Nicolas Chamfort (1741–1794) French writer
L'ambition prend aux petites âmes plus facilement qu'aux grandes, comme le feu prend plus aisément à la paille, aux chaumières qu'aux palais.
Maximes et Pensées, #68
Reflections
A Virginia farmer (translator) (1913) in Varro's Rerum Rusticarum Libri Tres https://archive.org/stream/cu31924062805209#page/n181/mode/2up/search/husbandry, p. 161-2.
Nicolas Chamfort (1741–1794) French writer
L'ambition prend aux petites âmes plus facilement qu'aux grandes, comme le feu prend plus aisément à la paille, aux chaumières qu'aux palais.
Maximes et Pensées, #68
Reflections
William Brett, 1st Viscount Esher (1815–1899) British lawyer, judge and politician
Nielsen v. Wait (1885), L. R. 16 Q. B. 71.
Maurice Glasman, Baron Glasman (1961) British philosopher
Blue Labour, An Ancient Polity For A New Economy? http://www.bluelabour.org/2012/06/19/an-ancient-polity-for-a-new-economy/
“He was hanging on, looking for a life preserver. He was a desperate man clutching at straws.”
Ferdinand Marcos (1917–1989) former President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986
U.S. Senator Paul Laxalt, after his telephone conversation with Marcos, March 1986
About
Joseph Yates (judge) (1722–1770) English barrister and judge
4 Burr. Part IV., 2368.
Dissenting in Millar v Taylor (1769)
Nasreddin (1208–1284) philosopher, Sufi and wise man from Turkey, remembered for his funny stories and anecdotes
"Donkeys," said Nasrudin.
N. Hanif (ed.), Biographical Encyclopaedia of Sufis: Central Asia and Middle East (2002), ISBN 8176252662, p. 335
“OATS — A grain which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.”
Samuel Johnson book A Dictionary of the English Language
A Dictionary of the English Language (1755)
“I would be — for no knowledge is worth a straw —
Ignorant and wanton as the dawn.”
W.B. Yeats (1865–1939) Irish poet and playwright
The Dawn http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1612/ <br class="br">The Wild Swans at Coole (1919) <br class="br">Context: I would be ignorant as the dawn<br>That merely stood, rocking the glittering coach<br>Above the cloudy shoulders of the horses;<br>I would be — for no knowledge is worth a straw —<br>Ignorant and wanton as the dawn.