To a crazy ship, all winds are contrary. [ Proverb ]
All things that we ordained festival,
Turn from their office to black funeral;
Our instruments, to melancholy bells;
Our wedding cheer, to sad burial feast;
Our solemn hymns, to sullen dirges change:
Our bridal flowers serve for a buried corse,
And all things change them to the contrary. [ William Shakespeare ]
He that goes the contrary way must go it over twice. [ Proverb ]
Ground not upon dreams, you know they are ever contrary. [ Thos. Middleton ]
Many make straight things crooked, but few the contrary. [ Proverb ]
No belief which is contrary to truth can be really useful. [ J. S. Mill ]
True courage is like a kite; a contrary wind raises it higher. [ J. Petit-Senn ]
Argument seldom convinces any one contrary to his inclinations. [ Proverb ]
Men say more evil of women than they think: it is the contrary with women toward men. [ S. Dubay ]
Men do not always love those they esteem; women, on the contrary, esteem only those they love. [ S. Dubay ]
In the common run of mankind, for one that is wise and good you find ten of a contrary character. [ Addison ]
Women are happier in the love they inspire than in that which they feel: men are just the contrary. [ Beauchene ]
Right ethics are central, and go from the soul outward. Gift is contrary to the law of the universe. [ Ralph Waldo Emerson ]
Where we find echoes, we generally find emptiness and hollowness; it is the contrary with, the echoes of the heart. [ J. F. Boyes ]
The love of flattery in most men proceeds from the mean opinion they have of themselves; in women, from the contrary. [ Swift ]
I am positive I have a soul; nor can all the books with which materialists have pestered the world ever convince me to the contrary. [ Sterne ]
He who imitates what is evil always goes beyond the example that is set; on the contrary, he who imitates what is good always falls short. [ Guicciardini ]
Nature has directly formed woman to be a mother, only indirectly to be a wife; man, on the contrary, is rather made to be a husband than a father. [ Jean Paul ]
That which exists in nature is a something purely individual and particular. Art, on the contrary, is essentially destined to manifest the general. [ Schlegel ]
Extremes, though contrary, have the like effect; extreme heat mortifies, like extreme cold; extreme love breeds satiety, as well as extreme hatred. [ Chapman ]
The coquette compromises her reputation, and sometimes saves her virtue: the prude, on the contrary, often sacrifices her honor in secret, and preserves it in public opinion. [ Mme. du Socage ]
To revenge a wrong is easy, usual, and natural, and, as the world thinks, savors of nobleness of mind; but religion teaches the contrary, and tells us it is better to neglect than to requite it. [ J. Beaumont ]
Contrary to popular belief, the most dangerous animal is not the lion or tiger or even the elephant. The most dangerous animal is a shark riding on an elephant, just trampling and eating everything they see. [ Jack Handey, Deep Thoughts ]
Make a point never so clear, it is great odds that a man whose habits and the bent of whose mind lie a contrary way, shall be unable to comprehend it. So weak a thing is reason in competition with inclination. [ Bishop Berkeley ]
There is no real elevation of mind in a contempt of little things; it is, on the contrary, from too narrow views that we consider those things of little importance which have in fact such extensive consequences. [ Fenelon ]
Contrary to what most people say, the most dangerous animal in the world is not the lion or the tiger or even the elephant. It's a shark riding on an elephant's back, just trampling and eating everything they see. [ Jack Handey, Deep Thoughts ]
Resentment is, in every stage of the passion, painful, but it is not disagreeable, unless in excess; pity is always painful, yet always agreeable; vanity, on the contrary, is always pleasant, yet always disagreeable. [ Horne ]
Without some strong motive to the contrary, men united by the pursuit of a clearly defined common aim of irresistible attractiveness naturally coalesce; and since they coalesce naturally, they are clearly right in coalescing and find their advantage in it. [ Matthew Arnold ]
When we live habitually with the wicked, we become necessarily either their victim or their disciple; when we associate, on the contrary, with virtuous men, we form ourselves in imitation of their virtues, or, at least, lose every day something of our faults. [ Agapet ]
Ages of ignorance and simplicity are thought to be ages of purity. But the direct contrary I believe to be the case. Rude periods have that grossness of manners, which is as unfriendly to virtue as luxury itself. Men are less ashamed as they are less polished. [ Warton ]
The little may contrast with the great, in painting, but cannot be said to be contrary to it. Oppositions of colors contrast; but there are also colors contrary to each other, that is, which produce an ill effect because they shock the eye when brought very near it. [ Voltaire ]
Thou hast most traitorously corrupted the youth of the realm in erecting a grammar school; and whereas, before, our forefathers had no other books but the score and the tally, thou hast caused printing to be used, and contrary to the king, his crown and dignity, thou hast built a paper-mill. [ William Shakespeare ]
Charms which, like flowers, lie on the surface and always glitter, easily produce vanity; hence women, wits, players, soldiers, are vain, owing to their presence, figure and dress. On the contrary, other excellences, which lie down like gold and are discovered with difficulty, leave their possessors modest and proud. [ Richter ]
He who thinks much says but little in proportion to his thoughts. He selects that language which will convey his ideas in the most explicit and direct manner. He tries to compress as much thought as possible into a few words. On the contrary, the man who talks everlastingly and promiscuously; who seems to have an exhaustless magazine of sound, crowds so many words into his thoughts that he always obscures, and very frequently conceals them. [ Washington Irving ]