Careful Words

count (n.)

count (v.)

count (adj.)

  We do not count a man's years until he has nothing else to count.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882): The Conduct of Life. Old Age.

  If he does really think that there is no distinction between virtue and vice, why, sir, when he leaves our houses let us count our spoons.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784): Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. ii. Chap. v. 1763.

Count that day lost whose low descending sun

Views from thy hand no worthy action done.

Author unknown.

To swallow gudgeons ere they 're catch'd,

And count their chickens ere they 're hatch'd.

Samuel Butler (1600-1680): Hudibras. Part ii. Canto iii. Line 923.

We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths;

In feelings, not in figures on a dial.

We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives

Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.

Life's but a means unto an end; that end

Beginning, mean, and end to all things,—God.

Philip James Bailey (1816-1902): Festus. Scene, A Country Town.

Of the king's creation you may be; but he who makes a count ne'er made a man.

Thomas Southerne (1660-1746): Sir Anthony Love. Act ii. Sc. 1.