Nor can a man a fire so cover
That smoke or flame shall not discover.
Bk. 4, line 123; p. 109
The Brus
“Nowher so bisy a man as he ther nas,
And yet he semed bisier than he was.”
About the Sergeant of Law
General Prologue, l. 323-324
The Canterbury Tales
Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology).
Song lyrics, What's Going On (1971)
“Man never falls so low, that he can see nothing higher than himself.”
"A Lesson for the Day; or The Christianity of Christ, of the Church, and of Society" in The Dial (October 1940), p. 196.
Context: Every man has at times in his mind the Ideal of what he should be, but is not. This ideal may be high and complete, or it may be quite low and insufficient; yet in all men, that really seek to improve, it is better than the actual character. Perhaps no one is satisfied with himself, so that he never wishes to be wiser, better, and more holy. Man never falls so low, that he can see nothing higher than himself.
“It is a more rational belief that man may become a brute than that a brute may become a man;”
The facts and fancies of Mr. Darwin (1862)
Context: It is a more rational belief that man may become a brute than that a brute may become a man; and it is an easier faith that plants and animals may dwindle down into an elemental atom, than that this atom should embrace in its organization, and evolve, all the noble forms of vegetable, animal, and intellectual life.
“That man is a head taller than me. That may change.”
"Don Lope de Aguirre" in Aguirre: The Wrath of God [Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes] (1972)
Our arts embody the deepest experience and wisdom of mankind, and they have a spiritual import and purpose.
During another lecture in Madras (now Chennai) based on his experience in Music having composed a number of kirtans on “Devi” . Quoted in "Jayachamaraja Wodeyar – A Princely scholar".
“Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.”
Source: A Knock at Midnight: Inspiration from the Great Sermons of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.
“A man may be ungrateful but is less chargeable with ingratitude than his benefactor.”
Tel homme est ingrat, qui est moins coupable de son ingratitude que celui qui lui a fait du bien.
Maxim 96.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)
