I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what dream it was. -A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act iv. Sc. 1.

One might as well try to ride two horses moving in different directions, as to try to maintain in equal force two opposing or contradictory sets of desires.

The noble sister of Publicola, The moon of Rome, chaste as the icicle That's curded by the frost from purest snow And hangs on Dian's temple--dear Valeria!

A comfortable old age is the reward of a well-spent youth. Instead of its bringing sad and melancholy prospects of decay, it would give us hopes of eternal youth in a better world.

Woe to the man whose heart has not learned while young to hope, to love - and to put its trust in life.

When thou dost tell another's jest, therein Omit the oaths, which true wit cannot need; Pick out of tales the mirth, but not the sin.

Amongst the sons of men how few are known Who dare be just to merit not their own.

Comedy deflates the sense precisely so that the underlying lubricity and malice may bubble to the surface.

If boyhood and youth are but vanity, must it not be our ambition to become men?

A good composer does not imitate, he steals.

Begin -- to begin is half the work, let half still remain, again begin this, and thou wilt have finished.

A man met a lad weeping. "What do you weep for?" he asked. "I am weeping for my sins," said the lad. "You must have little to do," said the man. The next day, they met again. Once more the lad was weeping. "Why do you weep now?" asked the man. "I am weeping because I have nothing to eat," said the lad. "I thought it would come to that," said the man.

With tooth and nail.

As clouds are blown away by the wind, the thirst for material pleasures will be driven away by the utterance of the Lord's name.

The counterfeit and counterpart of Nature is reproduced in art.

Come, the croaking raven doth bellow for revenge.

Since you go where all have gone before, why do you torment your your disgraceful life with such mean ambitions, O miser?

All lovely things will have an ending, All lovely things will fade and die; And youth, that's now so bravely spending, Will beg a penny by and by.

If one sticks too rigidly to one's principles, one would hardly see anybody,

Here the free spirit of mankind, at length, Throws its last fetters off; and who shall place A limit to the giant's unchained strength, Or curb his swiftness in the forward race?