THE WORKS OF EBERS

The Novels Of Georg Ebers

Portrait Of Georg Ebers

Uarda

Cleopatra

Margery

Homo Sum—The Recluse

In The Fire Of The Forge

Bookcover

A noble mind can never swim with the
stream

A first impression is often a final one

A small joy makes us to forget our
heavy griefs

A live dog is better than a dead king

A well-to-do man always gets a higher
price than a poor one

A subdued tone generally provokes an
equally subdued answer

A dirty road serves when it makes for
the goal

A knot can often be untied by daylight

A school where people learned modesty

A word at the right time and place

A mere nothing in one man's life, to
another may be great

A debtor, says the proverb, is half a
prisoner

A kind word hath far more power than an
angry one

A blustering word often does good
service

Abandon to the young the things we
ourselves used most to enjoy

Abandoned women (required by law to
help put out the fires)

Absence of suffering is not happiness

Abuse not those who have outwitted thee

Action trod on the heels of resolve

Age is inquisitive

Age when usually even bad liquor tastes
of honey

Aimless life of pleasure

Air of a professional guide

All I did was right in her eyes

All things were alike to me

Always more good things in a poor
family which was once rich

Among fools one must be a fool

An admirer of the lovely color of his
blue bruises

Ancient custom, to have her ears cut
off

And what is great—and what is small

Apis the progeny of a virgin cow and a
moonbeam

Appreciation of trifles

Ardently they desire that which
transcends sense

Arrogant wave of the hand, and in an
instructive tone

Art ceases when ugliness begins

As every word came straight from her
heart

Asenath, the wife of Joseph, had been
an Egyptian

Ask for what is feasible

Aspect obnoxious to the gaze will pour
water on the fire

Assigned sixty years as the limit of a
happy life

At my age we count it gain not to be
disappointed

At my age every year must be accepted
as an undeserved gift

Attain a lofty height from which to
look down upon others

Avoid excessive joy as well as
complaining grief

Avoid all useless anxiety

Be not merciful unto him who is a liar
or a rebel

Be happy while it is yet time

Be cautious how they are compassionate

Bearers of ill ride faster than the
messengers of weal

Before you serve me up so bitter a meal
(the truth)

Before learning to obey, he was
permitted to command

Begun to enjoy the sound of his own
voice

Behold, the puny Child of Man

Between two stools a man falls to the
ground

Beware lest Satan find thee idle!

Blessings go as quickly as they come

Blind tenderness which knows no reason

Blossom of the thorny wreath of sorrow

Brief "eternity" of national covenants

Brought imagination to bear on my
pastimes

But what do you men care for the
suffering you inflict on others

Buy indulgence for sins to be committed
in the future

By nature she is not and by
circumstances is compelled to be

Call everything that is beyond your
comprehension a miracle

Called his daughter to wash his feet

Cambyses had been spoiled from his
earliest infancy

Camels, which were rarely seen in Egypt

Can such love be wrong?

Canal to connect the Nile with the Red
Sea

Cannot understand how trifles can make
me so happy

Caress or a spank from you—each at the
proper time

Carpe diem

Cast my warning to the winds, pity will
also fly away with it

Cast off their disease as a serpent
casts its skin

Cast off all care; be mindful only of
pleasure

Catholic, but his stomach desired to be
Protestant (Erasmus)

Caught the infection and had to laugh
whether she would or no

Cautious inquiry saves recantation

Child is naturally egotistical

Child cannot distinguish between what
is amusing and what is sad

Childhood already lies behind me, and
youth will soon follow

Choose between too great or too small a
recompense

Christian hypocrites who pretend to
hate life and love death

Christianity had ceased to be the creed
of the poor

Clothes the ugly truth as with a
pleasing garment

Coach moved by electricity

Colored cakes in the shape of beasts

Comparing their own fair lot with the
evil lot of others

Confess I would rather provoke a
lioness than a woman

Confucius's command not to love our
fellow-men but to respect

Contempt had become too deep for hate

Corpse to be torn in pieces by dogs and
vultures

Couple seemed to get on so perfectly
well without them

Creed which views life as a short
pilgrimage to the grave

Curiosity is a woman's vice

Death is so long and life so short

Death itself sometimes floats 'twixt
cup and lip'

