Prudence

"You're mistaken: men of sense often learn from their enemies. Prudence is the best safeguard. This principle cannot be learned from a friend, but an enemy extorts it immediately. It is from their foes, not their friends, that cities learn the lesson of building high walls and ships of war. And this lesson saves their children, their homes, and their properties."

"It is always good When a man has two irons in the fire."

"Prudence is a rich ugly old maid courted by Incapacity."

"Look before you ere you leap."

"'Tis true no lover has that pow'r T' enforce a desperate amour, As he that has two strings t' his bow, And burns for love and money too."

"[Prudence] replaces [strength] by saving the man who has the misfortune of not possessing it from most occasions when it's needed."

"You will hear every day the maxims of a low prudence. You will hear, that the first duty is to get land and money, place and name. "What is this Truth you seek? What is this Beauty?" men will ask, with derision. If, nevertheless, God have called any of you to explore truth and beauty, be bold, be firm, be true. When you shall say, "As others do, so will I. I renounce, I am sorry for it, my early visions; I must eat the good of the land, and let learning and romantic expectations go, until a more convenient season." — then dies the man in you; then once more perish the buds of art, and poetry, and science, as they have died already in a thousand thousand men. The hour of that choice is the crisis of your history; and see that you hold yourself fast by the intellect."

"Chance fights ever on the side of the prudent."

"Il est sage de ne mettre ni crainte, ni espérance dans l'avenir incertain."

"A prudent and discreet Silence will be sometimes more to thy Advantage, than the most witty expression, or even the best contrived Sincerity. A Man often repents that he has spoken, but seldom that he has held his Tongue."

"Cautious silence is where prudence takes refuge."

"Since men almost always walk in the paths beaten by others and carry on their affairs by imitating—even though it is not possible to keep wholly in the paths of others or to attain the ability of those you imitate—a prudent man will always choose to take paths beaten by great men and to imitate those who have been especially admirable, in order that if his ability does not reach theirs, at least it may offer some suggestion of it; and he will act like prudent archers, who, seeing that the mark they plan to hit is too far away and knowing what space can be covered by the power of their bows, take an aim much higher than their mark, not in order to reach with their arrows so great a height, but to be able, with the aid of so high an aim, to attain their purpose."

"It is only by prudence, wisdom, and dexterity, that great ends are attained and obstacles overcome. Without these qualities nothing succeeds."

"A prudent Chief not always must display His Pow'rs in equal Ranks, and fair Array, But with th' Occasion and the Place comply, Conceal his Force, nay seem sometimes to Fly."

"The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going."

"That system, again, which makes virtue consist in prudence only, while it gives the highest encouragement to the habits of caution, vigilance, sobriety, and judicious moderation, seems to degrade equally both the amiable and respectable virtues, and to strip the former of all their beauty, and the latter of all their grandeur."

"A prudent mind can see room for misgiving, lest he who prospers should one day suffer reverse."

"Nothing can be done at once hastily and prudently."

"My idea of the modern Stoic sage is someone who transforms fear into prudence, pain into information, mistakes into initiation, and desire into undertaking."

"It behooves a prudent person to make trial of everything before arms."

"He who is prudent and lies in wait for an enemy who is not, will be victorious."

"The prudence of the great sets a limit only to their vices."

"The prudence of the weak is mere mediocrity."

"The last explanation remains to be made about prudence; Little and large alike drop quietly aside from the prudence that suits immortality."

"Thin-lipped wisdom spoke at her from the worn chair, hinted at prudence, quoted from that book of cowardice whose author apes the name of common sense."

"Multis terribilis, caveto multos."

"Et vulgariter dicitur, quod primum oportet cervum capere, et postea, cum captus fuerit, illum excoriare."

"No arrojemos la soga tras el caldero."

"Archers ever Have two strings to a bow; and shall great Cupid (Archer of archers both in men and women), Be worse provided than a common archer?"

"Prudentia est rerum expectandarum fugiendarumque scientia."

"Malo indisertam prudentiam, quam loquacem stultitiam."

"Præstat cautela quam medela."

"According to her cloth she cut her coat."

"Therefore I am wel pleased to take any coulor to defend your honour and hope you wyl remember that who seaketh two strings to one bowe, he may shute strong but neuer strait."

"For chance fights ever on the side of the prudent."

"Yes, I had two strings to my bow; both golden ones, egad! and both cracked."

"Great Estates may venture more. Little Boats must keep near Shore."

"Wer sich nicht nach der Decke streckt, Dem bleiben die Füsse unbedeckt."

"Better is to bow than breake."

"It is good to have a hatch before the durre."

"Yee have many strings to your bowe."

"So that every man lawfully ordained must bring a bow which hath two strings, a title of present right and another to provide for future possibility or chance."

"Fænum habet in cornu, longe fuge."

"Fasten him as a nail in a sure place."

"The first years of man must make provision for the last."

"Nullum numen habes si sit prudentia."

"Je plie et ne romps pas."

"Le trop d'expédients peut gâter une affaire."

"Don't cross the bridge till you come to it, Is a proverb old, and of excellent wit."

"Let your loins be gilded about, and your lights burning."