Old friends are best. King James used to call for his old shoes; they were easiest for his feet.
‘Table Talk’ (1689) ‘Friends’
’Tis not the drinking that is to be blamed, but the excess.
‘Table Talk’ (1689) ‘Humility’
Ignorance of the law excuses no man; not that all men know the law, but because ’tis an excuse every man will plead, and no man can tell how to confute him.
‘Table Talk’ (1689) ‘Law’
Take a straw and throw it up into the air, you shall see by that which way the wind is.
‘Table Talk’ (1689) ‘Libels’
Marriage is nothing but a civil contract.
‘Table Talk’ (1689) ‘Marriage’
A king is a thing men have made for their own sakes, for quietness’ sake. Just as in a family one man is appointed to buy the meat.
‘Table Talk’ (1689) ‘Of a King’
There never was a merry world since the fairies left off dancing, and the Parson left conjuring.
‘Table Talk’ (1689) ‘Parson’
There is not anything in the world so much abused as this sentence, Salus populi suprema lex esto.
‘Table Talk’ (1689) ‘People’.
Pleasure is nothing else but the intermission of pain.
‘Table Talk’ (1689) ‘Pleasure’
Syllables govern the world.
‘Table Talk’ (1689) ‘Power: State’
Preachers say, Do as I say, not as I do.
‘Table Talk’ (1689) ‘Preaching’
7.55 W. C. Sellar 1898-1951 and R. J. Yeatman 1898-1968
For every person who wants to teach there are approximately thirty who don’t want to learn— much.
‘And Now All This’ (1932) introduction
History is not what you thought. It is what you can remember.
‘1066 and All That’ (1930) ‘Compulsory Preface’
The Roman Conquest was, however, a Good Thing, since the Britons were only natives at the time.
‘1066 and All That’ (1930) ch. 1
Edward III had very good manners...and made the memorable epitaph: ‘Honi soie qui mal y pense’ (‘Honey, your silk stocking’s hanging down’).
‘1066 and All That’ (1930) ch. 24.
The cruel Queen died and a post-mortem examination revealed the word ‘callous’ engraved on
her heart.
‘1066 and All That’ (1930) ch. 32.
The Cavaliers (Wrong but Wromantic) and the Roundheads (Right but Repulsive).
‘1066 and All That’ (1930) ch. 35
The Rump Parliament—so called because it had been sitting for such a long time.
‘1066 and All That’ (1930) ch. 35
Charles II was always very merry and was therefore not so much a king as a Monarch.
‘1066 and All That’ (1930) ch. 36
The National Debt is a very Good Thing and it would be dangerous to pay it off, for fear of Political Economy.
‘1066 and All That’ (1930) ch. 38
Napoleon’s armies always used to march on their stomachs shouting: ‘Vive l’Intèrieur!’
‘1066 and All That’ (1930) ch. 48.
Most memorable...was the discovery (made by all the rich men in England at once) that women and children could work twenty-five hours a day in factories without many of them dying or becoming excessively deformed. This was known as the Industrial Revolution.
‘1066 and All That’ (1930) ch. 49
Gladstone...spent his declining years trying to guess the answer to the Irish Question; unfortunately whenever he was getting warm, the Irish secretly changed the Question.
‘1066 and All That’ (1930) ch. 57
America was thus clearly top nation, and History came to a .
‘1066 and All That’ (1930) ch. 62
7.56 Seneca c.4 B.C.-A.D. 65
Ignoranti, quem portum petat, nullus suus ventus est.
If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favourable.
‘Epistulae ad Lucilium’ letter 71, sect. 3
Homines dum docent discunt.
Even while they teach, men learn.
‘Epistulae Morales’ letter 7, sect. 8
Eternal law has arranged nothing better than this, that it has given us one way in to life, but many ways out.
‘Epistulae Morales’ letter 70, sect. 14
Anyone can stop a man’s life, but no one his death; a thousand doors open on to it.
‘Phoenissae’ l. 152
Illi mors gravis incubat Qui notus nimis omnibus Ignotus moritur sibi.
On him does death lie heavily who, but too well known to all, dies to himself unknown.
‘Thyestes’ sc. 2, chorus (translation by Miller)
7.57 Robert W. Service 1874-1958
A promise made is a debt unpaid, and the trail has its own stern code.
‘The Cremation of Sam McGee’ (1907)
Ah! the clock is always slow; It is later than you think.
‘It Is Later Than You Think’ (1921)
This is the law of the Yukon, that only the Strong shall thrive; That surely the Weak shall perish, and only the Fit survive. Dissolute, damned and despairful, crippled and palsied and slain, This is the Will of the Yukon,—Lo, how she makes it plain!
‘The Law of the Yukon’ (1907)
When we, the Workers, all demand: ‘What are WE fighting for?’ ...
Then, then we’ll end that stupid crime, that devil’s madness—War.
‘Michael’ (1921)
A bunch of the boys were whooping it up in the Malamute saloon; The kid that handles the music-box was hitting a jag-time tune; Back of the bar, in a solo game, sat Dangerous Dan McGrew,
And watching his luck was his light-o’-love, the lady that’s known as Lou.
‘The Shootings of Dan McGrew’ (1907)
7.58 William Seward 1801-72
The Constitution devotes the domain to union, to justice, to defence, to welfare, and to liberty. But there is a higher law than the Constitution.
US Senate, 11 March 1850
I know, and all the world knows, that revolutions never go backward.
At Rochester on the Irrepressible Conflict, October 1858
7.59 Edward Sexby d. 1658
Killing no murder briefly discourst in three questions.
Title of pamphlet (1657)
7.60 Anne Sexton 1928-74
In a dream you are never eighty.
‘Old’
7.61 James Seymour and Rian James 1899—
You’re going out a youngster but you’ve got to come back a star.
‘42nd Street’ (1933 film)
7.62 Thomas Shadwell c.1642-92
Words may be false and full of art,
Sighs are the natural language of the heart.
‘Psyche’ (1675) act 3
And wit’s the noblest frailty of the mind.
‘A True Widow’ (1679) act 2, sc. 1.
The haste of a fool is the slowest thing in the world.
‘A True Widow’ (1679) act 3, sc. 1
Every man loves what he is good at.
‘A True Widow’ (1679) act 5, sc. 1
Instantly, in the twinkling of a bed-staff.
‘The Virtuoso’ (1676) act 1, sc. 1
7.63 Peter Shaffer 1926—
All my wife has ever taken from the Mediterranean—from that whole vast intuitive culture— are four bottles of Chianti to make into lamps.
‘Equus’ (1973) act 1, sc. 18
The Normal is the good smile in a child’s eyes—all right. It is also the dead stare in a million adults. It both sustains and kills—like a God. It is the Ordinary made beautiful; it is also the Average made lethal.
‘Equus’ (1973) act 1, sc. 19
Passion, you see, can be destroyed by a doctor. It cannot be created.
‘Equus’ (1973) act 2, sc. 35
7.64 Anthony Ashley Cooper, first Earl of Shaftesbury 1621-83
‘People differ in their discourse and profession about these matters, but men of sense are really but of one religion.’...’Pray, my lord, what religion is that which men of sense agree in?’ ‘Madam,’ says the earl immediately, ‘men of sense never tell it.’
In Bishop Gilbert Burnet ‘The History of My Own Time’ vol. 1 (1724) bk. 2, ch. 1, note by Onslow
7.65 Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury 1671-1713
Truth, ’tis supposed, may bear all lights; and one of those principal lights or natural mediums by which things are to be viewed in order to a thorough recognition is ridicule itself.
‘Essay on the Freedom of Wit and Humour’ (1709) pt. 1, sect. 1.
How comes it to pass, then, that we appear such cowards in reasoning, and are so afraid to stand the test of ridicule?
‘A Letter Concerning Enthusiasm’ (1708) sect. 2
7.66 William Shakespeare 1564-1616
The line number is given without brackets where the scene is all verse up to the quotation and
the line number is certain, and in square brackets where prose makes it variable. All references are to the Oxford Standard Authors Shakespeare in one volume.
7.66.1 All’s Well that Ends Well
It were all one
That I should love a bright particular star And think to wed it, he is so above me.
‘All’s Well that Ends Well’ (1603-4) act 1, sc. 1, l. [97]
The hind that would be mated with the lion Must die of love.
‘All’s Well that Ends Well’ (1603-4) act 1, sc. 1, l. [103]
Your virginity, your old virginity, is like one of our French withered pears; it looks ill, it eats drily.
‘All’s Well that Ends Well’ (1603-4) act 1, sc. 1, l. [176]
Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie Which we ascribe to heaven.
‘All’s Well that Ends Well’ (1603-4) act 1, sc. 1, l. [235]
It is like a barber’s chair that fits all buttocks.
‘All’s Well that Ends Well’ (1603-4) act 2, sc. 2, l. [18]
A young man married is a man that’s marred.
‘All’s Well that Ends Well’ (1603-4) act 2, sc. 3, l. [315]
I know a man that had this trick of melancholy sold a goodly manor for a song.
‘All’s Well that Ends Well’ (1603-4) act 3, sc. 2, l. [8]
The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together: our virtues would be proud if our faults whipped them not; and our crimes would despair if they were not cherished by our own virtues.
‘All’s Well that Ends Well’ (1603-4) act 4, sc. 3, l. [83]
The flowery way that leads to the broad gate and the great fire.
‘All’s Well that Ends Well’ (1603-4) act 5, sc. 5, l. [58].
Praising what is lost Makes the remembrance dear.
‘All’s Well that Ends Well’ (1603-4) act 5, sc. 3, l. 19
7.66.2 Antony And Cleopatra
The triple pillar of the world transformed Into a strumpet’s fool.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 1, sc.1, l. 12
Cleopatra: If it be love indeed, tell me how much. Antony: There’s beggary in the love that can be reckoned. Cleopatra: I’ll set a bourn how far to be belov’d.
Antony: Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 1, sc. 1, l. 14
Kingdoms are clay; our dungy earth alike Feeds beast as man; the nobleness of life Is to do thus; when such a mutual pair And such a twain can do’t.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 1, sc. 1, l. 35
O excellent! I love long life better than figs.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 1, sc. 2, l. [34]
But a worky-day fortune.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 1, sc. 2, l. [57]
On the sudden
A Roman thought hath struck him.
‘Antony and CLeopatra’ (1606-7) act 1, sc. 2, l. [90]
The nature of bad news infects the teller.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7 act 1, sc. 2, l. [103]
There’s a great spirit gone!
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 1, sc. 2, l. [131]
I have seen her die twenty times upon far poorer moment. I do think there is mettle in death which commits some loving act upon her, she hath such a celerity in dying.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7 act 1, sc. 2, l. [150]
O sir! you had then left unseen a wonderful piece of work which not to have been blessed withal would have discredited your travel.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 1, sc. 2, l. [164]
Indeed the tears live in an onion that should water this sorrow.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 1, sc. 2, l. [181]
If you find him sad,
Say I am dancing; if in mirth, report That I am sudden sick.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 1, sc. 3, l. 3
Charmian: In each thing give him way, cross him in nothing. Cleopatra: Thou teachest like a fool; the way to lose him.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 1, sc. 3, l. 9
In time we hate that which we often fear.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 1, sc. 3, l. 12
Eternity was in our lips and eyes, Bliss in our brows bent.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 1, sc. 3, l. 35
Courteous lord, one word.
Sir, you and I must part, but that’s not it:
Sir, you and I have loved, but there’s not it; That you know well: something it is I would,— O! my oblivion is a very Antony,
And I am all forgotten.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 1, sc. 3?, l. 86
Give me to drink mandragora...
That I might sleep out this great gap of time My Antony is away.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 1, sc. 5, l. 4
O happy horse, to bear the weight of Antony!
Do bravely, horse, for wot’st thou whom thou mov’st? The demi-Atlas of this earth, the arm
And burgonet of men. He’s speaking now,
Or murmuring ‘Where’s my serpent of old Nile?’
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 1, sc. 5, l. 21
Think on me,
That am with Phoebus’ amorous pinches black, And wrinkled deep in time? Broad-fronted Caesar, When thou wast here above the ground I was
A morsel for a monarch, and great Pompey Would stand and make his eyes grow in my brow; There would he anchor his aspect and die
With looking on his life.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 1, sc. 5, l. 27
My salad days,
When I was green in judgment, cold in blood, To say as I said then!