Debts, but all anxiety concerning them
is left to the creditors

Deceit is deceit

Deem every hour that he was permitted
to breathe as a gift

Deficient are as guilty in their eyes
as the idle

Desert is a wonderful physician for a
sick soul

Deserve the gratitude of my people,
though it should be denied

Desire to seek and find a power outside
us

Despair and extravagant gayety ruled
her nature by turns

Devoid of occupation, envy easily
becomes hatred

Did the ancients know anything of love

Do not spoil the future for the sake of
the present

Do thoroughly whatever they do at all

Does happiness consist then in
possession

Dread which the ancients had of the
envy of the gods

Dried merry-thought bone of a fowl

Drink of the joys of life thankfully,
and in moderation

Drinking is also an art, and the
Germans are masters of it

Easy to understand what we like to hear

Enjoy the present day

Epicurus, who believed that with death
all things ended

Eros mocks all human efforts to resist
or confine him

Especial gift to listen keenly and
question discreetly

Ever creep in where true love hath
found a nest—(jealousy)

Every misfortune brings its fellow with
it

Everything that exists moves onward to
destruction  and decay

Evolution and annihilation

Exceptional people are destined to be
unhappy in this world

Exhibit one's happiness in the streets,
and conceal one's misery

Eyes kind and frank, without tricks of
glance

Eyes are much more eloquent than all
the tongues in the world

Facts are differently reflected in
different minds

Fairest dreams of childhood were
surpassed

Faith and knowledge are things apart

False praise, he says, weighs more
heavily than disgrace

Flattery is a key to the heart

Flee from hate as the soul's worst foe

Folly to fret over what cannot be
undone

For fear of the toothache, had his
sound teeth drawn

For the sake of those eyes you forgot
all else

For the errors of the wise the remedy
is reparation, not regret

For what will not custom excuse and
sanctify?

Forbidden the folly of spoiling the
present by remorse

Force which had compelled every one to
do as his neighbors

Forty or fifty, when most women only
begin to be wicked

From Epicurus to Aristippus, is but a
short step

Fruits and pies and sweetmeats for the
little ones at home

Full as an egg

Galenus—What I like is bad for me,
what I loathe is wholesome

Gave them a claim on your person and
also on your sorrows

Germans are ever proud of a man who is
able to drink deep

Go down into the grave before us (Our
children)

Golden chariot drawn by tamed lions

Good advice is more frequently unheeded
than followed

Great happiness, and mingled therefor
with bitter sorrow

Greeks have not the same reverence for
truth

Grief is grief, and this new sorrow
does not change the old one

Had laid aside what we call nerves

Half-comprehended catchwords serve as a
banner

Hanging the last king with the guts of
the last priest

Happiness has nothing to do with our
outward circumstances

Happiness is only the threshold to
misery

Happiness should be found in making
others happy

Harder it is to win a thing the higher
its value becomes

Hast thou a wounded heart? touch it
seldom

Hat is the sign of liberty, and the
free man keeps his hat on

Hate, though never sated, can yet be
gratified

Hatred and love are the opposite ends
of the same rod

Hatred for all that hinders the growth
of light

Hatred between man and man

Have not yet learned not to be
astonished

Have never been fain to set my heart on
one only maid

Have lived to feel such profound
contempt for the world

He may talk about the soul—what he is
after is the girl

He who kills a cat is punished (for
murder)

He who looks for faith must give faith

He is clever and knows everything, but
how silly he looks now

He was steadfast in everything, even
anger

He only longed to be hopeful once more,
to enjoy the present

He who is to govern well must begin by
learning to obey

He was made to be plundered

He is the best host, who allows his
guests the most freedom

He has the gift of being easily
consoled

He who wholly abjures folly is a fool

He out of the battle can easily boast
of being unconquered

He spoke with pompous exaggeration

Held in too slight esteem to be able to
offer an affront

Her white cat was playing at her feet

Her eyes were like open windows

Here the new custom of tobacco-smoking
was practised

His sole effort had seemed to be to
interfere with no one

Hold pleasure to be the highest good

Hollow of the hand, Diogenes's
drinking-cup

Homo sum; humani nil a me alienum puto

Honest anger affords a certain degree
of enjoyment

Hopeful soul clings to delay as the
harbinger of deliverance

How easy it is to give wounds, and how
hard it is to heal

How could they find so much pleasure in
such folly

How tender is thy severity

How effective a consolation man
possesses in gratitude

Human sacrifices, which had been
introduced into Egypt by the
Phoenicians

Human beings hate the man who shows
kindness to their enemies

I am human, nothing that is human can I
regard as alien to me

I approve of such foolhardiness

I plead with voice and pen in behalf of
fairy tales

I must either rest or begin upon
something new

I cannot .  .  .  Say rather: I will
not

I know that I am of use

I have never deviated from the exact
truth even in jest

I was not swift to anger, nor a liar,
nor a violent ruler

I do not like to enquire about our fate
beyond the grave

Idleness had long since grown to be the
occupation of his life

If you want to catch mice you must
waste bacon

If one only knew who it is all for

If it were right we should not want to
hide ourselves

If speech be silver, silence then is
gold!

