636 PROMISES PROPHECY
When old words die out on the tongue, new melodies break forth from the heart; and where the old tracks are lost, new country is revealed with its wonders.
The stone that is rolling, can gather no moss.
Qui n'a pas l'esprit de son age,
De son age a tout le malheur.
He who has not the spirit of his age, has all
the misery of it.
Voltaire—Lettre a CideviHe.
Press on!—"for in the grave there is no work
And no device"—Press on! while yet ye may!
N. P. Willis—From a Poem Delivered at Yale
College, 1827. L. 45.
PROMISES
Promise is most given when the least is said.
George Chapman—Trans, of Musceus—Hero
and Leander, L. 234.
Promettre c'est dormer, esperer c'est jouir.
To promise is to give, to hope is to enjoy.
Deltlle—Jardins. I.
You never bade me hope, 'tis true;
I asked you not to swear:
But I looked in those eyes of blue,
And read a promise there.
Gerald Griffin—You Never Bade Me Hope.
We promise according to our hopes, and perform according to our fears.
La Rochefoucauld—Maxims. No. 39.
| seealso = (See also {{sc|Macbeth)
Giants in
Their promises, but those obtained, weak pigmies
In their performance.
| author = Massinger
| work = Great Duke. Act II. Sc. 3.
Thy promises are like Adonis' gardens
That one day bloomed and fruitful were the
next.
Henry VI. Pt.. Act I. Sc. 6. L. 6.
His promises were, as he then was, mighty;
But his performance, as he is now, nothing.
Henry VIII. Act IV. Sc. 2. L. 41.
And be these juggling fiends no more believ'd,
That palter with us in a double sense:
That keep the word of promise to our ear,
And break it to our hope.
Macbeth. Act V. Sc. 8. L. 19.
| seealso = (See also La Rochefoucauld)
| topic =
| page = 636
}}
{{Hoyt quote
| num =
| text = <poem>There buds the promise of celestial worth.
Young—Tht Last Day. Bk. III. L. 317.
PROOF
You may prove anything by figures.
Quoted by Carlyle—Chartism,. No. 2.
You cannot demonstrate an emotion or prove
an aspiration.
John Morley—Rousseau. P. 402.
For when one's proofs are aptly chosen,
Four are as valid as four dozen.
Prior—Alma. Canto I. End.
Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
J Thessalonians. V. 21.
PROPERTY (See Possession)
PROPHECY
Be thou the rainbow to the storms of life!
The evening beam that smiles the clouds away,
And tints to-morrow with prophetic ray!
Byron—Bride qfAbydos. Canto H. St. 20.
Of all the horrid, hideous notes of woe,
Sadder than owl-songs or the midnight blast;
Is that portentous phrase, "I told you so."
Byron—Don Juan. Canto XIV. St. 50.
The prophet's mantle, ere his flight began,
Dropt on the world—a sacred gift to man.
Campbell—Pleasures of Hope. Pt. I. L. 43.
Bene qui conjiciet, vatem hunc perhibebo
optimum.
I shall always consider the best guesser the
best prophet.
Cicero—De Divinatione. II. 5. (Greek
' SP.)
| seealso = (See also Lowell, Walpole)
| topic =
| page = 636
}}
{{Hoyt quote
| num =
| text = <poem>Ancestral voices prophesying war.
Coleridge—hubla Khan.
We know in part, and we prophesy in part.
I Corinthians. XIII. 9.
From hence, no question, has sprung an observation . . . confirmed now into a settled
opinion, that some long experienced souls in the
world, before their dislodging, arrive to the
height of prophetic spirits.
Erasmus—Praise of Folly. (Old translation.)
| seealso = (See also Milton)
| topic =
| page = 636
}}
{{Hoyt quote
| num =
| text = <poem>Thy voice sounds like a prophet's word;
And in its hollow tones are heard
The thanks of millions yet to be.
Fitz-Greene Halleck—Marco Bozzaris.
Prophet of evil! never hadst thou yet
A cheerful word for me. To mark the signs
Of coming mischief is thy great delight,
Good dost thou ne'er foretell nor bring to pass.
Homer—Iliad. Bk. I. L. 138.
| note = Bryant's trans.
