“I hold a mouses wit not worth a leke,
That hath but on hole for to sterten to.”
Geoffrey Chaucer book The Canterbury Tales
The Wife of Bath's Tale, l. 6154
The Canterbury Tales
“The mouse that hath but one hole is quickly taken.”
Jacula Prudentum (1651)
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George Herbert216
Welsh-born English poet, orator and Anglican priest 1593–1633Related quotes
“The mouse that always trusts to one poor hole
Can never be a mouse of any soul.”
Alexander Pope (1688–1744) eighteenth century English poet
"The Wife of Bath her Prologue, from Chaucer" (c.1704, published 1713), lines 298-299. Compare: "I hold a mouses wit not worth a leke, That hath but on hole for to sterten to", Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, "The Wif of Bathes Prologue", line 6154; "The mouse that hath but one hole is quickly taken", George Herbert, Jacula Prudentum.
“But ne’ertheless reflect, the little mouse, how sage a brute it is! Who never trusts its safety to one hole : for when it finds one entrance is block’d up, it has secure some other outlet.”
Cogito, mus pusillus quam sit sapiens bestia, aetatem qui uni cubili nunquam committit suam : quia si unum ostium obsideatur, aliud perfugium gerit.
Truculentus, Act IV, sc. iv, line 15.
Variant translation: Consider the little mouse, how sagacious an animal it is which never entrusts its life to one hole only. (translator unknown)
Truculentus
E.E. Cummings (1894–1962) American poet
A Foreword to Krazy (1946)
Context: A humbly poetic, gently clownlike, supremely innocent, and illimitably affectionate creature (slightly resembling a child's drawing of a cat, but gifted with the secret grace and obvious clumsiness of a penguin on terra firma) who is never so happy as when egoist-mouse, thwarting altruist-dog, hits her in the head with a brick. Dog hates mouse and worships "cat", mouse despises "cat" and hates dog, "cat" hates no one and loves mouse.
Halldór Laxness (1902–1998) Icelandic author
Jón of Skagi
Brekkukotsannáll (The Fish Can Sing) (1957)
“I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing — that it all started with a mouse.”
Walt Disney (1901–1966) American film producer and businessman
What Is Disneyland television program (27 October 1954)
Variants:
I only hope that we don't lose sight of one thing — that it all started with a mouse.
As quoted in The Story of Disney (2004) by Adele D. Richardson, p. 41
Variant: I only hope that we don’t lose sight of one thing — that it was all started by a mouse.
“The second mouse gets the cheese!”
Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author
Source: The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) American dancer, singer, actor, choreographer and television presenter
Fred Astaire on his proudest achievement in Lewis, Jerry D. "Interview : Fred Astaire." Glendale Federal Magazine, Summer 1982, pp. 8-10. (M).
“The first rule of holes: When you're in one stop digging.”
Molly Ivins (1944–2007) American journalist