Ill-judgment to pronounce a thing
impossible

Impartial looker-on sees clearer than
the player

In order to find himself for once in
good company—(Solitude)

In whom some good quality or other may
not be discovered

In those days men wept, as well as
women

In this immense temple man seemed a
dwarf in his own eyes

In our country it needs more courage to
be a coward

In war the fathers live to mourn for
their slain sons

Inn, was to be found about every
eighteen miles

Inquisitive eyes are intrusive company

Introduced a regular system of
taxation-Darius

It is not seeing, it is seeking that is
delightful

It was such a comfort once more to obey
an order

It is not by enthusiasm but by tactics
that we defeat a foe

It is the passionate wish that gives
rise to the belief

Jealousy has a thousand eyes

Judge only by appearances, and never
enquire into the causes

Kisra called wine the soap of sorrow

Know how to honor beauty; and prove it
by taking many wives

Last Day we shall be called to account
for every word we utter

Laugh at him with friendly mockery,
such as hurts no man

Laughing before sunrise causes tears at
evening

Learn early to pass lightly over little
things

Learn to obey, that later you may know
how to command

Life is not a banquet

Life is a function, a ministry, a duty

Life is the fairest fairy tale
(Anderson)

Life is valued so much less by the
young

Life had fulfilled its pledges

Like the cackle of hens, which is
peculiar to Eastern women

Like a clock that points to one hour
while it strikes another

Love has two faces: tender devotion and
bitter aversion

Love means suffering—those who love
drag a chain with them

Love which is able and ready to endure
all things

Love laughs at locksmiths

Love is at once the easiest and the
most difficult

Love overlooks the ravages of years and
has a good memory

Loved himself too much to give his
whole affection to any one

Lovers delighted in nature then as now

Lovers are the most unteachable of
pupils

Maid who gives hope to a suitor though
she has no mind to hear

Man, in short, could be sure of nothing

Man works with all his might for no one
but himself

Man is the measure of all things

Man has nothing harder to endure than
uncertainty

Many creditors are so many allies

Many a one would rather be feared than
remain unheeded

Marred their best joy in life by
over-hasty ire

May they avoid the rocks on which I
have bruised my feet

Medicines work harm as often as good

Men studying for their own benefit, not
the teacher's

Men folks thought more about me than I
deemed convenient

Mirrors were not allowed in the convent

Misfortune too great for tears

Misfortunes commonly come in couples
yoked like oxen

Misfortunes never come singly

Money is a pass-key that turns any lock

More to the purpose to think of the
future than of the past

Mosquito-tower with which nearly every
house was provided

Most ready to be angry with those to
whom we have been unjust

Multitude who, like the gnats, fly
towards every thing brilliant

Museum of Alexandria and the Library

Must take care not to poison the fishes
with it

Must—that word is a ploughshare which
suits only loose soil

Natural impulse which moves all old
women to favor lovers

Nature is sufficient for us

Never speaks a word too much or too
little

Never so clever as when we have to find
excuses for our own sins

Never to be astonished at anything

No judgment is so hard as that dealt by
a slave to slaves

No man is more than man, and many men
are less

No man was allowed to ask anything of
the gods for himself

No good excepting that from which we
expect the worst

No,  she was not created to grow old

No happiness will thrive on bread and
water

No one we learn to hate more easily,
than the benefactor

No man gains profit by any experience
other than his own

No false comfort, no cloaking of the
truth

No one so self-confident and insolent
as just such an idiot

No virtue which can be owned like a
house or a steed

Nobody was allowed to be perfectly idle

None of us really know anything rightly

Not yet fairly come to the end of
yesterday

Nothing in life is either great or
small

Nothing is perfectly certain in this
world

Nothing permanent but change

Nothing so certain as that nothing is
certain

Nothing is more dangerous to love, than
a comfortable assurance

Numbers are the only certain things

Observe a due proportion in all things

Obstacles existed only to be removed

Obstinacy—which he liked to call firm
determination

Of two evils it is wise to choose the
lesser

Often happens that apparent superiority
does us damage

Old women grow like men, and old men
grow like women

Old age no longer forgets; it is youth
that has a short memory

Olympics—The first was fixed 776 B.C.

Omnipotent God, who had preferred his
race above all others

On with a new love when he had left the
third bridge behind him

Once laughed at a misfortune, its sting
loses its point

One falsehood usually entails another

One of those women who will not bear to
be withstood

One should give nothing up for lost
excepting the dead

One hand washes the other

One must enjoy the time while it is
here

One who stood in the sun must need cast
a shadow on other folks

One Head, instead of three, ruled the
Church

Only the choice between lying and
silence

Only two remedies for heart-sickness:—
hope and patience

Ordered his feet to be washed and his
head anointed

Our thinkers are no heroes, and our
heroes are no sages

Overbusy friends are more damaging than
intelligent enemies

Overlooks his own fault in his feeling
of the judge's injustice

Ovid, 'We praise the ancients'

Pain is the inseparable companion of
love

Papyrus Ebers

Patronizing friendliness

Pays better to provide for people's
bodies than for their brains

People who have nothing to do always
lack time

People see what they want to see

Perish all those who do not think as we
do

Philosophers who wrote of the vanity of
writers

Phrase and idea "philosophy of
religion" as an absurdity

Pilgrimage to the grave, and death as
the only true life

Pious axioms to be repeated by the
physician, while compounding

Pleasant sensation of being a woman,
like any other woman

Possess little and require nothing

Pray for me, a miserable man—for I was
a man

Precepts and lessons which only a
mother can give

Prefer deeds to words

Preferred a winding path to a straight
one

Prepare sorrow when we come into the
world

Prepared for the worst; then you are
armed against failure

Pretended to see nothing in the old
woman's taunts

Priests that they should instruct the
people to be obedient

Priests: in order to curb the unruly
conduct of the populace

Principle of over-estimating the
strength of our opponents

Provide yourself with a self-devised
ruler

Rapture and anguish—who can lay down
the border line

Readers often like best what is most
incredible

Reason is a feeble weapon in contending
with a woman

Refreshed by the whip of one of the
horsemen

Regard the utterances and mandates of
age as wisdom

Regular messenger and carrier-dove
service had been established

Remember, a lie and your death are one
and the same

Repeated the exclamation: "Too late!"
and again, "Too late!"

Repos ailleurs

Repugnance for the old laws began to
take root in his heart

Required courage to be cowardly

Resistance always brings out a man's
best powers

Retreat behind the high-sounding words
"justice and law"

Robes cut as to leave the right breast
uncovered

Romantic love, as we know it, a result
of Christianity

Rules of life given by one man to
another are useless

Scarcely be able to use so large a sum—
Then abuse it

Scorned the censure of the people, he
never lost sight of it

Sea-port was connected with Medina by a
pigeon-post

Seditious words are like sparks, which
are borne by the wind

See facts as they are and treat them
like figures in a sum

Seems most charming at the time we are
obliged to resign it

Self-interest and egoism which drive
him into the cave

Sent for a second interpreter

Shadow which must ever fall where there
is light

Shadow of the candlestick caught her
eye before the light

She would not purchase a few more years
of valueless life

Shipwrecked on the cliffs of 'better'
and 'best'

Should I be a man, if I forgot
vengeance?

Shuns the downward glance of compassion

Sing their libels on women (Greek
Philosophers)

