Compare Poor Richard's Almanack (1735) : By diligence and patience, the mouse bit in two the cable.
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
Barack Obama: "Remarks at the Department of State," May 19, 2011. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=90397&st=&st1= <br class="br">2011
“The early bird may get the worm, but it's the second mouse who gets the cheese.”
Steven Wright (1955) American actor and author
“Or shear swine, all cry and no wool.”
Samuel Butler (poet) (1612–1680) poet and satirist
Canto I, line 852
Source: Hudibras, Part I (1663–1664)
Joe Bob Briggs (1953) American film critic, writer, and actor; alter ego of John Bloom
A.I. review http://www.joebobbriggs.com/drivein/2003/AI.html
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.
“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.
William Plomer (1903–1973) South African-British writer
"Father and Son: 1939", line 73.
The Dorking Thigh, and Other Satires
David Brin (1950) novelist, short story writer
Orbit interview (2002)
Context: We already live a very long time for mammals, getting three times as many heartbeats as a mouse or elephant. It never seems enough though, does it? Most fictional portrayals of life-extension simply tack more years on the end, in series. But that's a rather silly version. The future doesn't need a bunch of conservative old baby-boomers, hoarding money and getting in the grand-kids' way. What we really need is more life in parallel — some way to do all the things we want done. Picture splitting into three or four "selves" each morning, then reconverging into the same continuous person at the end of the day. What a wish fulfilment, to head off in several directions at once!
Herta Müller book The Appointment
Michael Hulse and Philip Boehm translation, Picador 2002, p. 81
The Appointment (1997)
