| John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919. |
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| NUMBER: | 286 |
| AUTHOR: | John Lyly (1554?–1606) |
| QUOTATION: | The soft droppes of rain perce the hard marble; 1 many strokes overthrow the tallest oaks. 2 |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Euphues, 1579 (Arber’s reprint), page 81. |
| BIOGRAPHY: | Columbia Encyclopedia. |
| | Note 1.
Water continually dropping will wear hard rocks hollow.—Plutarch: Of the Training of Children.
Stillicidi casus lapidem cavat (Continual dropping wears away a stone). Lucretius: i. 314. [back] | Note 2.
Many strokes, though with a little axe,
Hew down and fell the hardest-timber’d oak.
William Shakespeare: 3 Henry VI. act ii. sc. 1. [back] |
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