Sir Roger L'Estrange
Journalist and pamphleteer, 1616-1704
Cited as L'Estrange. — 172 quotations
Agitation
A logical agitation of the matter.
Agreeable
That which is agreeable to the nature of one thing, is many times contrary to the nature of another.
Allotment
The alloments of God and nature.
Ambidextrous
All false, shuffling, and ambidextrous dealings.
Babbler
Great babblers, or talkers, are not fit for trust.
Balance
Balance the good and evil of things.
Bob
To bed, to bed, will be the bob of the song.
Bolt
Time and nature will bolt out the truth of things.
Broad
It is as broad as long, whether they rise to others, or bring others down to them.
Browbeating
The imperious browbeatings and scorn of great men.
Business
What business has the tortoise among the clouds?
By-end
“Profit or some other by-end.”
Charity
She did ill then to refuse her a charity.
Chop
Out of greediness to get both, he chops at the shadow, and loses the substance.
We go on chopping and changing our friends.
Clam
A swarm of wasps got into a honey pot, and there they cloyed and clammed Themselves till there was no getting out again.
Club
They laid down the club.
Clutter
He saw what a clutter there was with huge, overgrown pots, pans, and spits.
Coarseness
Pardon the coarseness of the illustration.
Common
A dame who herself was common.
Conceit
On his way to the gibbet, a freak took him in the head to go off with a conceit.
Connatural
These affections are connatural to us.
Consult
We are . . . to consult the necessities of life, rather than matters of ornament and delight.
Contendent
In all notable changes and revolutions the contendents have been still made a prey to the third party.
Couch
There is all this, and more, that lies naturally couched under this allegory.
Countervail
Upon balancing the account, the profit at last will hardly countervail the inconveniences that go allong with it.
Couple
It is in some sort with friends as it is with dogs in couples; they should be of the same size and humor.
Covenant
Jupiter covenanted with him, that it should be hot or cold, wet or dry, . . . as the tenant should direct.
Cramp
A narrow fortune is a cramp to a great mind.
Craving
A succession of cravings and satiety.
Cross
A fox was taking a walk one night cross a village.
Demission
Demission of sovereign authority.
Demure
A cat lay, and looked so demure, as if there had been neither life nor soul in her.
Dip
Whoever dips too deep will find death in the pot.
Discharge
In one man's fault discharge another man of his duty.
Nothing can absolve us from the discharge of those duties.
Distance
The horse that ran the whole field out of distance.
Door
A riot unpunished is but next door to a tumult.
Doze
If he happened to doze a little, the jolly cobbler waked him.
Draught
He laid down his pipe, and cast his net, which brought him a very great draught.
Droll
Men that will not be reasoned into their senses, may yet be laughed or drolled into them.
Drub
Soundly Drubbed with a good honest cudgel.
E'en
I have e'en done with you.
Elder
Carry your head as your elders have done.
Eyesore
Mordecai was an eyesore to Haman.
Facility
It is a great error to take facility for good nature.
Feather
An eagle had the ill hap to be struck with an arrow feathered from her own wing.
Fledge
The birds were not as yet fledged enough to shift for themselves.
Fondling
Fondlings are in danger to be made fools.
Forecast
It is wisdom to consider the end of things before we embark, and to forecast consequences.
frank
Frank of civilities that cost them nothing.
Freakish
It may be a question whether the wife or the woman was the more freakish of the two.
Froth
It was a long speech, but all froth.
Go
They to go equal shares in the booty.
Good
The good woman never died after this, till she came to die for good and all.
Gratuitous
We mistake the gratuitous blessings of Heaven for the fruits of our own industry.
Hag
How are superstitious men hagged out of their wits with the fancy of omens.
Hamper
A lion hampered in a net.
Hard
The stag was too hard for the horse.
Improvidence
The improvidence of my neighbor must not make me inhuman.
Ingratitude
Ingratitude is abhorred both by God and man.
Insomuch
Simonides was an excellent poet, insomuch that he made his fortune by it.
Kennel
The dog kenneled in a hollow tree.
Kidney
Millions in the world of this man's kidney.
Lace
I'll lace your coat for ye.
Lash
The moral is a lash at the vanity of arrogating that to ourselves which succeeds well.
Last
The cobbler is not to go beyond his last.
Leap
Wickedness comes on by degrees, . . . and sudden leaps from one extreme to another are unnatural.
Lift
The goat gives the fox a lift.
Likeness
An enemy in the likeness of a friend.
Lime
These twigs, in time, will come to be limed.
Magisterial
Pretenses go a great way with men that take fair words and magisterial looks for current payment.
Masquerade
A freak took an ass in the head, and he goes into the woods, masquerading up and down in a lion's skin.
Mealy-mouthed
She was a fool to be mealy-mouthed where nature speaks so plain.
Medium
The just medium . . . lies between pride and abjection.
Monitory
Losses, miscarriages, and disappointments, are monitory and instructive.
Moralize
This fable is moralized in a common proverb.
Morally
It is morally impossible for an hypocrite to keep himself long upon his guard.
More
They that would have more and more can never have enough.
Mortification
It is one of the vexatious mortifications of a studious man to have his thoughts discovered by a tedious visit.
Most
A covetous man makes the most of what he has.
Mourner
Mourners were provided to attend the funeral.
Muddle
He did ill to muddle the water.
Muster
All the gay feathers he could muster.
Muzzle
The bear muzzles and smells to him.
Nestle
The kingfisher . . . nestles in hollow banks.
Nettle
The princes were so nettled at the scandal of this affront, that every man took it to himself.
News
It is no news for the weak and poor to be a prey to the strong and rich.
Nick
This nick of time is the critical occasion for the gaining of a point.
The just season of doing things must be nicked, and all accidents improved.
Noddle
Come, master, I have a project in my noddle.
Now
How shall any man distinguish now betwixt a parasite and a man of honor?
Offer
He would be offering at the shepherd's voice.
Paddle
As the men were paddling for their lives.
Particular
It is the greatest interest of particulars to advance the good of the community.
Passable
With men as with false money -- one piece is more or less passable than another.
Past
Love, when once past government, is consequently past shame.
Pay
There is neither pay nor plunder to be got.
Plurality
Take the plurality of the world, and they are neither wise nor good.
Ply
The willow plied, and gave way to the gust.
Preceptive
The lesson given us here is preceptive to us.
Pretension
Men indulge those opinions and practices that favor their pretensions.
Pretext
They suck the blood of those they depend on, under a pretext of service and kindness.
Principle
Governors should be well principled.
Prithee
What was that scream for, I prithee?
Probably
Distinguish between what may possibly and what will probably be done.
Pupil
Tutors should behave reverently before their pupils.
Puzzle
A puzzling fool, that heeds nothing.
Quarter
Cocks and lambs . . . at the mercy of cats and wolves . . . must never expect better quarter.
Range
He was bid at his first coming to take off the range, and let down the cinders.
Rashly
He that doth anything rashly, must do it willingly; for he was free to deliberate or not.
Reason
Men that will not be reasoned into their senses.
Refund
A governor, that had pillaged the people, was . . . sentenced to refund what he had wrongfully taken.
Retreat
He built his son a house of pleasure, and spared no cost to make a delicious retreat.
Rig
Jack was rigged out in his gold and silver lace.
Ruff
How many princes . . . in the ruff of all their glory, have been taken down from the head of a conquering army to the wheel of the victor's chariot!
Saving
Contend not with those that are too strong for us, but still with a saving to honesty.
Say
He no sooner said out his say, but up rises a cunning snap.
Scuffle
The dog leaps upon the serpent, and tears it to pieces; but in the scuffle the cradle happened to be overturned.
Secondary
Wheresoever there is moral right on the one hand, no secondary right can discharge it.
Sedulous
What signifies the sound of words in prayer, without the affection of the heart, and a sedulous application of the proper means that may naturally lead us to such an end?
Service
The stork's plea, when taken in a net, was the service she did in picking up venomous creatures.
Settlement
Every man living has a design in his head upon wealth power, or settlement in the world.
Sham
Fooled and shammed into a conviction.
We must have a care that we do not . . . sham fallacies upon the world for current reason.
Sheepbiter
There are political sheepbiters as well as pastoral; betrayers of public trusts as well as of private.
Shift
Men in distress will look to themselves, and leave their companions to shift as well as they can.
Shrew
A man had got a shrew to his wife, and there could be no quiet in the house for her.
Shuffle
The gifts of nature are beyond all shame and shuffles.
Sick
He was not so sick of his master as of his work.
Singe
I singed the toes of an ape through a burning glass.
Size
Men of a less size and quality.
Skew
Child, you must walk straight, without skewing.
Slovenly
A slovenly, lazy fellow, lolling at his ease.
Sop
All nature is cured with a sop.
Spin
By one delay after another they spin out their whole lives.
Sponge
The fly is an intruder, and a common smell-feast, that sponges upon other people's trenchers.
Sprawl
The birds were not fledged; but upon sprawling and struggling to get clear of the flame, down they tumbled.
Squab
The eagle took the tortoise up into the air, and dropped him down, squab, upon a rock.
Squeeze
In a civil war, people must expect to be crushed and squeezed toward the burden.
Stalking-horse
Hypocrisy is the devil's stalking-horse under an affectation of simplicity and religion.
Start
Nature does nothing by starts and leaps, or in a hurry.
Steadiness
Steadiness is a point of prudence as well as of courage.
Stomach
The lion began to show his teeth, and to stomach the affront.
Straggle
The wolf spied out a straggling kid.
Stress
A body may as well lay too little as too much stress upon a dream.
Stretch
Those put a lawful authority upon the stretch, to the abuse of yower, under the color of prerogative.
Stumble
One stumble is enough to deface the character of an honorable life.
Substantial
The substantial ornaments of virtue.
Sum
“Go to the ant, thou sluggard,” in few words sums up the moral of this fable.
Superadd
The peacock laid it extremely to heart that he had not the nightingale's voice superadded to the beauty of his plumes.
Swoop
The eagle fell, . . . and carried away a whole litter of cubs at a swoop.
Take
One of his relations took him up roundly.
Tender
Our bodies are not naturally more tender than our faces.
Then
One while the master is not aware of what is done, and then in other cases it may fall out to be own act.
Thoroughstitch
Preservance alone can carry us thoroughstitch.
Twinge
The gnat . . . twinged him [the lion] till he made him tear himself, and so mastered him.
Twit
Aesop minds men of their errors, without twitting them for what is amiss.
Twittering
A widow, who had a twittering towards a second husband, took a gossiping companion to manage the job.
Uncertainty
Our shepherd's case is every man's case that quits a moral certainty for an uncertainty.
Unhallow
The vanity unhallows the virtue.
Up
As a boar was whetting his teeth, up comes a fox to him.
Urbanity
Raillery in the sauce of civil entertainment; and without some such tincture of urbanity, good humor falters.
Waggle
Why do you go nodding and waggling so?
Warning
A great journey to take upon so short a warning.
Whip
She, in a hurry, whips up her darling under her arm.
Two friends, traveling, met a bear upon the way; the one whips up a tree, and the other throws himself flat upon the ground.
Wit
Intemperate wits will spare neither friend nor foe.
Wonted
She was wonted to the place, and would not remove.
Woundy
Such a world of holidays, that 't a woundy hindrance to a poor man that lives by his labor.
Yet
The rapine is made yet blacker by the pretense of piety and justice.