My May of life
   Is fallen into the sear, the yellow leaf: 
   And that which should accompany old age,
   As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends,
   I must not look to have; but, in their stead,
   Curses, not loud, but deep, mouth-honor, breath,
   Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not.
Macbeth, Act v. Sc. 3.  SHAKESPEARE.

What is the worst of woes that wait on age? 
What stamps the wrinkle deeper on the brow? 
To view each loved one blotted from life’s page,
And be alone on earth as I am now.
Childe Harold, Canto II.  LORD BYRON.

               His silver hairs
   Will purchase us a good opinion,
   And buy men’s voices to commend our deeds;
   It shall be said—­his judgment ruled our hands.
Julius Caesar, Act ii. Sc. 1.  SHAKESPEARE.

As you are old and reverend, you should be wise. King Lear, Act i.  Sc. 4.  SHAKESPEARE.

  So may’st thou live, till like ripe fruit thou drop
  Into thy mother’s lap, or be with ease
  Gathered, not harshly plucked for death mature.
Paradise Lost, Bk.  XI.  MILTON.

AIR.

  DUNCAN.  This castle hath a pleasant seat:  the air
  Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
  Unto our gentle senses.

  BANQUO....  The heaven’s breath
  Smells wooingly here:  no jutty, frieze,
  Buttress, nor coigne of vantage, but this bird
  Hath made his pendent bed and procreant cradle: 
  Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed,
  The air is delicate.
Macbeth, Act i.  Sc. 6.  SHAKESPEARE.

  Joyous the birds; fresh gales and gentle airs
  Whispered it to the woods, and from their wings
  Flung rose, flung odors from the spicy shrub.
Paradise Lost, