~Blustering.~--Because half a dozen grasshoppers under a fern make the
field ring with their importunate chink, whilst thousands of great
cattle, reposing beneath the shadow of the British oak, chew the cud and
are silent, pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the
only inhabitants of the field--that, of course, they are many in
number,--or, that, after all, they are other than the little, shriveled,
meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome, insects of the
hour.--_Burke._
There are braying men in the world as well as braying asses; for what is
loud and senseless talking any other than a way of
braying.--_L'Estrange._
Wine and the sun will make vinegar without any shouting to help
them.--_George Eliot._
~Boasting.~--Usually the greatest boasters are the smallest workers. The
deep rivers pay a larger tribute to the sea than shallow brooks, and yet
empty themselves with less noise.--_W. Secker._
With all his tumid boasts, he's like the sword-fish, who only wears his
weapon in his mouth.--_Madden._