An elegant writer has observed, that wit may do very well for a mistress, but that he should prefer reason for a wife. He that deserts the latter, and gives himself up entirely to the guidance of the former, will certainly fall into many pitfalls and quagmires, like him, who walks by flashes of lightning, rather than by the steady beams of the sun.
Charles Caleb "C. C." Colton (1780-1832) English cleric, writer, aphorist
Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Vol. 1, § 71 (1820)
(Source)
Quotations about:
dependability
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
One must be fond of people and trust them if one is not to make a mess of life, and it is therefore essential that they should not let one down. They often do. The moral of which is that I must, myself, be as reliable as possible, and this I try to be. But reliability is not a matter of contract — that is the main difference between the world of personal relationships and the world of business relationships. It is a matter for the heart, which signs no documents. In other words, reliability is impossible unless there is a natural warmth. Most men possess this warmth, though they often have bad luck and get chilled. Most of them, even when they are politicians, want to keep faith. And one can, at all events, show one’s own little light here, one’s own poor little trembling flame, with the knowledge that it is not the only light that is shining in the darkness, and not the only one which the darkness does not comprehend.
E. M. Forster (1879-1970) English novelist, essayist, critic, librettist [Edward Morgan Forster]
“What I Believe,” The Nation (16 Jul 1938)
(Source)
Dependability, integrity, the characteristic of never knowingly doing anything wrong, that you would never cheat anyone, that you would give everybody a fair deal. Character is a sort of an all-inclusive thing. If a man has character, everyone has confidence in him. Soldiers must have confidence in their leader.
Omar Bradley (1893-1981) American general
Personal interview with Edgar Puryear (15 Feb 1963)
Quoted in Edgar Puryear, 19 Stars : A Study in Military Character and Leadership (1981).
A woman is a fickle, changeful thing!
[Varium et mutabile semper
femina.]Virgil (70-19 BC) Roman poet [b. Publius Vergilius Maro; also Vergil]
The Aeneid [Ænē̆is], Book 4, l. 569ff (4.469-570) [Mercury] (29-19 BC) [tr. Cranch (1872)]
(Source)
Warning Aeneas that Dido is likely to attack Aeneas' forces now that she knows he is deserting her.
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:
Still inconstant is a womans minde.
[tr. Ogilby (1649)]
Who knows what hazards thy delay may bring?
Woman's a various and a changeful thing.
[tr. Dryden (1697)]
Woman is a fickle and ever changeable creature.
[tr. Davidson/Buckley (1854)]
Away to sea! a woman's will
Is changeful and uncertain still.
[tr. Conington (1866)]
Woman is ever a fickle and changing thing.
[tr. Mackail (1885)]
For woman's heart is shifting evermore.
[tr. Morris (1900)]
Away!
Changeful is woman's mood, and varying with the day.
[tr. Taylor (1907), st. 73]
A mutable and shifting thing
is woman ever.
[tr. Williams (1910)]
A fickle and changeful thing is woman ever.
[tr. Fairclough (1916)]
A shifty, fickle object
Is woman, always.
[tr. Humphries (1951)]
Woman was ever
A veering, weathercock creature.
[tr. Day-Lewis (1952)]
An ever
uncertain and inconsistent thing is woman.
[tr. Mandelbaum (1971), l. 786-87]
Woman's a thing
Forever fitful and forever changing.
[tr. Fitzgerald (1981)]
Women are unstable creatures, always changing.
[tr. West (1990)]
Woman is ever fickle and changeable.
[tr. Kline (2002)]
A woman is a fickle and worrisome thing.
[tr. Lombardo (2005)]
Woman’s a thing
that’s always changing, shifting like the wind.
[tr. Fagles (2006), l. 710-11]
Females are a fickle thing, always prone to change.
[tr. Bartsch (2021)]
See also:
