The daily intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Territory [i.e. Wash.]) 1876-1881, 1877-12-11
Familiar Quotations .

We must abandon, l fear, ali hone OF
ascertaining where the exclamation,
'Consistency. thou art Jewell" was
earliest put into print. There remain.
however. an immense number of famil.
lar quotations, the origin of which.
though not generally known, are oft
times curious enough.
For instance, the common phrase,
Where the shoe pinches," which 50
shrewdly expresses truth, comes to US
from Plutarch. who wrote his famous
Parallel Lines" in the first century OF
the Christian era. Il 10 to be found in
his Life Of Emilius Paulus."
A Roman was divorced from his wife,
and, being highly blamed by eli his
friends-who demanded, Was she not
chaste! was she not fair .'-holding
out her shoe, asked them whether it
was not new and wsll-lnade. Yet.
added he. none Of you can tell where it
pinches me- To this, of course, no
rejoinder could bo made.
What phrase il in more frequent and
ordinary use. gravely or facetiously,
than, Adding insult to injury? 2" Yet
it has reached Us in fable by Phmdrus,
Roman author, who lived in the reign
Of Emperor Augustus Caesar. nearly
nineteen hunered years ago, and whose
writings were first discovered to mod
ern literature in 1896, at Rheims, in
France.
The fable is called The Bald Man
and the Fly" and reads thus:
"A fly bit at the bare pate of bald
man. who. endeavoring to crush it. gave
himself heavy blow. Then said the
fly. jeeringly, You wanted to avenge
the sting Of tiny insect with death.
What will you do to yourself, who have
added insult to injury"
Frequently, "The sinews of war" is q
conversation phrase This 10 said to
have originated with Demosthenes, over
two thousand years ago, when he said,
"The sinews of war are cut" Later,
Biou, the Greek, said. "Riches are the
sinews Of business" After him Plu-
tsrch said that Cleomenes first called
money the sinews Of the State, with
special reference to icar. After him,
various eminent persons, including Cic-
ero. declared money to be the sinews of
war.
''Bewase of . man of one book,
sentence originating with st. Thomas
Aquinas, 10 not used so much as it used
to be. But he who knew one book, or
one subject, extremely well, is apt, if
ever he gets the chance, to talk about
that and nothing else.
Coleridge, who talked a great deal.
upon . variety of subjects. related how
he travelled in stage coach with SEN
sible-lookirg person, to whom he threw
ever in vain. At last, in despair, he
said, II have tried you on score Of
subjects, none of which seem to interest
you. Can you speak on dnything" The
man answered, II arm a tanner. Take
me upon sole leather, and see whether
can't talk"
The aphorism. defend me from my
friends; can defend myself from my
enemies" 10 said to have been used by
Marecbal Villars, French leader, on
taking leave Of Louis XIV. In sati-
rical poem. "The New Morality" by
George Canning, an English wit and
statesman. we find:
But Of all plaques. good heaven, thy wrath can
send,
Save. ssvs--oh. save me from the candid friend !"
God tempers the wind to the shorn
lsmb." rs used by Lawrence Sterne, in
the story OF Maria in his Sentimental
Journey" has repeatedly been nsed as
a quotation from the Bible, in which 1t
is not to be found. Neither did it ORR
ginste with Sterne, who. like Lord
Byron. was most unscrupulous picker
up Of other writer's gems. It was writ
ten by Henri Estienne, "a French author,
in 1894, and. half n century later. by
George Herbert, who wrote Latin and
English poems with great and equal
facility.
"God always supports the heaviest
battallons." sounds like . modern
sphorisw, but is foreign and ancient.
1t was used by Terence two thousand
years ago. and by Tacitus. the Roman
historian. who lived in the first century.
Roger Rabutin, Count de Busy, a
French wit and satirist. in the seven
teenth century. has it in his letters.
Voltaire. q hundred years later, also
expressed that idea, having found it in
one Of Madame de Ssvigne's letters 70
her daughter.
Wrong quotations are common. THE
tongue is an unruly member" generally
attributed to the Epistle of st JAMES.
is not to be found therein; and the real
words ere, Tho tongue can no man
tame; it is an unruly evil"
Truth is stranger than fiction" is
usual misquotation from Byron. The
original. IN "Don Jusn," Canto xiv,
stxnza l0l, runa thus;
I" -ris sassnse. but true; for truth 10 always
oeTanee-
Stranger thsn Action"
----ROS--