第44章

Othello -- III. 3.

NATURE.

One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.

Troilus and Cressida -- III. 3.

NEWS, GOOD AND BAD.

Though it be honest, it is never good To bring bad news. Give to a gracious message An host of tongues; but let ill tidings tell Themselves, when they be felt.

Antony and Cleopatra -- II. 5.

OFFICE.

'Tis the curse of service;

Preferment goes by letter, and affection, Not by the old gradation, where each second Stood heir to the first.

Othello -- I. 1.

OPPORTUNITY.

Who seeks, and will not take when offered, Shall never find it more.

Antony and Cleopatra -- II. 7.

There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows, and in miseries:

And we must take the current when it serves, Or lose our ventures.

Julius Caesar -- IV. 3.

OPPRESSION.

Press not a falling man too far; 'tis virtue:

His faults lie open to the laws; let them, Not you, correct them.

King Henry VIII. -- III. 2.

PAST AND FUTURE.

O thoughts of men accurst!

Past, and to come, seem best; things present, worst.

King Henry IV., Part 2d -- I. 3.

PATIENCE.

How poor are they, that have not patience!--

What wound did ever heal, but by degrees?

Othello -- II. 3.

PEACE.

A peace is of the nature of a conquest;

For then both parties nobly are subdued, And neither party loser.

King Henry IV., Part 2d -- IV. 2.

I will use the olive with my sword:

Make war breed peace; make peace stint war; make each Prescribe to other, as each other's leech.

Timon of Athens -- V. 5.

I know myself now; and I feel within me A peace above all earthly dignities, A still and quiet conscience.

King Henry VIII. -- III. 2.

PENITENCE.

Who by repentance is not satisfied, Is nor of heaven, nor earth; for these are pleased;By penitence the Eternal's wrath appeased.

Two Gentlemen of Verona -- V. 4.

PLAYERS.

All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players:

They have their exits and their entrances;

And one man in his time plays many parts.

As You Like It -- II. 7.

There be players, that I have seen play,--

and heard others praise, and that highly,--

not to speak it profanely, that, neither having the accent of Christians, nor the gait of Christian, Pagan, nor man, have so strutted, and bellowed, that I have thought some of nature's journeymen had made men and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably.

Hamlet -- III. 2.

POMP.

Why, what is pomp, rule, reign, but earth and dust?

And, live we how we can, yet die we must.

King Henry V. Part 3d -- V. 2.

PRECEPT AND PRACTICE.

If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' palaces. It is a good divine that follows his own instructions: I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than be one of twenty to follow mine own teaching. The brain may devise laws for the blood; but a hot temper leaps o'er a cold decree: such a bare is madness, the youth, to skip o'er the meshes of good counsel, the cripple.

The Merchant of Venice -- I. 2.

PRINCES AND TITLES.

Princes have but their titles for their glories, An outward honor for an inward toil;And, for unfelt imaginations, They often feel a world of restless cares:

So that, between their titles, and low name, There's nothing differs but the outward fame.

King Richard III. -- I. 4.

QUARRELS.

In a false quarrel these is no true valor.

Much Ado About Nothing -- V. 1.

Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just;And he but naked, though locked up in steel, Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted.

King Henry VI., Part 2d -- III. 2.

RAGE.

Men in rage strike those that wish them best.

Othello -- II. 3.

REPENTANCE.

Men shall deal unadvisedly sometimes, Which after-hours give leisure to repent.

King Richard III. -- IV. 4.

REPUTATION.

The purest treasure mortal times afford, Is--spotless reputation; that away, Men are but gilded loam, or painted clay.

A jewel in a ten-times-barred-up chest I-- a bold spirit in a loyal breast.

King Richard II. -- I. 1.

RETRIBUTION.

The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices Make instruments to scourge us.

King Lear -- V. S.