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Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare [62]

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Though all the earth o'erwhelm them to men's eyes.

Hamlet -- I. 2.


How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds, Makes deeds ill done!

King John -- IV. 2.




DELAY.

That we would do, We should do when we would; for this would changes, And hath abatements and delays as many, As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents; And then this should is like a spendthrift sigh, That hurts by easing.

Hamlet -- IV. 7.




DELUSION.

For love of grace, Lay not that flattering unction to your soul; It will but skin and film the ulcerous place; Whiles rank corruption, mining all within, Infects unseen.

Hamlet -- III. 4.




DISCRETION.

Let's teach ourselves that honorable stop, Not to outsport discretion.

Othello -- II. 3.




DOUBTS AND FEARS.

I am cabin'd, cribb'd, confined, bound in To saucy doubts and fears.

Macbeth -- III. 4.




DRUNKENNESS.

Boundless intemperance. In nature is a tyranny; it hath been Th' untimely emptying of the happy throne, And fall of many kings.

Measure for Measure -- I. 3.




DUTY OWING TO OURSELVES AND OTHERS.

Love all, trust a few, Do wrong to none; be able for thine enemy Rather in power, than use; and keep thy friend Under thy own life's key; be checked for silence, But never taxed for speech.

All's Well that Ends Well -- I. 1.




EQUIVOCATION.

But yet I do not like but yet, it does allay The good precedence; fye upon but yet: But yet is as a gailer to bring forth Some monstrous malefactor.

Antony and Cleopatra -- II. 5.




EXCESS.

A surfeit of the sweetest things The deepest loathing to the stomach brings.

Midsummer Night's Dream -- II. 3.


Every inordinate cup is unblessed, and the ingredient is a devil.

Othello -- II. 3.




FALSEHOOD.

Falsehood, cowardice, and poor descent, Three things that women hold in hate.

Two Gentlemen of Verona -- III. 2.




FEAR.

Fear frames disorder, and disorder wounds Where it should guard.

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


Fear, and be slain; no worse can come, to fight: And fight and die, is death destroying death; Where fearing dying, pays death servile breath.

King Richard II. -- III. 2.




FEASTS.

Small cheer, and great welcome, makes a merry feast.

Comedy of Errors -- III. 1.




FILIAL INGRATITUDE.

Ingratitude! Thou marble-hearted fiend, More hideous, when thou showest thee in a child, Than the sea-monster.

King Lear -- I. 4.


How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is To have a thankless child

Idem -- I. 4.




FORETHOUGHT.

Determine on some course, More than a wild exposure to each cause That starts i' the way before thee.

Coriolanus -- IV. 1.




FORTITUDE.

Yield not thy neck To fortune's yoke, but let thy dauntless mind Still ride in triumph over all mischance.

King Henry VI., Part 3d -- III. 3.




FORTUNE.

When fortune means to men most good, She looks upon them with a threatening eye.

King John -- III. 4.




GREATNESS.

Farewell, a long farewell, to all my greatness! This is the state of man: To-day he puts forth The tender leaves of hope, to-morrow blossoms, And bears his blushing honors thick upon him; The third day, comes a frost, a killing frost; And,--when he thinks, good easy man, full surely His greatness is ripening,--nips his root, And then he falls, as I do.

King Henry VIII. -- III. 2.


Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.

Twelfth Night -- II. 5.




HAPPINESS.

O, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man's eyes.
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