Nothing ventured, nothing gained. [ Proverb ]
Gear is easier gained than guided. [ Proverb ]
Wisdom is seldom gained without suffering. [ Sir Arthur Helps ]
It is an ill air where nothing is to be gained. [ Proverb ]
Wisdom's path is steep; but, gained the height,
The Muse's gifts will fill you with delight. [ Onestes ]
Great is the victory that is gained without bloodshed. [ Spanish Proverb ]
He that knows what may be gained in a day never steals. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]
Science has but one fashion - to lose nothing once gained. [ Stedman ]
Learning hath gained most by those books by which printers have lost. [ Fuller ]
Our heroes of the former days deserved and gained their never-fading bays. [ Roscommon ]
I hate every violent overthrow, because as much is destroyed as is gained by it. [ Goethe ]
True dignity is never gained by place, and never lost when honours are withdrawn. [ Massinger ]
With such deceits he gained their easy hearts, too prone to credit his perfidious arts. [ Dryden ]
By gaining the people, the kingdom is gained; by losing the people, the kingdom is lost. [ Confucius ]
Great is he who has bravely vanquished his enemies, but greater is he who has gained them. [ Seume ]
We know the value of a fortune when we have gained it, and that of a friend when we have lost it. [ J. Petit-Senn ]
For everything you have missed, you have gained something else; and for everything you gain, you lose something. [ Ralph Waldo Emerson ]
All that mankind has done, thought, gained, or been, - it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books. [ Carlyle ]
What have the Germans gained by their boasted freedom of the press, except the liberty of abusing each other as they like? [ Goethe ]
Those who attain any excellence commonly spend life in one common pursuit; for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms. [ Johnson ]
A more glorious victory cannot be gained over another man than this, that when the injury began on his part, the kindness should begin on ours. [ Tillotson ]
There are few mortals so insensible that their affections cannot be gained by mildness, their confidence by sincerity, their hatred by scorn or neglect. [ Zimmermann ]
The first time I read an excellent book, it is to me just as if I had gained a new friend. When I read over a book I have perused before, it resembles the meeting with an old one. [ Goldsmith ]
The press is not only free; it is powerful. That power is ours. It is the proudest that man can enjoy. It was not granted by monarchs, it was not gained for us by aristocracies; but it sprang from the people, and, with an immortal instinct, it has always worked for the people. [ Beaconsfield ]
Living authors, therefore, are usually bad companions. If they have not gained character, they seek to do so by methods often ridiculous, always disgusting; and if they have established a character, they are silent for fear of losing by their tongue what they have acquired by their pen - for many authors converse much more foolishly than Goldsmith, who have never written half so well. [ Colton ]
Mr. Johnson had never, by his own account, been a close student, and used to advise young people never to be without a book in their pocket, to be read at bye-times, when they had nothing else to do. It has been by that means,
said he to a boy at our house one day, that all my knowledge has been gained, except what I have picked up by running about the world with my wits ready to observe, and my tongue ready to talk.
[ Mrs. Piozzi ]
Pride looks back upon its past deeds, and calculating with nicety what it has done, it commits itself to rest; whereas humility looks to that which is before, and discovering how much ground remains to be trodden, it is active and vigilant. Having gained one height, pride looks down with complacency on that which is beneath it; humility looks up to a higher and yet higher elevation. The one keeps us on this earth, which is congenial to its nature; the other directs our eye, and tends to lift us up to heaven. [ James McCosh ]