories."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Even opinion is of force enough to make itself to be espoused at the expense of life."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Nothing is so firmly believed as what we least know."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Plato says, "'T is to no purpose for a sober man to knock at the door of the Muses;" and Aristotle says "that no excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of folly.""

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Some impose upon the world that they believe that which they do not; others, more in number, make themselves believe that they believe, not being able to penetrate into what it is to believe."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"He who should teach men to die would at the same time teach them to live."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"A wise man never loses anything, if he has himself."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"We were halves throughout, and to that degree that methinks by outliving him I defraud him of his part."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"The only good histories are those that have been written by the persons themselves who commanded in the affairs whereof they write."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"The middle sort of historians (of which the most part are) spoil all; they will chew our meat for us."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"She [virtue] requires a rough and stormy passage; she will have either outward difficulties to wrestle with, . . . or internal difficulties."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"To which we may add this other Aristotelian consideration, that he who confers a benefit on any one loves him better than he is beloved by him again."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"The laws of conscience, which we pretend to be derived from nature, proceed from custom."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"All passions that suffer themselves to be relished and digested are but moderate."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"When I play with my cat, who knows whether I do not make her more sport than she makes me?"

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"'T is so much to be a king, that he only is so by being so. The strange lustre that surrounds him conceals and shrouds him from us; our sight is there broken and dissipated, being stopped and filled by the prevailing light."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"For truth itself has not the privilege to be spoken at all times and in all sorts."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a worm, and yet he will be making gods by dozens."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"We seek and offer ourselves to be gulled."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"The oldest and best known evil was ever more supportable than one that was new and untried."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"The souls of emperors and cobblers are cast in the same mould. . . . The same reason that makes us wrangle with a neighbour causes a war betwixt princes."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Apollo said that every one's true worship was that which he found in use in the place where he chanced to be."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"The mariner of old said to Neptune in a great tempest, "O God! thou mayest save me if thou wilt, and if thou wilt thou mayest destroy me; but whether or no, I will steer my rudder true.""

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Nature forms us for ourselves, not for others; to be, not to seem."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"The diversity of physical arguments and opinions embraces all sorts of methods."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"He that I am reading seems always to have the most force."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Habit is a second nature."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"We are born to inquire after truth; it belongs to a greater power to possess it. It is not, as Democritus said, hid in the bottom of the deeps, but rather elevated to an infinite height in the divine knowledge."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"I moreover affirm that our wisdom itself, and wisest consultations, for the most part commit themselves to the conduct of chance."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"How many worthy men have we seen survive their own reputation!"

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"There is more ado to interpret interpretations than to interpret the things, and more books upon books than upon all other subjects; we do nothing but comment upon one another."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Not because Socrates said so, . . . I look upon all men as my compatriots."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Arts and sciences are not cast in a mould, but are formed and perfected by degrees, by often handling and polishing, as bears leisurely lick their cubs into form."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"I, who have so much and so universally adored this ariston metron, "excellent mediocrity," of ancient times, and who have concluded the most moderate measure the most perfect, shall I pretend to an unreasonable and prodigious old age?"

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Like rowers, who advance backward."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Why may not a goose say thus: "All the parts of the universe I have an interest in: the earth serves me to walk upon, the sun to light me; the stars have their influence upon me; I have such an advantage by the winds and such by the waters; there is nothing that yon heavenly roof looks upon so favourably as me. I am the darling of Nature! Is it not man that keeps and serves me?""

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"I have never seen a greater monster or miracle in the world than myself."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Amongst so many borrowed things, I am glad if I can steal one, disguising and altering it for some new service."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"'T is one and the same Nature that rolls on her course, and whoever has sufficiently considered the present state of things might certainly conclude as to both the future and the past."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"There is no man so good, who, were he to submit all his thoughts and actions to the laws, would not deserve hanging ten times in his life."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Let us a little permit Nature to take her own way; she better understands her own affairs than we."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"My appetite comes to me while eating."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"I find that the best virtue I have has in it some tincture of vice."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Is it not a noble farce, wherein kings, republics, and emperors have for so many ages played their parts, and to which the whole vast universe serves for a theatre?"

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"It happens as with cages: the birds without despair to get in, and those within despair of getting out."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"One may be humble out of pride."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Saturninus said, "Comrades, you have lost a good captain to make him an ill general.""

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"What if he has borrowed the matter and spoiled the form, as it oft falls out?"

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"All the world knows me in my book, and my book in me."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"I have ever loved to repose myself, whether sitting or lying, with my heels as high or higher than my head."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain