Rochefoucauld, is found in another form as No. 179 of the Maxims
of the first edition, 1665; it is omitted from the second and
third, and reappears for the first time in the fourth edition at
the head of the Reflections.--AIME MARTIN.
[794-3] See Goldsmith, page 401.
[795-1] See Shelley, page 566.
[796-1] See Walpole, page 304.
[796-2] "That was excellently observed," say I when I read a
passage in another where his opinion agrees with mine. When we
differ, then I pronounce him to be mistaken.--SWIFT: _Thoughts on
Various Subjects._
[796-3] See Byron, page 557.
[796-4] This reflection, No. 99 in the edition of 1665, the author
suppressed in the third edition.
In all distresses of our friends
We first consult our private ends;
While Nature, kindly bent to ease us,
Points out some circumstance to please us.
DEAN SWIFT: _A Paraphrase of Rochefoucauld's Maxim._
J. DE LA FONTAINE. 1621-1695.
The opinion of the strongest is always the best.
_The Wolf and the Lamb. Book i. Fable 10._
By the work one knows the workman.
_The Hornets and the Bees. Fable 21._
It is a double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.
_The Cock and the Fox. Book ii. Fable 15._
It is impossible to please all the world and one's father.
_Book iii. Fable 1._
In everything one must consider the end.[797-1]
_The Fox and the Gnat. Fable 5._
"They are too green," he said, "and only good for fools."[797-2]
_The Fox and the Grapes. Fable 11._
Help thyself, and God will help thee.[797-3]
_Book vi. Fable 18._
The fly of the coach.
_Book vii. Fable 9._
The sign brings customers.
_The Fortune-Tellers. Fable 15._
Let ignorance talk as it will, learning has its value.
_The Use of Knowledge. Book viii. Fable 19._
No path of flowers leads to glory.
_Book x. Fable 14._
FOOTNOTES:
[797-1] Remember the end, and thou shalt never do
amiss.--_Ecclesiasticus iii. 36._
[797-2] Sour grapes.
[797-3] See Herbert, page 206.
JEAN BAPTISTE MOLIÈRE. 1622-1673.
The world, dear Agnes, is a strange affair.
_L'École des Femmes. Act ii. Sc. 6._
There are fagots and fagots.
_Le Médecin malgré lui. Act i. Sc. 6._
We have changed all that.
_Le Médecin malgré lui. Act ii. Sc. 6._
Although I am a pious man, I am not the less a man.
_Le Tartuffe. Act iii. Sc. 3._
The real Amphitryon is the Amphitryon who gives dinners.[798-1]
_Amphitryon. Act iii. Sc. 5._
Ah that I-- You would have it so, you would have it so; George
Dandin, you would have it so! This suits you very nicely, and you
are served right; you have precisely what you deserve.
_George Dandin. Act i. Sc. 19._
Tell me to whom you are addressing yourself when you say that.
I am addressing myself--I am addressing myself to my cap.
_L'Avare. Act i. Sc. 3._
The beautiful eyes of my cash-box.
_L'Avare. Act v. Sc. 3._
You are speaking before a man to whom all Naples is known.
_L'Avare. Act v. Sc. 5._
My fair one, let us swear an eternal friendship.[798-2]
_Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. Act iv. Sc. 1._
I will maintain it before the whole world.
_Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. Act iv. Sc. 5._
What the devil did he want in that galley?[798-3]
_Les Fourberies de Scapin. Act ii. Sc. 11._
Grammar, which knows how to control even kings.[798-4]
_Les Femmes savantes. Act ii. Sc. 6._
Ah, there are no longer any children!
_Le Malade Imaginaire. Act ii. Sc. 11._
FOOTNOTES:
[798-1] See Dryden, page 277.
[798-2] See Frere, page 462.
[798-3] Borrowed from Cyrano de Bergerac's "Pédant joué," act ii.
sc. 4.
[798-4] Sigismund I. at the Council of Constance, 1414, said to a
prelate who had objected to his Majesty's grammar, "Ego sum rex
Romanus, et supra grammaticam" (I am the Roman emperor, and am
above grammar).
BLAISE PASCAL. 1623-1662.
(_Translated by O. W. Wight._)
Man is but a reed, the weakest in nature, but he is a thinking
reed.
_Thoughts. Chap. ii. 10._
It is not permitted to the most equitable of men to be a judge in
his own cause.
_Thoughts. Chap. iv. 1._
Montaigne[799-1] is wrong in declaring that custom ought to be
followed simply because it is custom, and not because it is
reasonable or just.
_Thoughts. Chap. iv. 6._
Thus we never live, but we hope to live; and always disposing
ourselves to be happy, it is inevitable that we never become
so.[799-2]
_Thoughts. Chap. v. 2._
If the nose of Cleopatra had been shorter, the whole face of the
earth would have been changed.
_Thoughts. Chap. viii. 29._
The last thing that we find in making a book is to know what we
must put first.
_Thoughts. Chap. ix. 30._
Rivers are highways that move on, and bear us whither we wish to
go.
_Thoughts. Chap. ix. 38._
What a chimera, then, is man! what a novelty, what a monster,
what a chaos, what a subject of contradiction, what a prodigy! A
judge of all things, feeble worm of the earth, depositary of the
truth, cloaca of uncertainty and error, the glory and the shame
of the universe![799-3]
_Thoughts. Chap. x. 1._
We know the truth, not only by the reason, but also by the heart.
_Thoughts. Chap. x. 1._
For as old age is that period of life most remote from infancy,
who does not see that old age in this universal man ought not to
be sought in the times nearest his birth, but in those most
remote from it?[799-4]
_Preface to the Treatise on Vacuum._
FOOTNOTES:
[799-1] Book i. chap. xxii.
[799-2] See Pope, page 315.
[799-3] See Pope, page 317.
[799-4] See Bacon, page 169.
NICHOLAS BOILEAU-DESPREAUX. 1636-1711.
Happy who in his verse can gently steer
From grave to light, from pleasant to severe.[799-5]
_The Art of Poetry. Canto i. Line 75._
Every age has its pleasures, its style of wit, and its own ways.
_The Art of Poetry. Canto iii. Line 374._
He [Molière] pleases all the world, but cannot please himself.
_Satire 2._
"There, take," says Justice, "take ye each a shell;
We thrive at Westminster on fools like you.
'T was a fat oyster! live in peace,--adieu."[800-1]
_Epître ii._
FOOTNOTES:
[799-5] See Dryden, page 273.
[800-1] See Pope, page 334.
ALAIN RENÉ LE SAGE. 1668-1747.
It may be said that his wit shines at the expense of his
memory.[800-2]
_Gil Blas. Book iii. Chap. xi._
I wish you all sorts of prosperity with a little more taste.
_Gil Blas. Book vii. Chap. iv._
Isocrates was in the right to insinuate, in his elegant Greek
expression, that what is got over the Devil's back is spent under
his belly.[800-3]
_Gil Blas. Book viii. Chap. ix._
Facts are stubborn things.[800-4]
_Gil Blas. Book x. Chap. i._
Plain as a pike-staff.[800-5]
_Gil Blas. Book xii. Chap. viii._
FOOTNOTES:
[800-2] See Sheridan, page 443.
[800-3] See Rabelais, page 773.
[800-4] See Smollett, page 392.
[800-5] See Middleton, page 172.
FRANCIS M. VOLTAIRE. 1694-1778.
If there were no God, it would be necessary to invent him.[800-6]
_Epître à l'Auteur du Livre des Trois Imposteurs. cxi._
The king [Frederic] has sent me some of his dirty linen to wash;
I will wash yours another time.[800-7]
_Reply to General Manstein._
Men use thought only as authority for their injustice, and employ
speech only to conceal their thoughts.[800-8]
_Dialogue xiv. Le Chapon et la Poularde_ (1763).
History is little else than a picture of human crimes and
misfortunes.[801-1]
_L'Ingénu. Chap. x._ (1767.)
The first who was king was a fortunate soldier:
Who serves his country well has no need of ancestors.[801-2]
_Merope. Act i. Sc. 3._
In the best of possible worlds the château of monseigneur the
baron was the most beautiful of châteaux, and madame the best of
possible baronesses.
_Candide. Chap. i._
In this country [England] it is well to kill from time to time an
admiral to encourage the others.
_Candide. Chap. xxiii._
The superfluous, a very necessary thing.
_Le Mondain. Line 21._
Crush the infamous thing.
_Letter to d'Alembert, June 23, 1760._
There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times.
_Letter to Cardinal de Bernis, April 23, 1761._
The proper mean.[801-3]
_Letter to Count d'Argental, Nov. 28, 1765._
It is said that God is always on the side of the heaviest
battalions.[801-4]
_Letter to M. le Riche, Feb. 6, 1770._
Love truth, but pardon error.
_Discours sur l'Homme. Discours 3._
FOOTNOTES:
[800-6] See Tillotson, page 266.
[800-7] Voltaire writes to his niece Dennis, July 24, 1752, "Voilà
le roi qui m'envoie son linge à blanchir."
[800-8] See Young, page 310.
[801-1] See Gibbon, page 430.
[801-2] See Scott, page 494.
Borrowed from Lefranc de Pompignan's "Didon."
[801-3] See Cowper, page 424.
[801-4] See Gibbon, page 430.
BUSSY RABUTIN: _Lettres, iv. 91._ SÉVIGNÉ: _Lettre à sa Fille, p.
202._ TACITUS: _Historia, iv. 17._ TERENCE: _Phormio, i. 4. 26._
MADAME DU DEFFAND. 1697-1784.
He [Voltaire] has invented history.[801-5]
It is only the first step which costs.[801-6]
_In reply to the Cardinal de Polignac._
FOOTNOTES:
[801-5] FOURNIER: _L'Esprit dans l'Histoire, p. 191._
[801-6] Voltaire writes to Madame du Deffand, January, 1764, that
one of her bon-mots is quoted in the notes of "La Pucelle," canto
1: "Il n'y a que le premier pas qui coûte."
JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU. 1712-1778.
Days of absence, sad and dreary,
Clothed in sorrow's dark array,--
Days of absence, I am weary:
She I love is far away.
_Days of Absence._
GESTA ROMANORUM.[802-1]
We read of a certain Roman emperor who built a magnificent
palace. In digging the foundation, the workmen discovered a
golden sarcophagus ornamented with three circlets, on which were
inscribed, "I have expended; I have given; I have kept; I have
possessed; I do possess; I have lost; I am punished. What I
formerly expended, I have; what I gave away, I have."[802-2]
_Tale xvi._
See how the world rewards its votaries.[802-3]
_Tale xxxvi._
If the end be well, all is well.[802-4]
_Tale lxvii._
Whatever you do, do wisely, and think of the consequences.
_Tale ciii._
FOOTNOTES:
[802-1] The "Gesta Romanorum" is a collection of one hundred and
eighty-one stories, first printed about 1473. The first English
version appeared in 1824, translated by the Rev. C. Swan. (Bohn's
Standard Library.)
[802-2] Richard Gough, in the "Sepulchral Monuments of Great
Britain," gives this epitaph of Robert Byrkes, which is to be
found in Doncaster Church, "new cut" upon his tomb in Roman
capitals:--
Howe: Howe: who is heare:
I, Robin of Doncaster, and Margaret my feare.
That I spent, that I had;
That I gave, that I have;
That I left, that I lost.
A. D. 1579.
The following is the epitaph of Edward Courtenay, Earl of
Devonshire, according to Cleaveland's "Genealogical History of the
Family of Courtenay," p. 142:--
What we gave, we have;
What we spent, we had;
What we left, we lost.
[802-3] Ecce quomodo mundus suis servitoribus reddit mercedem (See
how the world its veterans rewards).--POPE: _Moral Essays, epistle
1, line 243._
[802-4] Si finis bonus est, totum bonum erit.--Probably the origin
of the proverb, "All 's well that ends well."
VAUVENARGUES (MARQUIS OF). 1715-1747.
Great thoughts come from the heart.[803-1]
_Maxim cxxvii._
FOOTNOTES:
[803-1] See Sidney, page 34.
MICHEL JEAN SEDAINE. 1717-1797.
O Richard! O my king!
The universe forsakes thee!
_Sung at the Dinner given to the French Soldiers in the Opera Salon at
Versailles, Oct. 1, 1789._
PRINCE DE LIGNE. 1735-1814.
The congress of Vienna does not walk, but it dances.[803-2]
FOOTNOTES:
[803-2] On of the Prince de Ligne's speeches that will last
forever.--_Edinburgh Review, July 1890, p. 244._
GOETHE. 1749-1832.
Who never ate his bread in sorrow,
Who never spent the darksome hours
Weeping, and watching for the morrow,--
He knows ye not, ye gloomy Powers.
_Wilhelm Meister. Book ii. Chap. xiii._
Know'st thou the land where the lemon-trees bloom,
Where the gold orange glows in the deep thicket's gloom,
Where a wind ever soft from the blue heaven blows,
And the groves of laurel and myrtle and rose?[803-3]
_Wilhelm Meister. Book iii. Chap. i._
Art is long, life short;[803-4] judgment difficult, opportunity
transient.
_Wilhelm Meister. Book vii. Chap. ix._
The sagacious reader who is capable of reading between these
lines what does not stand written in them, but is nevertheless
implied, will be able to form some conception.
_Autobiography. Book xviii. Truth and Beauty._
FOOTNOTES:
[803-3] See Byron, page 549.
[803-4] See Chaucer, page 6.
MADAME ROLAND. 1754-1793.
O Liberty! Liberty! how many crimes are committed in thy
name![804-1]
FOOTNOTES:
[804-1] MACAULAY: _Essay on Mirabeau._
BERTRAND BARÈRE. 1755-1841.
The tree of liberty only grows when watered by the blood of
tyrants.
_Speech in the Convention Nationale, 1792._
It is only the dead who do not return.
_Speech, 1794._
SCHILLER. 1759-1805.
Against stupidity the very gods
Themselves contend in vain.
_The Maid of Orleans. Act iii. Sc. 6._
The richest monarch in the Christian world;
The sun in my own dominions never sets.[804-2]
_Don Carlos. Act i. Sc. 6._
FOOTNOTES:
[804-2] See Scott, page 495.
JOSEPH ROUGET DE L'ISLE. 1760- ----.
Ye sons of France, awake to glory!
Hark! hark! what myriads bid you rise!
Your children, wives, and grandsires hoary,
Behold their tears and hear their cries!
_The Marseilles Hymn._
To arms! to arms! ye brave!
The avenging sword unsheathe!
March on! march on! all hearts resolved
On victory or death!
_The Marseilles Hymn._
A. F. F. VON KOTZEBUE. 1761-1819.
There is another and a better world.[805-1]
_The Stranger. Act i. Sc. 1._
FOOTNOTES:
[805-1] Translated by N. Schink, London, 1799.
J. G. VON SALIS. 1762-1834.
Into the silent land!
Ah, who shall lead us thither?
_The Silent Land._
Who in life's battle firm doth stand
Shall bear hope's tender blossoms
Into the silent land!
_The Silent Land._
JOSEPH FOUCHÉ. 1763-1820.
"It is more than a crime; it is a political fault,"[805-2]--words
which I record, because they have been repeated and attributed to
others.
_Memoirs of Fouché._
Death is an eternal sleep.
_Inscription placed by his orders on the Gates of the Cemeteries in
1794._
FOOTNOTES:
[805-2] Commonly quoted, "It is worse than a crime,--it is a
blunder," and attributed to Talleyrand.
J. M. USTERI. 1763-1827.
Life let us cherish, while yet the taper glows,
And the fresh flow'ret pluck ere it close;
Why are we fond of toil and care?
Why choose the rankling thorn to wear?
_Life let us cherish._
H. B. CONSTANT. 1767-1830.
I am not the rose, but I have lived near the rose.[806-1]
FOOTNOTES:
[806-1] This saying, "Je ne suis pas la rose, mais j'ai vécu avec
elle," is assigned to Constant by A. Hayward in his Introduction
to the "Autobiography and Letters" of Mrs. Piozzi.
JUNOT, DUC D'ABRANTES. 1771-1813.
I know nothing about it; I am my own ancestor.[806-2]
(When asked as to his ancestry.)
FOOTNOTES:
[806-2] See Plutarch, page 733.
Curtius Rufus seems to me to be descended from himself. (A saying
of Tiberius).--TACITUS: _Annals, book xi. c. xxi. 16._
JOHANN L. UHLAND. 1787-1862.
Take, O boatman, thrice thy fee,--
Take, I give it willingly;
For, invisible to thee,
Spirits twain have crossed with me.
_The Passage. Edinburgh Review, October, 1832._
VON MÜNCH BELLINGHAUSEN. 1806-1871.
Two souls with but a single thought,
Two hearts that beat as one.[806-3]
_Ingomar the Barbarian._[806-4] _Act ii._
FOOTNOTES:
[806-3] See Pope, page 340.
Zwei Seelen und ein Gedanke,
Zwei Herzen und ein Schlag.
[806-4] Translated by Maria Lovell.
MISCELLANEOUS TRANSLATIONS.
Absolutism tempered by assassination.[807-1]
A Cadmean victory.[807-2]
After us the deluge.[807-3]
All is lost save honour.[807-4]
Appeal from Philip drunk to Philip sober.[807-5]
Architecture is frozen music.[807-6]
Beginning of the end.[808-1]
Boldness, again boldness, and ever boldness.[808-2]
Dead on the field of honour.[808-3]
Defend me from my friends; I can defend myself from my
enemies.[808-4]
Extremes meet.[808-5]
Hell is full of good intentions.[808-6]
History repeats itself.[808-7]
I am here: I shall remain here.[808-8]
I am the state.[808-9]
It is magnificent, but it is not war.[808-10]
Leave no stone unturned.[809-1]
Let it be. Let it pass.[809-2]
Medicine for the soul.[809-3]
Nothing is changed in France; there is only one Frenchman
more.[809-4]
Order reigns in Warsaw.[809-5]
Ossa on Pelion.[809-6]
Scylla and Charybdis.[810-1]
Sinews of war.[810-2]
Talk of nothing but business, and despatch that business
quickly.[810-3]
The empire is peace.[810-4]
The guard dies, but never surrenders.[810-5]
The king reigns, but does not govern.[810-6]
The style is the man himself.[811-1]
"There is no other royal path which leads to geometry," said
Euclid to Ptolemy I.[811-2]
There is nothing new except what is forgotten.[811-3]
They have learned nothing and forgotten nothing.[811-4]
We are dancing on a volcano.[811-5]
Who does not love wine, women, and song
Remains a fool his whole life long.[811-6]
God is on the side of the strongest battalions.[811-7]
Terrible he rode alone,
With his Yemen sword for aid;
Ornament it carried none
But the notches on the blade.
_The Death Feud. An Arab War-song._[811-8]
FOOTNOTES:
[807-1] Count Münster, Hanoverian envoy at St. Petersburg,
discovered that Russian civilization is "merely artificial," and
first published to Europe the short description of the Russian
Constitution,--that it is "absolutism tempered by assassination."
[807-2] A Greek proverb. A Cadmean victory was one in which the
victors suffered as much as their enemies.
Symmisgontôn de tê naumachiê, Kadmeiê tis nikê toisi Phôkaieusi
egeneto.--HERODOTUS: _i. 166._
Where two discourse, if the one's anger rise,
The man who lets the contest fall is wise.
EURIPIDES: _Fragment 656. Protesilaus._
[807-3] On the authority of Madame de Hausset ("Mémoires," p. 19),
this phrase is ascribed to Madame de Pompadour. Larouse ("Fleurs
Historiques") attributes it to Louis XV.
[807-4] It was from the imperial camp near Pavia that Francis I.,
before leaving for Pizzighettone, wrote to his mother the
memorable letter which, thanks to tradition, has become altered to
the form of this sublime laconism: "Madame, tout est perdu fors
l'honneur."
The true expression is, "Madame, pour vous faire savoir comme se
porte le reste de mon infortune, de toutes choses ne m'est demeuré
que l'honneur et la vie qui est sauvé."--MARTIN: _Histoire de
France, tome viii._
The correction of this expression was first made by Sismondi, vol.
xvi. pp. 241, 242. The letter itself is printed entire in
Dulaure's "Histoire de Paris": "Pour vous avertir comment se porte
le ressort de mon infortune, de toutes choses ne m'est demeuré que
l'honneur et la vie,--qui est sauvé."
[807-5] Inserit se tantis viris mulier alienigeni sanguinis: quæ a
Philippo rege temulento immerenter damnata, Provocarem ad
Philippum, inquit, sed sobrium.--VALERIUS MAXIMUS: _Lib. vi. c.
2._
[807-6] Since it [architecture] is music in space, as it were a
frozen music. . . . If architecture in general is frozen
music.--SCHELLING: _Philosophie der Kunst, pp. 576, 593._
La vue d'un tel monument est comme une musique continuelle et
fixée.--MADAME DE STAËL: _Corinne, livre iv. chap. 3._
[808-1] Fournier asserts, on the written authority of Talleyrand's
brother, that the only breviary used by the ex-bishop was
"L'Improvisateur Français," a compilation of anecdotes and
_bon-mots_, in twenty-one duo-decimo volumes. Whenever a good
thing was wandering about in search of a parent, he adopted it;
amongst others, "C'est le commencement de la fin."
See Shakespeare, page 59.
[808-2] De l'audace, encore de l'audace, et toujours de
l'audace-DANTON: _Speech in the Legislative Assembly, 1792._
See Spenser, page 28.
[808-3] This was the answer given in the roll-call of La Tour
d'Auvergne's regiment after his death.
[808-4] See Canning, page 464.
[808-5] Les extrêmes se touchent.--MERCIER: _Tableaux de Paris_
(1782), _vol. iv. title of chap. 348._
[808-6] See Johnson, page 372.
[808-7] See Plutarch, page 726.
[808-8] The reply of Marshal MacMahon, in the trenches before the
Malakoff, in the siege of Sebastopol, September, 1855, to the
commander-in-chief, who had sent him word to beware of an
explosion which might follow the retreat of the Russians.
[808-9] Dulaure (History of Paris, 1863, p. 387) asserts that
Louis XIV. interrupted a judge who used the expression, "The king
and the state," by saying, "I am the state."
[808-10] Said by General Pierre Bosquet of the charge of the Light
Brigade at the battle of Balaklava.
[809-1] EURIPIDES: _Heracleidæ, 1002._
This may be traced to a response of the Delphic oracle given to
Polycrates, as the best means of finding a treasure buried by
Xerxes' general, Mardonius, on the field of Platæa. The oracle
replied, Panta lithon kinei, "Turn every stone."--LEUTSCH AND
SCHNEIDEWIN: _Corpus Paræmiographorum Græcorum, vol. i. p. 146._
[809-2] This phrase, "Laissez faire, laissez passer!" is
attributed to Gournay, Minister of Commerce at Paris, 1751; also
to Quesnay, the writer on political economy. It is quoted by Adam
Smith in the "Wealth of Nations."
[809-3] Inscription over the door of the Library at
Thebes.--DIODORUS SICULUS: _i. 49, 3._
[809-4] According to the "Contemporary Review," February, 1854,
this phrase formed the opening of an address composed in the name
of Comte d'Artois by Count Beugnot, and published in the
"Moniteur," April 12, 1814.
[809-5] General Sebastiani announced the fall of Warsaw in the
Chamber of Deputies, Sept. 16, 1831: "Des lettres que je reçois de
Pologne m'annoncent que la tranquillité règne à Varsovie."--DUMAS:
_Mémoires, Second Series, vol. iv. chap. iii._
[809-6] See Ovid, page 707.
They were setting on
Ossa upon Olympus, and upon
Steep Ossa leavy Pelius.
CHAPMAN: _Homer's Odyssey, book xi. 426._
Heav'd on Olympus tott'ring Ossa stood;
On Ossa Pelion nods with all his wood.
POPE: _Odyssey, book xi. 387._
Ossa on Olympus heave, on Ossa roll
Pelion with all his woods; so scale the starry pole.
SOTHEBY: _Odyssey, book xi. 315._
To the Olympian summit they essay'd
To heave up Ossa, and to Ossa's crown
Branch-waving Pelion.
COWPER: _Odyssey, book xi. 379._
They on Olympus Ossa fain would roll;
On Ossa Pelion's leaf-quivering hill.
WORSLEY: _Odyssey, book xi. 414._
To fling
Ossa upon Olympus, and to pile
Pelion with all its growth of leafy woods
On Ossa.
BRYANT: _Odyssey, book xi. 390._
Ossa they pressed down with Pelion's weight,
And on them both impos'd Olympus' hill.
FITZ-GEFFREY: _The Life and Death of Sir Francis Drake, stanza 99_
(1596).
Ter sunt conati imponere Pelio Ossam.--VIRGIL: _Georgics, i. 281._
[810-1] See Shakespeare, page 64.
[810-2] See Rabelais, page 771.
Æschines (Adv. Ctesiphon, c. 53) ascribes to Demosthenes the
expression ypotetmêtai ta neura tôn pragmatôn, "The sinews of
affairs are cut." Diogenes Laertius, in his Life of Bion (lib. iv.
c. 7, sect. 3), represents that philosopher as saying, ton plouton
einai neura pragmatôn,--"Riches were the sinews of business," or,
as the phrase may mean, "of the state." Referring perhaps to this
maxim of Bion, Plutarch says in his Life of Cleomenes (c. 27), "He
who first called money the sinews of the state seems to have said
this with special reference to war." Accordingly we find money
called expressly ta neura tou polemou, "the sinews of war," in
Libanius, Orat. xlvi. (vol. ii. p. 477, ed. Reiske), and by the
scholiast on Pindar, Olymp. i. 4 (compare Photius, Lex. _s. v._
Meganoros plouton). So Cicero, Philipp. v. 2, "nervos belli,
infinitam pecuniam."
[810-3] A placard of Aldus on the door of his
printing-office.--DIBDIN: _Introduction, vol. i. p. 436._
[810-4] This saying occurs in Louis Napoleon's speech to the
Chamber of Commerce in Bordeaux, Oct. 9, 1852.
[810-5] Words engraved upon the monument erected to Cambronne at
Nantes.
This phrase, attributed to Cambronne, who was made prisoner at
Waterloo, was vehemently denied by him. It was invented by
Rougemont, a prolific author of _mots_, two days after the battle,
in the "Indépendant."--FOURNIER: _L' Esprit dans l' Histoire._
[810-6] A motto adopted by Thiers for the "Nationale," July 1,
1803. In the beginning of the seventeenth century Jan Zamoyski in
the Polish parliament said, "The king reigns, but does not
govern."