To let base clouds o’ertake me in my way, Hiding thy bravery in their rotten smoke?
Sonnet 34
Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud; Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun, And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud. All men make faults.
Sonnet 35
As a decrepit father takes delight
To see his active child do deeds of youth, So I, made lame by fortune’s dearest spite, Take all my comfort of thy worth and truth.
Sonnet 37
Against that time when thou shalt strangely pass, And scarely greet me with that sun, thine eye, When love, converted from the thing it was, Shall reasons find of settled gravity.
Sonnet 49
What is your substance, whereof are you made, That millions of strange shadows on you tend?
Sonnet 53
O! how much more doth beauty beauteous seem By that sweet ornament which truth doth give!
Sonnet 54
Not marble, nor the gilded monuments
Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rime;
But you shall shine more bright in these contents Than unswept stone, besmeared with sluttish time.
Sonnet 55
Being your slave, what should I do but tend Upon the hours and times of your desire?
I have no precious time at all to spend, Nor services to do, till you require.
Nor dare I chide the world-without-end hour Whilst I, my sovereign, watch the clock for you, Nor think the bitterness of absence sour
When you have bid your servant once adieu; Nor dare I question with my jealous thought Where you may be, or your affairs suppose, But like a sad slave, stay and think of nought
Save, where you are, how happy you make those. So true a fool is love that in your will,
Though you do anything, he thinks no ill.
Sonnet 57
Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore, So do our minutes hasten to their end.
Sonnet 60
Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth And delves the parallels in beauty’s brow.
Sonnet 60
Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye.
Sonnet 62
When I have seen by Time’s fell hand defaced The rich-proud cost of outworn buried age.
Sonnet 64
When I have seen the hungry ocean gain Advantage on the kingdom of the shore.
Sonnet 64
Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea, But sad mortality o’ersways their power,
How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea, Whose action is no stronger than a flower?
Sonnet 65
Tired with all these, for restful death I cry, As to behold desert a beggar born,
And needy nothing trimmed in jollity, And purest faith unhappily forsworn, And gilded honour shamefully misplaced, And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,
And right perfection wrongfully disgraced, And strength by limping sway disabled, And art made tongue-tied by authority, And folly—doctor-like—controlling skill, And simple truth miscalled simplicity, And captive good attending captain ill:
Tired with all these, from these I would be gone, Save that, to die, I leave my love alone.
Sonnet 66
No longer mourn for me when I am dead Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell
Give warning to the world that I am fled
From this vile world, with vilest worms to dwell.
Sonnet 71
That time of year thou mayst in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. In me thou see’st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west;
Which by and by black night doth take away, Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest.
Sonnet 73
This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong, To love that well which thou must leave ere long.
Sonnet 73
O! know, sweet love, I always write of you, And you and love are still my argument; So all my best is dressing old words new, Spending again what is already spent.
Sonnet 76
Time’s thievish progress to eternity.
Sonnet 77
Was it the proud full sail of his great verse, Bound for the prize of all too precious you, That did my ripe thoughts in my brain inhearse,
Making their tomb the womb wherein they grew?
Sonnet 86
That affable familiar ghost
Which nightly gulls him with intelligence.
Sonnet 86
Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing, And like enough thou know’st thy estimate: The charter of thy worth gives thee releasing; My bonds in thee are all determinate.
For how do I hold thee but by thy granting? And for that riches where is my deserving? The cause of this fair gift in me is wanting, And so my patent back again is swerving.
Thyself thou gav’st, thy own worth then not knowing, Or me, to whom thou gav’st it, else mistaking;
So thy great gift, upon misprision growing, Comes home again, on better judgment making. Thus have I had thee, as a dream doth flatter, In sleep a king, but, waking, no such matter.
Sonnet 87
Ah, do not, when my heart hath ’scaped this sorrow, Come in the rearward of a conquered woe;
Give not a windy night a rainy morrow, To linger out a purposed overthrow.
Sonnet 90
They that have power to hurt and will do none, That do not do the thing they most do show, Who, moving others, are themselves as stone, Unmovéd, cold, and to temptation slow;
They rightly do inherit heaven’s graces, And husband nature’s riches from expense; They are the lords and owners of their faces, Others but stewards of their excellence.
The summer’s flower is to the summer sweet, Though to itself it only live and die,
But if that flower with base infection meet, The basest weed outbraves his dignity:
For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds; Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.
Sonnet 94
How like a winter hath my absence been From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!
What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen! What old December’s bareness every where!
Sonnet 97
From you have I been absent in the spring, When proud-pied April, dressed in all his trim, Hath put a spirit of youth in everything.
