“In mathematics he was greater
Than Tycho Brahe, or Erra Pater:
For he, by geometric scale,
Could take the size of pots of ale;
Resolve, by sines and tangents straight,
If bread and butter wanted weight;
And wisely tell what hour o' th' day
The clock doth strike, by algebra.”
Canto I, line 119
Source: Hudibras, Part I (1663–1664)
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Samuel Butler (poet) 81
poet and satirist 1612–1680Related quotes
“Man can not live by bread alone… he must have peanut butter.”
Source: Absolution Gap (2003), Chapter 28 (p. 441)
Canto I, line 131
Hudibras, Part I (1663–1664)
Context: Whatever sceptic could inquire for,
For ev'ry why he had a wherefore;
Knew more than forty of them do,
As far as words and terms cou'd go.
All which he understood by rote
And, as occasion serv'd, would quote;
No matter whether right or wrong,
They might be either said or sung.
His notions fitted things so well,
That which was which he could not tell;
But oftentimes mistook th' one
For th' other, as great clerks have done.
Sorrows of Werther, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“Remember, man does not live on bread alone: sometimes he needs a little buttering up.”
“[He] spread his bread with all sorts of butter, yet none would stick thereon.”
Thomas Fuller, describing Tusser's failure to profit from numerous ventures.
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Source: I Capture the Castle
Essays in Persuasion (1931), Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren (1930)
