"There is no character, howsoever good and fine, but it can be destroyed by ridicule, howsoever poor and witless. Observe the ass, for instance: his character is about perfect, he is the choicest spirit among all the humbler animals, yet see what ridicule has brought him to. Instead of feeling complimented when we are called an ass, we are left in doubt."

"For as saith a proverb notable, Each thing seeketh his semblable."

"For like to like, the proverb saith."

"The little may contrast with the great, in painting, but cannot be said to be contrary to it. Oppositions of colors contrast; but there are also colors contrary to each other, that is, which produce an ill effect because they shock the eye when brought very near it."

"Qui n'est que juste est dur, qui n'est que sage est triste."

"Sic canibus catulos similes, sic matribus hædos Noram; sic parvis componere magna solebam."

"Comparisons are odious."

"Duo quum idem faciunt, sæpe ut possis dicere, Hoc licet impune facere huic, illi non licet: Non quod dissimilis res sit, sed quod is sit."

"Here and there a cotter's babe is royal—born by right divine; Here and there my lord is lower than his oxen or his swine."

"What, is the jay more precious than the lark, Because his feathers are more beautiful? Or is the adder better than the eel, Because his painted skin contents the eye?"

"Crabbed age and youth cannot live together."

"O, the more angel she, And you the blacker devil!"

"No more like my father Than I to Hercules."

"Hyperion to a satyr."

"Nature hath meal and bran, contempt and grace."

"Those that are good manners at the court are as ridiculous in the country as the behaviour of the country is most mockable at the court."

"Einem ist sie die hohe, die himmlische Göttin, dem andern Eine tüchtige Kuh, die ihn mit Butter versorgt."

"The rose and thorn, the treasure and dragon, joy and sorrow, all mingle into one."

"Another yet the same."

"Everye white will have its blacke, And everye sweet its soure."

"No more like together than is chalke to coles."

"We are nearer neighbours to ourselves than whiteness to snow, or weight to stones."

"A man must either imitate the vicious or hate them."

"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."

"II y a fagots et fagots."

"L'ape e la serpe spesso Suggon l'istesso umore;"

"Sunt bona, sunt quædam mediocria, sunt mala plura."

"Hoc ego, tuque sumus: sed quod sum, non potes esse: Tu quod es, e populo quilibet esse potest."

"Who wer as lyke as one pease is to another."

"Comparisons do ofttime great grievance."

"And but two ways are offered to our will, Toil with rare triumph, ease with safe disgrace, The problem still for us and all of human race."

"Too great refinement is false delicacy, and true delicacy is solid refinement."

"Everything is twice as large, measured on a three-year-old's three-foot scale as on a thirty-year-old's six-foot scale."

"Like to like."

"About a donkey's taste why need we fret us? To lips like his a thistle is a lettuce."

"Similem habent labra lactucam."

"At whose sight, like the sun, All others with diminish'd lustre shone."

"Some say, compared to Bononcini, That Mynheer Handel's but a ninny; Others aver, that he to Handel Is scarcely fit to hold a Candle: Strange all this difference should be, 'Twixt Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee!"

"Some say, that Seignior Bononchini Compar'd to Handel's a mere Ninny; Others aver, to him, that Handel Is scarcely fit to hold a candle. Strange! that such high Disputes shou'd be 'Twixt Tweedledum and Tweedledee."

"To liken them to your auld-warld squad, I must needs say comparisons are odd."

"It has all the contortions of the sibyl without the inspiration."

"It's wiser being good than bad; It's safer being meek than fierce: It's fitter being sane than mad. My own hope is, a sun will pierce The thickest cloud earth ever stretched; That, after Last, returns the First, Though a wide compass round be fetched; That what began best, can't end worst, Nor what God blessed once, prove accurst."

"Not worthy to carry the buckler unto him."

"Glass antique! 'twixt thee and Nell Draw we here a parallel! She, like thee, was forced to bear All reflections, foul or fair. Thou art deep and bright within, Depths as bright belong'd to Gwynne; Thou art very frail as well, Frail as flesh is,—so was Nell."

"'Tis light translateth night; 'tis inspiration Expounds experience; 'tis the west explains The east; 'tis time unfolds Eternity."

"Defining night by darkness, death by dust."