Sonnet 98
When in the chronicle of wasted time I see descriptions of the fairest wights, And beauty making beautiful old rime,
In praise of ladies dead and lovely knights.
Sonnet 106
For we, which now behold these present days,
Have eyes to wonder, but lack tongues to praise.
Sonnet 106
Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul
Of the wide world dreaming on things to come,
Sonnet 107
And thou in this shalt find thy monument,
When tyrants’ crests and tombs of brass are spent.
Sonnet 107
O! never say that I was false of heart, Though absence seemed my flame to qualify.
Sonnet 109
Alas! ’tis true I have gone here and there, And made myself a motley to the view,
Gored mine own thoughts, sold cheap what is most dear, Made old offences of affections new;
Most true it is that I have looked on truth Askance and strangely; but, by all above, These blenches gave my heart another youth, And worse essays proved thee my best of love.
Sonnet 110
My nature is subdued
To what it works in, like the dyer’s hand; Pity me, then, and wish I were renewed.
Sonnet 111
Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove: O, no! it is an ever-fixéd mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken. Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle’s compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error, and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
Sonnet 116
What potions have I drunk of Siren tears,
Distilled from limbecks foul as hell within, Applying fears to hopes, and hopes to fears, Still losing when I saw myself to win!
Sonnet 119
The expense of spirit in a waste of shame Is lust in action; and till action, lust
Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame, Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust; Enjoyed no sooner but despiséd straight; Past reason hunted; and no sooner had,
Past reason hated, as a swallowed bait, On purpose laid to make the taker mad: Mad in pursuit, and in possession so;
Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme; A bliss in proof,—and proved, a very woe; Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.
All this the world well knows; yet none knows well: To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.
Sonnet 129
My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips’ red:
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
Sonnet 130
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare.
Sonnet 130
Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy Will, And Will to boot, and Will in over-plus.
Sonnet 135
When my love swears that she is made of truth, I do believe her, though I know she lies.
Sonnet 138
Two loves I have of comfort and despair, Which like two spirits do suggest me still: The better angel is a man right fair,
The worser spirit a woman coloured ill.
Sonnet 144
Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth, [Fooled by] these rebel powers that thee array,
Why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth,
Painting thy outward walls so costly gay?
Why so large cost, having so short a lease,
Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend?
Sonnet 146
So shalt thou feed on Death, that feeds on men,
And Death once dead, there’s no more dying then.
Sonnet 146
Past cure I am, now Reason is past care,
And frantic-mad with evermore unrest;
My thoughts and my discourse as madmen’s are,
At random from the truth vainly expressed;
For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright,
Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.
Sonnet 147
7.66.41 Sonnets To Sundry Notes Of Music
Live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove. That hills and valleys, dales and fields, And all the craggy mountains yields.
‘Sonnets To Sundry Notes Of Music’ 5.
7.66.42 Venus And Adonis
If the first heir of my invention prove deformed, I shall be sorry it had so noble a godfather.
‘Venus And Adonis’ (1593) dedication
Hunting he loved, but love he laughed to scorn.
‘Venus And Adonis’ (1593) l. 4
Bid me discourse, I will enchant thine ear, Or like a fairy trip upon the green,
Or, like a nymph, with long dishevelled hair, Dance on the sands, and yet no footing seen: Love is a spirit all compact of fire,
Not gross to sink, but light, and will aspire.
‘Venus And Adonis’ (1593) l. 145
Round-hoofed, short-jointed, fetlocks shag and long, Broad breast, full eye, small head and nostril wide, High crest, short ears, straight legs and passing strong, Thin mane, thick tail, broad buttock, tender hide: Look, what a horse should have he did not lack,
Save a proud rider on so proud a back.
‘Venus And Adonis’ (1593) l. 295
By this, poor Wat, far off upon a hill, Stands on his hinder legs with listening ear, To hearken if his foes pursue him still.
‘Venus And Adonis’ (1593) l. 697
7.66.43 Miscellaneous
Good friend, for Jesu’s sake forbear To dig the dust enclosed here.
Blest be the man that spares these stones, And curst be he that moves my bones.
Epitaph on his tomb at Stratford-on-Avon, supposed to have been chosen by himself.
Item, I give unto my wife my second best bed, with the furniture.
Will, 1616
7.67 Bill Shankly 1914-81
Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I don’t like that attitude. I can assure them it is much more serious than that.
In ‘Sunday Times’ 4 October 1981
7.68 Tom Sharpe 1928—
The South African police would leave no stone unturned to see that nothing disturbed the even terror of their lives.
‘Indecent Exposure’ (1973) ch. 1
7.69 George Bernard Shaw 1856-1950
All great truths begin as blasphemies.