Sky as bare of cloud as the rocks are
of shrubs and herbs

Sleep avoided them both, and each knew
that the other was awake

Smell most powerful of all the senses
in awakening memory

So long as we are able to hope and wish

So long as we do not think ourselves
wretched, we are not so

So hard is it to forego the right of
hating

Some caution is needed even in giving a
warning

Soul which ceases to regard death as a
misfortune finds peace

Speaking ill of others is their
greatest delight

Spoilt to begin with by their mothers,
and then all the women

Standing still is retrograding

Strongest of all educational powers—
sorrow and love

Successes, like misfortunes, never come
singly

Take heed lest pride degenerate into
vainglory

Talk of the wolf and you see his tail

Temples would be empty if mortals had
nothing left to wish for

Temples of the old gods were used as
quarries

Tender and uncouth natural sounds,
which no language knows

That tears were the best portion of all
human life

The heart must not be filled by
another's image

The blessing of those who are more than
they seem

The past belongs to the dead; only
fools count upon the future

The priests are my opponents, my
masters

The carp served on Christmas eve in
every Berlin family

The gods cast envious glances at the
happiness of mortals

The past must stand; it is like a scar

The man who avoids his kind and lives
in solitude

The beautiful past is all he has to
live upon

The altar where truth is mocked at

The older one grows the quicker the
hours hurry away

The shirt is closer than the coat

The beginning of things is not more
attractive

The mother of foresight looks backwards

The greatness he had gained he
overlooked

The dressing and undressing of the holy
images

The god Amor is the best schoolmaster

The not over-strong thread of my good
patience

The man within him, and not on the
circumstances without

The scholar's ears are at his back:
when he is flogged

The best enjoyment in creating is had
in anticipation

The experienced love to signify their
superiority

Then hate came; but it did not last
long

There is no 'never,' no surely

There are no gods, and whoever bows
makes himself a slave

There is nothing better than death, for
it is peace

They who will, can

They praise their butchers more than
their benefactors

They keep an account in their heart and
not in their head

They get ahead of us, and yet—I would
not change with them

Thin-skinned, like all up-starts in
authority

Think of his wife, not with affection
only, but with pride

Those are not my real friends who tell
me I am beautiful

Those who will not listen must feel

Those two little words 'wish' and
'ought'

Those whom we fear, says my uncle, we
cannot love

Thou canst say in words what we can
only feel

Though thou lose all thou deemest thy
happiness

Thought that the insane were possessed
by demons

Time is clever in the healing art

Title must not be a bill of fare

To pray is better than to bathe

To govern the world one must have less
need of sleep

To know half is less endurable than to
know nothing

To her it was not a belief but a
certainty

To the child death is only slumber

To expect gratitude is folly

To the mines meant to be doomed to a
slow, torturing death

To whom the emotion of sorrow affords a
mournful pleasure

To whom fortune gives once, it gives by
bushels

To-morrow could give them nothing
better than to-day

To be happy, one must forget what
cannot be altered

Tone of patronizing instruction assumed
by the better informed

Trifling incident gains importance when
undue emphasis is laid

Trouble does not enhance beauty

True host puts an end to the banquet

Trustfulness is so dear, so essential
to me

Two griefs always belong to one joy

Unjust to injure and rob the child for
the benefit of the man

Until neither knew which was the giver
and which the receiver

Unwise to try to make a man happy by
force

Use their physical helplessness as a
defence

Use words instead of swords, traps
instead of lances

Usually found the worst wine in the
taverns with showy signs

Vagabond knaves had already been put to
the torture

Very hard to imagine nothingness

Virtues are punished in this world

Voice of the senses, which drew them
together, will soon be mute

Wait, child!  What is life but waiting?

Waiting is the merchant's wisdom

Wakefulness may prolong the little term
of life

War is a perversion of nature

We live for life, not for death

We quarrel with no one more readily
than with the benefactor

We each and all are waiting

We've talked a good deal of love with
our eyes already

Welcome a small evil when it barred the
way to a greater one

Were we not one and all born fools

Wet inside, he can bear a great deal of
moisture without

What had formerly afforded me pleasure
now seemed shallow

What changes so quickly as joy and
sorrow

What are we all but puny children?

What father does not find something to
admire in his child

Whatever a man would do himself, he
thinks others are capable of

When love has once taken firm hold of a
man in riper years

When a friend refuses to share in joys

When men-children deem maids to be weak
and unfit for true sport

When hate and revenge speak, gratitude
shrinks timidly

When you want to strike me again,
mother, please take off

Whether the form of our benevolence
does more good or mischief

Whether man were the best or the worst
of created beings

Whether the historical romance is ever
justifiable

Who watches for his neighbour's faults
has a hundred sharp eyes

Who can point out the road that another
will take

Who can be freer than he who needs
nothing

Who only puts on his armor when he is
threatened

Who does not struggle ward, falls back

Who gives great gifts, expects great
gifts again

Who do all they are able and enjoy as
much as they can get

Who can take pleasure in always seeing
a gloomy face?

Who can prop another's house when his
own is falling

Who can hope to win love that gives
none

Whoever condemns, feels himself
superior

Whoever will not hear, must feel

Wide world between the purpose and the
deed

Wise men hold fast by the ever young
present

Without heeding the opinion of mortals

Woman who might win the love of a
highly-gifted soul (Pays for it)

Woman's disapproving words were blown
away by the wind

Woman's hair is long, but her wit is
short

Women are indeed the rock ahead in this
young fellow's life

Wonder we leave for the most part to
children and fools

Words that sounded kindly, but with a
cold, unloving heart

Wrath has two eyes—one blind, the
other keener than a falcon's

Ye play with eternity as if it were but
a passing moment

Years are the foe of beauty

You have a habit of only looking
backwards

Young Greek girls pass their sad
childhood in close rooms

Youth should be modest, and he was
assertive

Youth calls 'much,' what seems to older
people 'little'

Zeus pays no heed to lovers' oaths