“Danger (the spur of all great minds) is ever
The curb to your tame spirits.”
The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois (1613), Act V, scene i.
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George Chapman60
English dramatist, poet, and translator 1559–1634Related quotes
Washington Irving book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.
"Philip of Pokanoket : An Indian Memoir".
A more extensive statement not found as such in this work is attributed to Irving in Elbert Hubbard's Scrap Book (1923) edited by Roycroft Shop:
The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon (1819–1820)
Variant: Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above it.
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister
From the Enchiridion (1640) of Francis Quarles.
Misattributed
Richard Cecil (clergyman) (1748–1810) British Evangelical Anglican priest and social reformer
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 324.
“Applause is the spur of noble minds, the end and aim of weak ones.”
Charles Caleb Colton (1777–1832) British priest and writer
Vol. I; CCCCXXIV
Lacon
“Applause is the spur of noble minds, the end and aim of weak ones.”
Edmund Burke (1729–1797) Anglo-Irish statesman
Not found in Burke's writings. It was almost certainly first published in Charles Caleb Colton's Lacon (1820), vol. 1, no. 324
Misattributed
“He who has love in his breast has ever the spurs at his flanks.”
Bernardo Dovizi (1470–1520) Italian cardinal and playwright
Act II, scene VII — (Samia).
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 264.
La Calandria (c. 1507)