Careful Words

fight (n.)

fight (v.)

For those that fly may fight again,

Which he can never do that's slain.

Samuel Butler (1600-1680): Hudibras. Part iii. Canto iii. Line 243.

For he who fights and runs away

May live to fight another day;

But he who is in battle slain

Can never rise and fight again.

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774): The Art of Poetry on a New Plan (1761). Vol. ii. p. 147.

For he who fights and runs away

May live to fight another day;

But he who is in battle slain

Can never rise and fight again.

Goldsmith: The Art of Poetry on a New Plan (1761), vol. ii. p. 147.

For he who fights and runs away

May live to fight another day;

But he who is in battle slain

Can never rise and fight again.

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774): The Art of Poetry on a New Plan (1761). Vol. ii. p. 147.

  Pyrrhus said, "If I should overcome the Romans in another fight, I were undone."

Plutarch (46(?)-120(?) a d): Apophthegms of Kings and Great Commanders. Pyrrhus.

Our business in the field of fight

Is not to question, but to prove our might.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Iliad of Homer. Book xx. Line 304.

Thou slave, thou wretch, thou coward!

Thou little valiant, great in villany!

Thou ever strong upon the stronger side!

Thou Fortune's champion that dost never fight

But when her humorous ladyship is by

To teach thee safety.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King John. Act iii. Sc. 1.

The painful warrior famoused for fight,

After a thousand victories, once foil'd,

Is from the books of honour razed quite,

And all the rest forgot for which he toil'd.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Sonnet xxv.

First in the fight and every graceful deed.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Iliad of Homer. Book iv. Line 295.

Where's the coward that would not dare

To fight for such a land?

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832): Marmion. Canto iv. Stanza 30.

Good at a fight, but better at a play;

Godlike in giving, but the devil to pay.

Thomas Moore (1779-1852): On a Cast of Sheridan's Hand.

I give the fight up: let there be an end,

A privacy, an obscure nook for me.

I want to be forgotten even by God.

Robert Browning (1812-1890): Paracelsus. Part v.

  I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.

New Testament: 2 Timothy iv. 7.

  I propose to fight it out on this line, if it takes all summer.

Ulysses S Grant (1822-1885): Despatch to Washington. Before Spottsylvania Court House, May 11, 1864.

  Fight the good fight.

New Testament: 1 Timothy vi. 12.

The first in banquets, but the last in fight.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Iliad of Homer. Book iv. Line 401.

Servant of God, well done; well hast thou fought

The better fight.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book vi. Line 29.