“The old proverb was now made good, "the mountain had brought forth a mouse."”
Plutarch (46–127) ancient Greek historian and philosopher
Life of Agesilaus II
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Dice il proverbio, ch'a trovar si vanno
Gli uomini spesso, e i monti fermi stanno.
Canto XXIII, stanza 1 (tr. B. Reynolds)
Orlando Furioso (1532)
“The old proverb was now made good, "the mountain had brought forth a mouse."”
Plutarch (46–127) ancient Greek historian and philosopher
Life of Agesilaus II
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Randall Jarrell (1914–1965) poet, critic, novelist, essayist
"The Intellectual in America" (1955), from A Sad Heart at the Supermarket (1962)
General sources
Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) 19th-20th century Spanish writer and philosopher
The Tragic Sense of Life (1913), IX : Faith, Hope, and Charity
Context: Consciousness, the craving for more, more, always more, hunger of eternity and thirst of infinity, appetite for God — these are never satisfied. Each consciousness seeks to be itself and all other consciousnesses without ceasing to be itself; it seeks to be God. And matter, unconsciousness, tends to be less and less, tends to be nothing, its thirst being a thirst for repose. Spirit says: I wish to be! and matter answers: I wish not to be!
“[A proverb is] one man's wit, and all men's wisdom.”
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell (1792–1878) leading Whig and Liberal politician who served as Prime Minister on two occasions
Remark to James Mackintosh on October 6, 1830, reported in his posthumous memoir, Memoirs of the Life of the Right Honourable Sir James Mackintosh, Vol. 2 (1836), p. 472 http://books.google.com/books?id=wHM4AAAAYAAJ&q=%22one+man's+wit+and+all+men's+wisdom%22&pg=PA472#v=onepage <br class="br">Variant: [A proverb is] the wisdom of many and the wit of one.
“Try to stay a man amongst men … There's no other hope for you.”
Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist, and social theorist
Marianne to Raimon
All Men are Mortal (1946)
Jack Donovan (1974) American activist, editor and writer
Pg 66
Becoming A Barbarian (2016)