‘Annajanska’ (1919) p. 262
One man that has a mind and knows it can always beat ten men who havnt and dont.
‘The Apple Cart’ (1930) act 1
What Englishman will give his mind to politics as long as he can afford to keep a motor car?
‘The Apple Cart’ (1930) act 1
You can always tell an old soldier by the inside of his holsters and cartridge boxes. The young ones carry pistols and cartridges; the old ones, grub.
‘Arms and the Man’ (1898) act 1
Oh, you are a very poor soldier—a chocolate cream soldier!
‘Arms and the Man’ (1898) act 1
Youre not a man, you’re a machine.
‘Arms and the Man’ (1898) act 3
I enjoy convalescence. It is the part that makes illness worth while.
‘Back to Methuselah’ (1921) pt. 2
He [the Briton] is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.
‘Caesar and Cleopatra’ (1901) act 2
When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.
‘Caesar and Cleopatra’ (1901) act 3
A man of great common sense and good taste, meaning thereby a man without originality or moral courage.
‘Notes to Caesar and Cleopatra’ (1901) ‘Julius Caesar’
We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it.
‘Candida’ (1898) act 1
Do you think that the things people make fools of themselves about are any less real and true than the things they behave sensibly about? They are more true: they are the only things that are true.
‘Candida’ (1898) act 1
It is easy—terribly easy—to shake a man’s faith in himself. To take advantage of that to break a man’s spirit is devil’s work.
‘Candida’ (1898) act 1
I’m only a beer teetotaller, not a champagne teetotaller.
‘Candida’ (1898) act 3
The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: thats the essence of inhumanity.
‘The Devil’s Disciple’ (1901) act 2
Martyrdom...the only way in which a man can become famous without ability.
‘The Devil’s Disciple’ (1901) act 3
I never expect a soldier to think.
‘The Devil’s Disciple’ (1901) act 3
swindon: ‘What will history say?’
burgoyne: ‘History, sir, will tell lies as usual.’
‘The Devil’s Disciple’ (1901) act 3
Your friend the British soldier can stand up to anything except the British War Office.
‘The Devil’s Disciple’ (1901) act 3
There is at bottom only one genuinely scientific treatment for all diseases, and that is to stimulate the phagocytes.
‘The Doctor’s Dilemma’ (1911) act 1
All professions are conspiracies against the laity.
‘The Doctor’s Dilemma’ (1911) act 1
A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
‘Everybody’s Political What’s What?’ (1944) ch. 30
It’s all that the young can do for the old, to shock them and keep them up to date.
‘Fanny’s First Play’ (1914) ‘Induction’
Home life as we understand it is no more natural to us than a cage is natural to a cockatoo.
‘Getting Married’ (1911) preface ‘Hearth and Home’
The one point on which all women are in furious secret rebellion against the existing law is the saddling of the right to a child with the obligation to become the servant of a man.
‘Getting Married’ (1911) preface ‘The Right to Motherhood’
Physically there is nothing to distinguish human society from the farm-yard except that children are more troublesome and costly than chickens and calves, and that men and women are not so completely enslaved as farm stock.
‘Getting Married’ (1911) preface ‘The Personal Sentimental Basis of Monogamy’
What God hath joined together no man ever shall put asunder: God will take care of that.
‘Getting Married’ (1911) p. 216.
I am a woman of the world, Hector; and I can assure you that if you will only take the trouble always to do the perfectly correct thing, and to say the perfectly correct thing, you can do just what you like.
‘Heartbreak House’ (1919) act 1
Go anywhere in England where there are natural, wholesome, contented, and really nice English people; and what do you always find? That the stables are the real centre of the household.
‘Heartbreak House’ (1919) act 3
The captain is in his bunk, drinking bottled ditch-water; and the crew is gambling in the forecastle. She will strike and sink and split. Do you think the laws of God will be suspended in favour of England because you were born in it?
‘Heartbreak House’ (1919) act 3
Money is indeed the most important thing in the world; and all sound and successful personal and national morality should have this fact for its basis.
‘The Irrational Knot’ (1905) preface
Reminiscences make one feel so deliciously aged and sad.
‘The Irrational Knot’ (1905) ch. 14
A man who has no office to go to—I don’t care who he is—is a trial of which you can have no conception.
‘The Irrational Knot’ (1905) ch. 18
An Irishman’s heart is nothing but his imagination.
‘John Bull’s Other Island’ (1907) act 1
What really flatters a man is that you think him worth flattering.
‘John Bull’s Other Island’ (1907) act 4
There are only two qualities in the world: efficiency and inefficiency, and only two sorts of people: the efficient and the inefficient.
