Careful Words

multitude (n.)

  In the posteriors of this day, which the rude multitude call the afternoon.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Love's Labour's Lost. Act v. Sc. 1.

The multitude is always in the wrong.

Earl Of Roscommon (1633-1684): Essay on Translated Verse. Line 184.

  Many-headed multitude.

Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586): Arcadia. Book ii.

Many-headed multitude.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Coriolanus. Act ii. Sc. 3.

  In the multitude of counsellors there is safety.

Old Testament: Proverbs xi. 14; xxiv. 6.

  Amid a multitude of projects, no plan is devised.

Publius Syrus (42 b c): Maxim 319.

Charity shall cover the multitude of sins.

New Testament: 1 Peter iv. 8.

  Learning will be cast into the mire and trodden down under the hoofs of a swinish multitude.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797): Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 335.