Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Tongue
The first vertue, sone, if thou wilt lerne,
Is to restreyne and kepen wel thy tonge.
Chaucer—Canterbury Tales. The Manciple’s Tale. L. 18,213.
The stroke of the tongue breaketh the bones. Many have fallen by the edge of the sword; but not so many as have fallen by the tongue.
Ecclesiasticus. XXVIII. 17. 18.
He rolls it under his tongue as a sweet morsel.
Matthew Henry—Commentaries. Psalms. XXXI.
Better the feet slip than the tongue.
Herbert—Jacula Prudentum.
The windy satisfaction of the tongue.
Homer—Odyssey. Bk. IV. L. 1,092. Pope’s trans.
The tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil.
James. III. 8.
Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue.
Job. XX. 12.
Lingua mali pars pessima servi.
The tongue is the vile slave’s vilest part.
Juvenal—Satires. IX. 120.
I should think your tongue had broken its chain!
Longfellow—Christus. The Golden Legend. Pt. IV.
In her tongue is the law of kindness.
Proverbs. XXXI. 26.
From the strife of tongues.
Psalms. XXXI. 20.
Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.
Psalms. XXXIV. 13.
My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.
Psalms. XLV. 1.
Since word is thrall, and thought is free,
Keep well thy tongue, I counsel thee.
James I. of Scotland. Ballad of good Counsel, quoted by Scott in Fair Maid of Perth. Ch. XXV.
Many a man’s tongue shakes out his master’s undoing.
All’s Well That Ends Well. Act II. Sc. 4. L. 23.
Tongues I’ll hang on every tree,
That shall civil sayings show.
As You Like It. Act III. Sc. 2. L. 135.
My tongue, though not my heart, shall have his will.
Comedy of Errors. Act IV. Sc. 2. L. 18.
You play the spaniel,
And think with wagging of your tongue to win me.
Henry VIII. Act V. Sc. 3. L. 126.
So on the tip of his subduing tongue
All kind of arguments and question deep,
All replication prompt, and reason strong,
For his advantage still did wake and sleep;
To make the weeper laugh, the laugher weep,
He had the dialect and different skill,
Catching all passions in his craft of will.
Lover’s Complaint. L. 120.
My tongue’s use is to me no more
Than an unstringed viol or a harp.
Richand III. Act I. Sc. 3. L. 161.
The heart hath treble wrong
When it is barr’d the aidance of the tongue.
Venus and Adonis. L. 329.
Is there a tongue like Delia’s o’er her cup,
That runs for ages without winding up?
Young—Love of Fame. Satire I. L. 281.