Page:Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922).djvu/608

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570
OPPORTUNITY
OPPORTUNITY
1

Opinion's but a fool, that makes us scan
The outward habit by the inward man.

Pericles. Act II. Sc. 2. L. 56.


2

Facts are stubborn things.

Smollett. Trans, of Gil Bias. Bk. X. Ch. I. Elliot—Essay on Field Husbandry. P. 35.

(See also Burns)


3

"That was excellently observed," say I when I read a passage in another where his opinion agrees with mine. When we differ, then I pronounce him to be mistaken.

SwiftThoughts on Various Subjects.
(See also La Rochefoucauld)


4

Je connais quelqu'un qui a plus d'esprit que
Napoleon, que Voltaire, que tous les ministres
presents et future: c'est l'opinion.
I know where there is more wisdom than is
found in Napoleon, Voltaire, or all the ministers present and to come—in public opinion.

Talleyrand—In the Chamber of Peers. (1821)


5

Quot homines, tot sententiæ; suus cuique mos.

So many men, so many opinions; everyone has his own fancy.

TerencePhormio. II. 3, 14. Same idea in GascoigneGlass of Government.
(See also Queen Elizabeth)


6

Matters of fact, as Mr. Budgell somewhere observes, are very stubborn things.

 In copy of the Will of Matthew Tindal. P. 23. (1733)
(See also Burns)


OPPORTUNITY

7

A thousand years a poor man watched
Before the gate of Paradise:
But while one little nap he snatched,
It oped and shut. Ah! was he wise?

Wm. R. AlgerOriental Poetry. Swift Opportunity.


8

There is an hour in each man s life appointed
To make his happiness, if then he seize it.

Beaumont and FletcherCustom of the Country. Act II. Sc. 3. L. 85.


9

This could but have happened once,
And we missed it, lost it forever.

Robert BrowningYouth and Art. XVII.


10

He that will not when he may,
When he will he shall have nay.

BurtonQuoted in Anatomy of Melancholy. Pt. III. Sec. 2. Memb. 5. Subsec. 5.


11

There is a nick in Fortune's restless wheel
For each man's good.
Chapman—Bussy d'Ambois.

(See also Julius Cæsar)


Holding occasion by the hand,
Not over nice 'twit weed and flower,
Waiving what none can understand,
I take mine hour.
John Vance Cheney—This My Life.
Who lets slip fortune, her shall never find:
Occasion once past by, is bald behind.

CowleyPyramus and Thisbe. XV.
(See also Phsdrus)


14

Rem tibi quam nosces aptam dimittere noli;
Fronte capillata, post est occasio calva.

Let nothing pass which will advantage you; Hairy in front, Occasion's bald behind.</poem>

Dionysius CatoDisticha de Moribus. II. 26.
(See also Peledrus)


15

Observe the opportunity.

Ecclesiasticus. IV. 20.


16

Seek not for fresher founts afar,
Just drop your bucket where you are;
And while the ship right onward leaps,
Uplift it from exhaustless deeps.
Parch not your life with dry despair;
The stream of hope flows everywhere—
So under every sky and star,
Just drop your bucket where you are!

Sam Walter FossOpportunity.


17

"Oh, ship ahoy!" rang out the cry;
"Oh, give us water or we die!"
A voice came o'er the waters far,
"Just drop your bucket where you are."
And then they dipped and drank their fill
Of water fresh from mead and hill;
And then they knew they sailed upon
The broad mouth of the Amazon.

Sam Walter Foss.Opportunity "Let down your buckets where you are," quoted by Booker T. Washington. Address at Atlanta Exposition. See his Life, Up From Slavery.


18

Der den Augenblick ergreift,
Das ist der rechte Mann.

Yet he who grasps the moment's gift,
He is the proper man.

GoetheFaust. I. 4. 494.


19

Man's extremity is God's opportunity.

John Hamilton (Lord Belhaven). In the Scottish Parliament, Nov. 2, 1706, protesting against the Union of England and Scotland. Also found in John Flavel's Faithful and Ancient Account of Some Late and Wonderful Sea Deliverances. Pub. before 1691.


20

I beseech you not to blame me if I be desirous to strike while the iron is hot.

Sir Edward HobyTo Cecil. Oct. 14, 1587.


21

Rapiamus, amici,
Occasionem de die.

Let us seize, friends, our opportunity from the day as it passes.

HoraceEpodon. XIII. 3.


22

The actual fact is that in this day Opportunity not only knocks at your door but is playing an anvil chorus on every man's door, and then lays for the owner around the corner with a club. The world is in sore need of men who can do things. Indeed, cases can easily be recalled by every one where Opportunity actually smashed in the door and collared her candidate and dragged him forth to success. These cases are exceptional, usually you have to meet Opportunity half-way. But the only place where you can get away from Opportunity is to lie down and die. Opportunity does not trouble dead men, or dead ones who flatter themselves that they are alive.

Elbert Hubbard. In The Philistine.