The Lord, the Slave, the Peasant, and the King
Unlike in life, in death the self-same thing.[Mors dominos servis et sceptra ligonibus æquat,
Dissimiles simili conditione trahens.]Walter Colman (1600-1645) English Franciscan friar
“La Danse Machabre or Death’s Duell,” st. 262 (c. 1633)
(Source)
In Hoyt's New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations (1922), this is translated:
Death levels master and slave, the sceptre and the law,
and makes the unlike like.
Quotations about:
rank
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
Nothing is meaner, and more typical of the mob, than to speak in glowing terms of those whom one held in little account before their rise to eminence.
[Il n’y a rien de plus bas, et qui convienne mieux au peuple, que de parler en des termes magnifiques de ceux mêmes dont l’on pensait très modestement avant leur élévation.]
Jean de La Bruyère (1645-1696) French essayist, moralist
The Characters [Les Caractères], ch. 12 “Of Opinions [Des Jugements],” § 5 (12.5) (1688) [tr. Stewart (1970)]
(Source)
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:
There's nothing so mean, and so like the Mob, as to talk much in the praise of those very persons, of whom we thought indifferently before their promotion.
[Bullord ed. (1696)]
There is nothing so mean and so like the Vulgar, as to talk much in praise of those very Persons, of whom we thought indifferently before their promotion.
[Curll ed. (1713)]
There's nothing so mean, and so truly vulgar, as to sound the Praise of those very Persons, of whom we thought but indifferently before their Promotion.
[Browne ed. (1752)]
There is nothing so mean and so truly vulgar as extravagantly to praise those very persons of whom we had but very indifferent opinions before their promotion.
[tr. Van Laun (1885)]
After the game, the King and the Pawn go into the same box.
(Other Authors and Sources)
Italian proverb
Phrased as such (and noted as an Italian proverb) in H. L. Mencken, A New Dictionary of Quotations (1942). The sentiment can be found in literature back to the 17th Century. See also Omar Khayyám.
More discussion: When the Chess Game Is Over, the King and the Pawn Go Back in the Same Box – Quote Investigator.
Night makes no difference ‘twixt the priest and clerk;
Joan as my lady is as good i’ th’ dark.Robert Herrick (1591-1674) English poet
“No Difference i’ th’ Dark,” Hesperides, # 864 (1648)
(Source)
Comparison, more than Reality, makes Men happy or wretched.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs, #1133 (1732)
(Source)
ULYSSES: O, when degree is shaked,
Which is the ladder of all high designs,
The enterprise is sick. How could communities,
Degrees in schools and brotherhoods in cities,
Peaceful commerce from dividable shores,
The primogeneity and due of birth,
Prerogative of age, crowns, scepters, laurels,
But by degree stand in authentic place?
Take but degree away, untune that string,
And hark what discord follows.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Troilus and Cressida, Act 1, sc. 3, l. 105ff (1.3.105-114) (1602)
(Source)
