“The mouse that hath but one hole is quickly taken.”
George Herbert (1593–1633) Welsh-born English poet, orator and Anglican priest
Jacula Prudentum (1651)
“The mouse that always trusts to one poor hole
Can never be a mouse of any soul.”
"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.
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Can never be a mouse of any soul." by Alexander Pope?
Alexander Pope158
eighteenth century English poet 1688–1744Related quotes
“But ne’ertheless reflect, the little mouse, how sage a brute it is! Who never trusts its safety to one hole : for when it finds one entrance is block’d up, it has secure some other outlet.”
Cogito, mus pusillus quam sit sapiens bestia, aetatem qui uni cubili nunquam committit suam : quia si unum ostium obsideatur, aliud perfugium gerit.
Truculentus, Act IV, sc. iv, line 15.
Variant translation: Consider the little mouse, how sagacious an animal it is which never entrusts its life to one hole only. (translator unknown)
Truculentus
“I hold a mouses wit not worth a leke,
That hath but on hole for to sterten to.”
Geoffrey Chaucer book The Canterbury Tales
The Wife of Bath's Tale, l. 6154
The Canterbury Tales
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.
“I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing — that it all started with a mouse.”
Walt Disney (1901–1966) American film producer and businessman
What Is Disneyland television program (27 October 1954)
Variants:
I only hope that we don't lose sight of one thing — that it all started with a mouse.
As quoted in The Story of Disney (2004) by Adele D. Richardson, p. 41
Variant: I only hope that we don’t lose sight of one thing — that it was all started by a mouse.
Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo
Source: Magic Burns
Ernst Kaltenbrunner (1903–1946) Austrian-born senior official of Nazi Germany executed for war crimes
To Leon Goldensohn, 6/6/46, from "The Nuremberg Interviews" by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - Page 151 - History - 2004
Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) African American boxer, philanthropist and activist
"I am the Greatest" (1964)
Context: I am the man this poem’s about,
I’ll be champ of the world, there isn’t a doubt.
Here I predict Mr. Liston’s dismemberment,
I’ll hit him so hard; he’ll wonder where October and November went.
When I say two, there’s never a third,
Standin against me is completely absurd.
When Cassius says a mouse can outrun a horse,
Don’t ask how; put your money where your mouse is!
I AM THE GREATEST!
William Plomer (1903–1973) South African-British writer
"Father and Son: 1939", line 73.
The Dorking Thigh, and Other Satires
Halldór Laxness (1902–1998) Icelandic author
Pastor Jóhann
Brekkukotsannáll (The Fish Can Sing) (1957)