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 1, sc. 5, l. 73
I do not much dislike the matter, but The manner of his speech.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 2, sc. 2, l. 117
The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne, Burned on the water; the poop was beaten gold, Purple the sails, and so perfumed, that
The winds were love-sick with them, the oars were silver, Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made
The water which they beat to follow faster,
As amorous of their strokes. For her own person, It beggared all description; she did lie
In her pavilion,—cloth-of-gold of tissue,—
O’er-picturing that Venus where we see The fancy outwork nature; on each side her
Stood pretty-dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids, With divers-coloured fans, whose wind did seem To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool, And what they undid did.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 2, sc. 2, l. [199]
Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides,
So many mermaids, tended her i’ the eyes, And made their bends adornings; at the helm A seeming mermaid steers; the silken tackle
Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands, That yarely frame the office. From the barge
A strange invisible perfume hits the sense Of the adjacent wharfs. The city cast Her people out upon her, and Antony,
Enthroned i’ the market-place, did sit alone, Whistling to the air; which, but for vacancy, Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra too
And made a gap in nature.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 2, sc. 2, l. [214]
I saw her once
Hop forty paces through the public street;
And having lost her breath, she spoke, and panted That she did make defect perfection,
And, breathless, power breathe forth.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 2, sc. 2, l. [236]
Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale Her infinite variety; other women cloy
The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry Where most she satisfies; for vilest things Become themselves in her, that the holy priests Bless her when she is riggish.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 2, sc. 2, l. [243]
I have not kept the square, but that to come Shall all be done by the rule.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 2, sc. 3, l. 6
I’ the east my pleasure lies.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 2, sc. 3, l. 40
Attendants: The music, ho!
Cleopatra: Let it alone; let’s to billiards: come, Charmian.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 2, sc. 5, l. 2
Give me mine angle; we’ll to the river: there— My music playing far off—I will betray Tawny-finned fishes; my bended hook shall pierce Their slimy jaws; and, as I draw them up,
I’ll think them every one an Antony, And say, ‘Ah, ha!’ you’re caught.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 2, sc. 5, l. 10
I laughed him out of patience; and that night I laughed him into patience: and next morn, Ere the ninth hour, I drunk him to his bed.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 2, sc. 5, l. 19
Though it be honest, it is never good
To bring bad news; give to a gracious message A host of tongues, but let ill tidings tell Themselves when they be felt.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 2, sc. 5, l. 85
I will praise any man that will praise me.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 2, sc. 6, l. [88]
Lepidus: What manner o’ thing is your crocodile?
Antony: It is shaped, sir, like itself, and it is as broad as it hath breadth; it is just so high as it is, and moves with its own organs; it lives by that which nourisheth it; and the elements once out of it, it transmigrates.
Lepidus: What colour is it of? Antony: Of its own colour too. Lepidus: ’Tis a strange serpent.
Antony: ’Tis so; and the tears of it are wet.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 2, sc. 7, l. [47]
He sends so poor a pinion of his wing, Which had superfluous kings for messengers Not many moons gone by.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 3, sc. 10, l. 4
He wears the rose Of youth upon him.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 3, sc. 11, l. 20
Against the blown rose may they stop their nose, That kneel’d unto the buds.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 3, sc. 11, l. 39
Yet he that can endure
To follow with allegiance a fall’n lord,
Does conquer him that did his master conquer, And earns a place i’ the story.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 3, sc. 11, l. 43
I found you as a morsel, cold upon Dead Caesar’s trencher.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 3, sc. 11, l. 116
To let a fellow that will take rewards And say ‘God quit you!’ be familiar with
My playfellow, your hand; this kingly seal And plighter of high hearts.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 3, sc. 11, l. 123
Let’s have one other gaudy night: call to me All my sad captains; fill our bowls once more; Let’s mock the midnight bell.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 3, sc. 11, l. 182
Since my lord
Is Antony again, I will be Cleopatra.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 3, sc. 11, l.185
To business that we love we rise betime, And go to ’t with delight.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 4, sc. 4, l. 20
O! my fortunes have Corrupted honest men.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 4, sc. 5, l. 16
I am alone the villain of the earth, And feel I am so most.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 4, sc. 6, l. 30
Cleopatra: Lord of lords!
O infinite virtue! com’st thou smiling from The world’s great snare uncaught? Antony: My nightingale,
We have beat them to their beds.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 4, sc. 8, l. 16
O sovereign mistress of true melancholy,
The poisonous damp of night disponge upon me, That life, a very rebel to my will,
May hang no longer on me.
‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606-7) act 4, sc. 9, l. 12
