The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (245 page)
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Authors: Elizabeth Knowles
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60–130
Honesty is praised and left to shiver.
Satires
no. 1, l. 74 (translation by G. G. Ramsay)
Even if nature says no, indignation makes me write verse.
Satires
no. 1, l. 79
The misfortunes of poverty carry with them nothing harder to bear than that it makes men ridiculous.
Satires
no. 3, l. 152
…Omnia Romae
Cum pretio.
Everything in Rome has its price.
Satires
no. 3, l. 183
Rara avis in terris nigroque simillima cycno.A rare bird on this earth, like nothing so much as a black swan.
Satires
no. 6, l. 165
Sed quis custodiet ipsos
Custodes?
But who is to guard the guards themselves?
Satires
no. 6, l. 347
Tenet insanabile multos
Scribendi cacoethes et aegro in corde senescit.
Many suffer from the incurable disease of writing, and it becomes chronic in their sick minds.
Satires
no. 7, l. 51
Travel light and you can sing in the robber's face.
Satires
no. 10, l. 22
…Duas tantum res anxius optat,
Panem et circenses.
Only two things does he [the modern citizen] anxiously wish for—bread and circuses.
Satires
no. 10, l. 80
Mens sana in corpore sano.
A sound mind in a sound body.
Satires
no. 10, l. 356
…Prima est haec ultio, quod se
Iudice nemo nocens absolvitur.
This is the first of punishments, that no guilty man is acquitted if judged by himself.
Satires
no. 13, l. 2
Maxima debetur puero reverentia, siquid
Turpe paras, nec tu pueri contempseris annos.
A child is owed the greatest respect; if you ever have something disgraceful in mind, don't ignore your son's tender years.
Satires
no. 14, l. 47
1883–1924
When Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.
The Metamorphosis
(1915) ch. 1.
Someone must have traduced Joseph K., for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one fine morning.
The Trial
(1925) ch. 1
You may object that it is not a trial at all; you are quite right, for it is only a trial if I recognize it as such.
The Trial
(1925) ch. 2
It's often better to be in chains than to be free.
The Trial
(1925) ch. 8
1886–1941 and
Egan, Raymond B.
1890–1952
There's nothing surer,
The rich get rich and the poor get children.
"Ain't We Got Fun" (1921 song)
1724–1804
Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing wonder and awe, the more often and the more seriously reflection concentrates upon them: the starry heaven above me and the moral law within me.
Critique of Practical Reason
(1788)
There is an imperative which commands a certain conduct immediately, without having as its condition any other purpose to be attained by it. This imperative is Categorical…This imperative may be called that of Morality.
Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Ethics
(1785) sect. 2 (translated by T. K. Abbott)
Happiness is not an ideal of reason but of imagination.
Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Ethics
(1785) sect. 2 (translated by T. K. Abbott)
Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing can ever be made.
Idee zu einer allgemeinen Geschichte in weltbürgerlicher Absicht
(1784) proposition 6
1808–90
If we are to abolish the death penalty, let the murderers take the first step.
Les Guêpes
January 1849 (6th series, 1859)
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.The more things change, the more they are the same.
Les Guêpes
January 1849 (6th series, 1859)
