“He sets a thief to guard his purse
Who trusts a dial with his hours”

The Golden Ass (1999)
Context: He sets a thief to guard his purse
Who trusts a dial with his hours
Or bids a sand-glass bleed away his nights,
His days, his loves, his pleasures and his powers.
The burthen of his years
Is Time's soft footfall, Time's soft
Falling
Through his joys and tears.

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 "He sets a thief to guard his purse Who trusts a dial with his hours" by Robertson Davies?
Robertson Davies photo
Robertson Davies 282
Canadian journalist, playwright, professor, critic, and nov… 1913–1995

Related quotes

Joanna Baillie photo

“The tyrant now
Trusts not to men: nightly within his chamber
The watch-dog guards his couch, the only friend
He now dare trust.”

Joanna Baillie (1762–1851) Scottish poet and dramatist

Ethwald (1802), Part II, Act V, scene 3.

Otto von Bismarck photo

“He who has his thumb on the purse has the power.”

Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898) German statesman, Chancellor of Germany

Wer den Daumen auf dem Beutel hat, der hat die Macht.
Speech to North German Reichstag (21 May 1869), Stenographische Berichte p. 1017 (left) http://books.google.de/books?id=wm9HAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1017
1860s

Miguel de Unamuno photo
George Holyoake photo
Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo
Vladimir Nabokov photo
Callimachus photo

“Set a thief to catch a thief.”

Callimachus (-310–-240 BC) ancient poet and librarian

Epigram 43; translation by Robert Allason Furness, from Poems of Callimachus (1931), p. 103
Epigrams

Thomas Fuller (writer) photo

“4106. Set a Thief to catch a Thief.”

Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual

Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)

“Who trusts to others for his food,
Waits long e’er he be satisfied.”

Giovanni Maria Cecchi (1518–1587) Italian poet, playwright, writer and notary

Chi per l’altrui mani
S’imbocca, tardi si satolla.
Le Rappresentazion di Tobia, Act I., Scene III. — (Samuella).
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 269.

Related topics