Lest Quotes

Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow. (Aesop)
Control thy passions lest they take vengence on thee. View quote
Epictetus
Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you. View quote
Carl Sandburg
That's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over, lest you should think he never could recapture the first fine careless rapture! View quote
Robert Browning
A prudent mind can see room for misgiving, lest he who prospers should one day suffer reverse. View quote
Sophocles
Do not let your deeds belie your words, lest when you speak in church someone may say to himself, "Why do you not practice what you preach?" View quote
Jerome
To eliminate the discrepancy between men's plans and the results achieved, a new approach is necessary. Morphological thinking suggests that this new approach cannot be realized through increased teaching of specialized knowledge. This morphological analysis suggests that the essential fact has been overlooked that every human is potentially a genius. Education and dissemination of knowledge must assume a form which allows each student to absorb whatever develops his own genius, lest he become frustrated. The same outlook applies to the genius of the peoples as a whole. View quote
Fritz Zwicky
A watchful eye must be kept on ourselves, lest while we are building ideal monuments of renown and bliss here, we neglect to have our names enrolled in the annals of Heaven. View quote
James Madison
Some men love truth so much that they seem to be in continual fear lest she should catch a cold on overexposure. View quote
Samuel Butler (novelist)
Monkeys who very sensibly refrain from speech, lest they should be set to earn their livings. View quote
Kenneth Grahame
Mind your speech a little lest you should mar your fortunes. (William Shakespeare)
O, swear not by the moon, the fickle moon, the inconstant moon, that monthly changes in her circle orb, Lest that thy love prove likewise variable. View quote
William Shakespeare
My debts are large, my failures great, my shame secret and heavy yet when I come to ask for my good, I quake in fear lest my prayer be granted. View quote
Rabindranath Tagore
In law it is good policy never to plead what you need not, lest you oblige yourself to prove what you cannot. View quote
Abraham Lincoln
Watch well each separate citizen, Lest having in his heart of hearts A secret spear, one still may come Saluting you with cheerful face, And utter with a double tongue The feigned good wishes of his wary mind. View quote
Solon
Shun delays, they breed remorse; Take thy time while time is lent thee; Creeping snails have weakest force, Fly their fault lest thou repent thee. Good is best when soonest wrought, Linger'd labours come to nought. View quote
Robert Southwell
As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all must be most aware of change in the air - however slight - lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness. View quote
William O. Douglas
Do no dishonor to the earth lest you dishonor the spirit of man. View quote
Henry Beston
If your morals make you dreary, depend upon it they are wrong. I do not say "give them up," for they may be all you have; but conceal them like a vice, lest they should spoil the lives of better and simpler people. View quote
Robert Louis Stevenson
Study carefully, the character of the one you recommend, lest their misconduct bring you shame. View quote
Cicero
Only men of considerable vanity write books; consistently therewith, I worried lest the world were exchanging an irreplaceable author for a more easily purchased diplomat. (John Kenneth Galbraith)
Take care lest perchance you fall into the mistake of thinking to gain more by being merciful than by being just; for to pardon him too easily that has transgressed is to wrong him that transgresses not. View quote
Baldassare Castiglione
Three kinds of souls, three prayers: 1) I am a bow in your hands, Lord. Draw me, lest I rot. 2) Do not overdraw me, Lord. I shall break. 3) Overdraw me, Lord, and who cares if I break. View quote
Nikos Kazantzakis
But lest some unlucky event should happen unfavorable to my reputation, I beg it may be remembered by every gentleman in the room that I this day declare with the utmost sincerity, I do not think myself equal to the command I am honored with. View quote
George Washington
The [sexual harassment] situation has gotten so out of hand that, in 1993, in one of the first British cases, a plumber was fired for continuing to use the traditional term "ballcock" for the toilet flotation unit, instead of the new politically correct term, sanitized of sexual suggestiveness. This is insane. We are back to the Victorian era, when table legs had to be draped lest they put the thought of ladies' legs into someone's dirty mind. View quote
Camille Paglia