Quotes And Poetry

Front 1

Sad Words

Back 1

For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, 'It might have been."

John Greenleaf Whittier

Front 2

Byron on Beauty

Back 2

She walks in beauty, like the night
of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

-Byron

Front 3

Youth

Back 3

That thou art now the world’s fresh ornament
And only herald to the gaudy spring

Shakespeare

Front 4

Enobarbus on Cleopatra’s Beauty

Back 4

Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety. Other women cloy
The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry
Where she most satisfies

Front 5

Self-awareness

Back 5

We, ignorant of ourselves,
Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers
Deny us for our good; so find we profit
By losing our prayers

Front 6

Hope in battle

Back 6

Where hast thou been, my heart? Dost thou hear, lady?
If from the field I shall return once more
To kiss these lips, I will appear in blood;
I and my sword will earn our chronicle.
There’s hope in't yet.

Front 7

Death or honor

Back 7

Tomorrow, soldier,
By sea and land I’ll fight. Or [either] I will live,
Or bathe my dying honor in the blood
Shall make it live again.

Front 8

Same situation; different fate

Back 8

That our stars,
Unreconciliable, should divide
Our equalness to this.

Front 9

Finish!

Back 9

Finish, good lady; the bright day is done,
And we are for the dark

Front 10

Cleopatra at death

Back 10

I am fire and air; my other elements
I give to baser life

Front 11

Caesar and the faults of other men

Back 11

Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus; and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs, and peep about
To find ourselves dishonourable graves.
Men at some time are masters of their fates:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.

Front 12

Fear of Death

Back 12

Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.

Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear;
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come

Julius Caesar (II, ii)

Front 13

Tide in the affairs of men

Back 13

There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

On such a full sea we are now afloat
And we must take the current when it serves
Or lose our ventures

Julius Caesar Act 4, scene 3, 218–224

Front 14

The day will end

Back 14

O! that a man might know
The end of this day's business, ere it come;
But it sufficeth that the day will end,
And then the end is known.

Front 15

What men stand upon

Back 15

That we shall die we know; ‘tis but the time,
And drawing days out, that men stand upon

- Julius Caesar
Act 3, Scene 1
(spoken by Brutus)

Front 16

Useless philosophy

Back 16

Of your philosophy you make no use
If you give place to accidental evils

Front 17

Cordelia’s sorrow

Back 17

In brief,
Sorrow would be a rarity most beloved
If all could so become it

Front 18

Justice and the rich

Back 18

Through tattered clothes small vices do appear
Robes and furred gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold
And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks.
Arm it in rags, and the pygmy’s straw does pierce it

Front 19

Small proportions/short measures

Back 19

In small proportions we just beauties see
And in short measures life may perfect be

-Ben Jonson
1573-1637

“It is not growing like a tree”