B

[a b c d e f g  h i j k l m n  o p q r s t u  v w x y z]

[a]▲

A baby is God's opinion that life should go on.  --Carl Sandburg (1878-1967): Remembrance Rock  ch.2

A bad bush is better than the open field.

The bad end of a bad beginning.

Bad luck often brings good luck.

Bad money drives out good. / Bad money drives good money out of circulation.

Bad news travels fast.

A bad workman (always) blames his tools.

The bait hides the hook.

Barking dogs seldom bite. / A barking dog seldom bites.

Battles cost both sides blows.

[e]▲

Be able to be alone. Lose not the advantage of solitude, and the society of thyself.  --Sir Thomas Browne (1605-82)

Be aware of wonder. Live a balanced life--learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.  --Robert Fulghum (1937-)

Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.  --Mark Twain (1835-1910)

Be faithful to thyself.

Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.  --John Howard Payne (1791-1852): Home, Sweet Home

Be sure to build on a good foundation.

Be the change you wish to see in other people.   --Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

Be (a)ware of Greeks bearing gifts.  (from a fable of the Trojan War)

Beautiful flowers are soon picked.

The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.  --B. B. King [Riley B. King] (1925-)

Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art.  --(Anna) Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962)

Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them.  --David Hume (1711-76)

Beauty is but skin deep. / Beauty is only skin-deep.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Beauty is truth, truth beauty.  --John Keats (1795-1821): Ode on a Grecian Urn

Beauty itself is but the sensible image of the Infinite.  --George Bancroft (1800-91)

Because a fellow has failed once or twice or a dozen times, you don't want to set him down as a failure till he's dead or loses his courage--and that's the same thing.   --George Horace Lorimer (1867-1937)

Because the sky is blue, it makes me cry.  --John Lennon (1940-80) "The Beatles": Because

Bee is inside the flower; Flower is inside the garden; Garden is ... inside the town; Town is ... inside the world; World is inside of God. And so, and then, God is, Inside the little bee.  --Kaneko Misuzu (1903-30): Bee and God

Beggars can't be [mustn't be / must be no] choosers.

Beggars mounted run their horse to death.

A beginner ought never to have a second arrow.  --Yoshida Kenkô (1283?-1352?): Tsure-zure Gusa  Section 92

Behind the clouds is the sun still shining.  --Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-82): The Rainy Day

The belief that becomes truth for me is that which allows me the best use of my strength, the best means of putting my virtues into action.  --André Gide (1869-1951)

Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find it.  --André Gide (1869-1951)

A bell is known by the sound.

The best augury of a man's success in his profession is that he thinks it the finest in the world.  --George Eliot (1819-80)

The best carpenter makes the fewest chips.

The best fish smell when they are three days old.

The best fish swims near the bottom.

The best of men are but men at best.

The best portion of a good man's life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love.  --William Wordsworth (1770-1850)  

The best thing about the future is that it only comes one day at a time.  --Dean (Gooderham) Acheson (1893-1971)

The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.  --Paul Valery (1871-1945)

The best way to predict the future is to invent it.  --Alan C. Kay (1940-)

Better a lean peace than a fat victory.

Better be a fool than a knave.

Better be the head of a dog than the tail of a lion.

Better bend, than break.

Better late than never.

Better the foot slip than the tongue.

Better to ask the way than go astray.

Between the idea and the reality between the motion and the act falls the Shadow.  --T(homas) S(tearns) Eliot (1888-1965): The Hollow Men

Between two stools one falls to the ground.

Beware the fury of a patient man.  --John Dryden (1631-1700)

[i]▲

A bird in hand is a certainty. But a bird in the bush may sing.  --Francis Bret(t) Harte (1836-1902)  

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

Birds of a feather flock together.

The biter is (sometimes) bit.

Bitters do good to the stomach.

[l]▲

Blood is thicker than water.

[o]▲

Boldness is blind.

(Like) A bolt from [out of] the blue.

(It's like) Bolting a door with a boiled carrot.

A book of quotations can never be complete.

A book that is shut is but a block.

Books and friends should be few, but good.

The boughs that bear most hang lowest.  --David Garrick (1717-79)

Boys, be ambitious (for the attainment of all that a man ought to be)!  --William Smith Clark (1826-86)  

Boys will be boys.

[r]▲

Brevity is the soul of wit.  --William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet  II. ii. 90

Bridle passions and be yourself a free man.

[u]▲

A burden of one's own choice is not felt.

The [A] burnt child dreads [fears] the fire.

Busiest men find the most time.

The busiest men have the most leisure.

Business before pleasure.

The butcher looked for his knife when he had it in his mouth.

Buy cheap and waste your money.

[y]▲

By all means marry. If you get a good wife, you will become happy; and if you get a bad one, you will become a philosopher.  --Socrates (469?-399B.C.)  

By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired.  --Nikos Kazantzakis (1885-1957)

By the little is known the much.

By the time you wish to be a good son, your parents are long gone.  --ed. by Karai Senryû (1718-90): Haifû Yanagi-daru  Chapter 22

By wisdom peace, by peace plenty.

By writing you learn to write.