Beggary Quotes

• Idleness is the key of beggary.

  Charles Spurgeon

  Keys, Idleness

  Spurgeon, Charles H. (2015). “The Salt Cellars”, p.269, Delmarva Publications, Inc.

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• Poverty, the mother of manhood. Also, the mother of prostitution.

  Lucan

  Mother, Poverty, Prostitution

  47 Copy quote

• Aspiring beggary is wretchedness itself.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Wretchedness

  Oliver Goldsmith (1816). “The Vicar of Wakefield”, p.10

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• Well, whiles I am a beggar, I will rail, And say there is no sin but to be rich; And being rich, my virtue then shall be To say there is no vice but beggary

  William Shakespeare

  Vices, Poverty, Sin

  'King John' (1591-8) act 2, sc. 1, l. 593

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• He who begs timidly courts a refusal.

  Seneca the Younger

  Refusal, Court, Beggar

  "Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations" by Jehiel Keeler Hoyt, p. 64-65, Hippolytus, II. 593, 1922.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• The real beggar is indeed the true and only king.

  Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

  Kings, Real, Beggar

  "Nathan der Weise" by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, II. 9, 1779.

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• Better a living beggar than a buried emperor.

  Jean de La Fontaine

  Buried, Emperor, Beggar

  "La Matrone d'Ephèse", as quoted in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations, p. 64-65, 1922.

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• Set a beggar on horse backe, they saie, and hee will neuer alight.

  Robert Greene

  Horse, Beggar

  Robert Greene (1883). “The Life and Complete Works in Prose and Verse of Robert Greene ...”

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• He wrapped himself in quotations - as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of Emperors.

  Rudyard Kipling

  Knowledge, Purple, Belief

  Many Inventions "The Finest Story in the World" (1893)

  23 Copy quote

  Show source

• Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks

  William Shakespeare

  Poverty, Thanks, Poor

  William Shakespeare (1847). “Family Shakespeare”, p.856

  19 Copy quote

  Show source

• Polite beggary is too common.

  William Rounseville Alger

  Common, Polite, Request

  7 Copy quote

• I see, sir, you are liberal in offers. You taught me first to beg, and now methinks You teach me how a beggar should be answered.

  William Shakespeare

  Firsts, Taught, Should

  'The Merchant of Venice' (1596-8) act 4, sc. 1, l. [439]

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• If Pride leads the Van, Beggary brings up the Rear.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Pride, Vans, Poor Richard

  Benjamin Franklin (2008). “The Way to Wealth and Poor Richard's Almanac”, p.24, Nayika Publishing

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks, but I thank you; and sure, dear friends, my thanks are too dear a halfpenny.

  William Shakespeare

  Thanks, Poor, Dear Friend

  William Shakespeare (2015). “The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark”, p.54, Hackett Publishing

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Unless the old adage must be verified, That beggars mounted, run their horse to death.

  William Shakespeare

  Running, Horse, Adages

  8 Copy quote

• Borrowing is not much better than begging.

  Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

  Begging You, Lending, Borrowing

  Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1950). “Nathan the Wise: (Nathan der Weise)”

  19 Copy quote

  Show source

• When beggars die, there are no comets seen; the heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.

  William Shakespeare

  Heaven, Comets, Halley's Comet

  'Julius Caesar' (1599) act 2, sc. 2, l. 30

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• But, historians, and even common sense, may inform us, that, however specious these ideas of perfect equality may seem, they are really, at bottom, impracticable; and were they not so, would be extremely pernicious to human society. Render possessions ever so equal, men's different degrees of art, care, and industry will immediately break that equality. Or if you check these virtues, you reduce society to the most extreme indigence; and instead of preventing want and beggary in a few, render it unavoidable to the whole community.

  David Hume

  Art, Men, Ideas

  David Hume (2013). “Essays and Treatises on Philosophical Subjects”, p.290, Broadview Press

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• A beggar through the world am I, From place to place I wander by. Fill up my pilgrim's scrip for me, For Christ's sweet sake and charity.

  James Russell Lowell

  Sweet, World, Charity

  James Russell Lowell (2016). “Delphi Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell (Illustrated)”, p.40, Delphi Classics

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Men of warm imaginations and towering thoughts are apt to overlook the goods of fortune which are near them, for something that glitters in the sight at a distance; to neglect solid and substantial happiness for what is showy and superficial; and to contemn that good which lies within their reach, for that which they are not capable of attaining. Hope calculates its schemes for a long and durable life; presses forward to imaginary points of bliss; grasps at impossibilities; and consequently very often ensnares men into beggary, ruin, and dishonour.

  Joseph Addison

  Happiness, Distance, Lying

  Joseph Addison (1837). “The Works of Joseph Addison: The Spectator, no. 315-635”, p.308

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The world is not thy friend, nor the world's law. - Romeo

  William Shakespeare

  Law, World, Juliet

  'Romeo And Juliet' (1595) act 5, sc. 1, l. 72

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• ‎Honoured sir, poverty is not a vice, that's a true saying. Yet I know too that drunkeness is not a virtue, and that's even truer. But beggary, honoured sir, beggary is a vice. In poverty you may still retain your innate nobility of soul, but in beggary--never--no one. For beggary a man is not chased out of human society with a stick, he is swept out with a broom, so as to make it as humiliating as possible; and quite right, too, forasmuch as in beggary as I am ready to be the first to humiliate myself.

  Fyodor Dostoevsky

  Men, Soul, Vices

  7 Copy quote

• CLEOPATRA: If it be love indeed, tell me how much. ANTONY: There's beggary in the love that can be reckoned. CLEOPATRA: I'll set a bourne how far to be belov'd. ANTONY: Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth.

  William Shakespeare

  Love, Heaven, Needs

  'Antony and Cleopatra' (1606-7) act 1, sc. 1, l. 14

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• There's beggary in love that can be reckoned

  William Shakespeare

  Love You

  4 Copy quote

• Delay leads impotent and snail-paced beggary.

  William Shakespeare

  Procrastination, Delay, Snail

  William Shakespeare, James R. Siemon (2009). “King Richard III: Third Series”, p.332, A&C Black

  11 Copy quote

  Show source