“Be wise today; 'tis madness to defer.”

Source: Night-Thoughts (1742–1745), Night I, Line 390.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Be wise today; 'tis madness to defer." by Edward Young?
Edward Young photo
Edward Young 110
English poet 1683–1765

Related quotes

William Wordsworth photo

“Be wise to-day; 'tis madness to defer.”

William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Romantic poet

Actually Night I, line 390 of Edward Young's Night Thoughts.
Misattributed

Miguel de Cervantes photo

“To withdraw is not to run away, and to stay is no wise action when there is more reason to fear than to hope. 'Tis the part of a wise man to keep himself today for tomorrow, and not venture all his eggs in one basket.”

Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright

Sancho to Don Quixote, in Ch. 9, Peter Anthony Motteux translation (1701).
Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book III
Context: To withdraw is not to run away, and to stay is no wise action when there is more reason to fear than to hope. 'Tis the part of a wise man to keep himself today for tomorrow, and not venture all his eggs in one basket. And though I am but a clown, or a bumpkin, as you may say, yet I would have you to know I know what is what, and have always taken care of the main chance...

Statius photo

“Grief and mad wrath devoured his soul, and hope, heaviest of mortal cares when long deferred.”
Exedere animum dolor iraque demens et, qua non gravior mortalibus addita curis, spes, ubi longa venit.

Source: Thebaid, Book II, Line 319

“Every man is wise when attacked by a mad dog; fewer when pursued by a mad woman; only the wisest survive when attacked by a mad notion.”

Robertson Davies (1913–1995) Canadian journalist, playwright, professor, critic, and novelist

Samuel Marchbanks' Almanack (1967)

John Taylor photo
William Morris photo

“Now such an one for daughter Creon had
As maketh wise men fools and young men mad.”

William Morris (1834–1896) author, designer, and craftsman

Life and Death of Jason, Book xvii, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

Voltaire photo

“Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy, the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth.”

Voltaire (1694–1778) French writer, historian, and philosopher

La superstition est à la religion ce que l’astrologie est à l’astronomie, la fille très folle d’une mère très sage. Ces deux filles ont longtemps subjugué toute la terre.
"Whether it is useful to maintain the people in superstition," Treatise on Toleration (1763)
Citas

Anthony de Mello photo

“When you come to see you are not as wise today as you thought you were yesterday, you are wiser today.”

Anthony de Mello (1931–1987) Indian writer

Wisdom
Source: One Minute Wisdom (1989)

Terry Pratchett photo

Related topics