One doth not know How much an ill word may empoison liking. One man holding troth, A million fail, confounding oath on oath. Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, Oft our displeasures, to ourselves unjust, Destroy our friends, and after weep their dust. On our quick'st decrees Th' inaudible and noiseless foot of time Steals, ere we can effect them. Oft expectation fails, and most oft there Where it most promises; and oft it hits Where hope is coldest, and despair most sits. Our rash faults Make trivial price of serious things we have, Not knowing them until we know their grave. Our cake's dough on both sides. One good deed, dying tongueless, Slaughters a thousand waiting upon that. Oftentimes, to win us to our harm, The instruments of darkness tell us truths, Oftentimes, excusing of a fault Doth make the fault the worse by the excuse. One sudden foil should never breed distrust. One touch of nature makes the whole world kin. Omission to do what is necessary Seals a commission to a blank of danger; One bear will not bite another. O, that men's ears should be To counsel deaf, but not to flattery! One fire drives out one fire; one nail, one nail; Rights by rights fouler, strengths by strengths do fail. Often, to our comfort, shall we find Our courtiers say, all's savage but at court: Experience, oh, thou disprov'st report! Th' imperious seas breed monsters; for the dish, Poor tributary rivers as sweet fish. Our very eyes are sometimes like our judgments, blind. One sorrow never comes, but brings an heir Opinion's but a fool, that makes us scan Our foster-nurse of nature is repose. One pain is lessen'd by another's anguish. One desperate grief cures with another's languish. Our wills and fates do so contrary run, That our devices still are overthrown. Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own. Oft 'tis seen, the wicked prize itself Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners. Oh, that men should put an enemy in their mouths to stea away their brains! |