From a cross Neighbour, and a sullen Wife,
A pointless Needle, and a broken Knife;
From Suretyship, and from an empty Purse,
A Smoaky Chimney and a jolting Horse;
From a dull Razor, and an aking Head,
From a bad Conscience and a buggy Bed;
A Blow upon the Elbow and the Knee,
From each of these, Good L—d deliver me.Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard (1734 ed.)
(Source)
Quotations about:
intercession
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
No longer dream that human prayer
The will of Fate can overbear.[Desine fata deum flecti sperare precando.]
Virgil (70-19 BC) Roman poet [b. Publius Vergilius Maro; also Vergil]
The Aeneid [Ænē̆is], Book 6, l. 176ff (6.176) [The Sybil] (29-19 BC) [tr. Conington (1866)]
(Source)
Speaking to dead Palinurus.
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:
Desist to hope that fates will heare thy prayer
[tr. Ogilby (1649)]
Fate, and the dooming gods, are deaf to tears.
[tr. Dryden (1697)]
Cease to hope that the decrees of the gods are to be altered by prayers.
[tr. Davidson/Buckley (1854)]
Cease to hope
By prayers to bend the destinies divine.
[tr. Cranch (1872)]
Cease to hope prayers may bend the decrees of heaven.
[tr. Mackail (1885)]
Hope not the Fates of very God to change by any prayer.
[tr. Morris (1900)]
Hope not by prayer to bend the Fates' decree.
[tr. Taylor (1907), st. 51, l. 454]
Hope not by prayer to change the laws of Heaven!
[tr. Williams (1910)]
Cease to dream that heaven's decrees may be turned aside by prayer.
[tr. Fairclough (1916)]
Give up the hope
That fate is changed by praying.
[tr. Humphries (1951)]
Give up this hope that the course of fate can be swerved by prayer.
[tr. Day-Lewis (1952)]
Leave any hope that prayer can turn aside
the gods' decrees.
[tr. Mandelbaum (1971), ll. 495-96]
Abandon hope by prayer to make the gods
Change their decrees.
[tr. Fitzgerald (1981), ll. 506-7]
You must cease to hope that the Fates of the gods can be altered by prayers.
[tr. West (1990)]
Cease to hope that divine fate can be tempered by prayer.
[tr. Kline (2002)]
Stop hoping that the gods' decrees
Can be bent with prayer.
[tr. Lombardo (2005)]
Hope no more
the gods’ decrees can be brushed aside by prayer,
[tr. Fagles (2006), l. 428-29]
As if the gods' fates could be bent by prayer.
[tr. Bartsch (2021)]
Lady Maccon cast her hands heavenward, although there was no one up there for her to appeal to. It was an accepted fact that preternaturals had no spiritual recourse, only pragmatism. Alexia didn’t mind; the latter had often gotten her out of sticky situations, whereas the former seemed highly unreliable when one was in a bind.
Gail Carriger (b. 1976) American archaeologist, author [pen name of Tofa Borregaard]
Heartless (2011)
And therefore it was a good answer that was made by one who when they showed him hanging in a temple a picture of those who had paid their vows as having escaped shipwreck, and would have him say whether he did not now acknowledge the power of the gods, — “Aye,” asked he again, “but where are they painted that were drowned after their vows?”
[Taque recte respondit ille, qui, cum suspensa tabula in templo ei monstraretur eorum qui vota solverant, quod naufragii periculo elapsi sint, atque interrogando premeretur, anne tum quidem Deorum numen agnosceret, quaesivit denuo, At ubi sunt illi depicti qui post vota nuncupata perierint?]
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman
Instauratio Magna [The Great Instauration], Part 2 “Novum Organum [The New Organon],” Book 1, Aphorism # 46 (1620) [tr. Spedding (1858)]
(Source)
The reference is to Diagoras, in Cicero, De Natura Deorum, 3.37, or to Diogenes the Cynic, in Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, 6.59.
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:
It was well answered by him who was shown in a temple the votive tablets suspended by such as had escaped the peril of shipwreck, and was pressed as to whether he would then recognise the power of the gods, by an inquiry; "But where are the portraits of those who have perished in spite of their vows?"
[tr. Wood (1831)]
And so he made a good answer, who, when he was shown, hung up in the temple, the votive tablets of those who had fulfilled their vows after escaping from shipwreck, and was pressed with the question, "Did he not then recognize the will of the gods?" asked, in his turn, "But where are the pictures of those who have perished, notwithstanding their vows?"
[tr. Johnson (1859)]
So when someone was shown a votive tablet in a temple dedicated, in fulfilment of a vow, by some men who had escaped the danger of shipwreck, and was pressed to say whether he would now recognise the divinity of the gods, he made a good reply, when he retorted: "Where are the offerings of those who made vows and perished?"
[tr. Silverthorne (2000)]
A man was shown a picture, hanging in a temple, of people who had made their vows and escaped shipwreck, and was asked ‘Now do you admit the power of the gods?’ He answered with a question: ‘Where are the pictures of those who made their vows and then drowned?’ It was a good answer!
[tr. Bennett (2017)]
