SHAKESPERIAN APHORISMS. BREVITY IS THE SOUL OF WIT In small room great heart enclos'd: HAMLET. These are his substance, sinews, and his strength. How charming is divine Philosophy ! Not barsh and crabbed, as dull Fools suppose, And a perpetual Feast of nectar'd sweets, I. HEN. VI. COMUS OF MILTON. B Tho' all the Earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes. 2. DEATH. All that live, must die; Passing through Nature to Eternity. In obstinate lamenting is a course Of impious stubbornness :-unmanly grief: The Everlasting fixes His canon* 'gainst self-slaughter. Rule, Law. C. L. [The same is to be understood as the signature of the other Noter.] 5. CALUMNY. Virtue itself 'scapes not calumnious strokes. 6. CAUTION. Best safety lies in fear. 7. Give every man thine ear; but few thy voice. 8. Take each man's censure; but reserve thy judgment, 9. YOUTH. Youth to itself rebels though none else near. 10. The canker gnaws the infants of the Spring 11. LET EXAMPLE ACCOMPANY PRECEPT, § Do not, as some ungracious Pastors do, Shew us the steep and thorny way to Heaven: While like a puft and reckless libertine, Thyself the primrose path of dalliance tread'st, And reck'st not thine own reed. 12. DISCRETION. Give thy thoughts no tongue, 13. MODERATION. Give to no unproportion'd thought his act, 14. MANNERS, Be thou familiar; but by no means vulgar. 15. PRUDENCE WITH RESOLUTION. Beware Of entrance to a quarrel; but being in, The Friends thou hast and their adoption tried, 17. DRESS. The apparel oft proclaims the man. 18. SELF-ESTEEM. To thine own self be true: Thou can'st not then be false to any man. A double blessing is a double grace; 20. BORROWING. Loan oft loses both itself and friend; 21. vows. When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul 22. vows OF LOVERS. Vows in love are brokers, The mere implorers of unholy suits, 23. CUSTOMS. There are customs More honour'd in the breach than in the obser 24. DEBASEMENT. There are men Who carrying the stamp of one defect, [vance. Their virtues else, be they as pure as grace, Shall in the general censure take corruption 25. The dram of base Doth all the noble substance of worth out, That is, it is then time to be gone. |