A spark neglected makes a mighty fire. [ Herrick ]
If you are wise, and prize your peace of mind,
Believe me true, nor listen to your Jealousy,
Let not that devil which undoes your sex,
That cursed curiosity seduce you
To hunt for needless secrets, which, neglected,
Shall never hurt your quiet, but once known
Shall sit upon your heart, pinch it with pain,
And banish sweet sleep forever from you. [ Rowe ]
A fire, if neglected, always gathers in strength. [ Horace ]
Present opportunities are not to be neglected; they rarely visit us twice. [ Voltaire ]
Nothing is so often irrevocably neglected as an opportunity of daily occurrence. [ Marie Ebner-Eschenbach ]
Error is none the better for being common, nor truth the worse for having lain neglected. [ John Locke ]
Neglected, calumny soon expires; show that you are hurt, and you give it the appearance of truth. [ Tacitus ]
Good counsels observed are chains to grace, which neglected, prove halters to strange undutiful children. [ Fuller ]
Give me a chance, says Stupid, and I will show you. Ten to one he has had his chance already, and neglected it. [ Haliburton ]
The gentle breath of peace would leave him on the surface neglected and unmoved. It is only the tempest that lifts him from his place. [ Junius ]
Books are faithful repositories, which may be awhile neglected or forgotten, but when they are opened again, will again impart their instruction. [ Jonson ]
The means that heaven yields must be embraced, and not neglected; else, if heaven would, and we will not heaven's offer, we refuse the proffered means of succor and redress. [ William Shakespeare ]
No good writer was ever long neglected; no great man overlooked by men equally great. Impatience is a proof of inferior strength, and a destroyer of what little there may be. [ Landor ]
As he that lives longest lives but a little while, every man may be certain that he has no time to waste. The duties of life are commensurate to its duration; and every day brings its task, which, if neglected, is doubled on the morrow. [ Dr. Johnson ]
A man's first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart; his next, to escape the censures of the world. If the last interferes with the former, it ought to be entirely neglected; but otherwise there cannot be a greater satisfaction to an honest mind, than to see those approbations which it gives itself seconded by the applause of the public. [ Addison ]
Great merit or great failings will make you respected or despised; but trifles, little attentions, mere nothings, either done or neglected, will make you either liked or disliked, in the general run of the world. Examine yourself, why you like such and such people and dislike such and such others; and you will find that those different sentiments proceed from very slight causes. [ Chesterfield ]
It is the saying of an old divine, Two things in ray apparel I will chiefly aim at - commodiousness and decency; more than these is not commendable, yet I hate an effeminate spruceness as much as a fantastic disorder. A neglected comeliness is the best ornament.
It is said of the celebrated Mr. Whitfield that he always was very clean and neat, and often said pleasantly that a minister of the gospel ought to be without a spot.
[ J. Beaumont ]
Two things a master commits to his servant's care - the child and the child's clothes. It will be a poor excuse for the servant to say, at his master's return, Sir, here are all the child's clothes, neat and clean, but the child is lost.
Much so of the account that many will give to God of their souls and bodies at the great day. Lord, here is my body; I am very grateful for it; I neglected nothing that belonged to its contents and welfare; but as for my soul, that is lost and cast away forever. I took little care and thought about it.
[ John Flavel ]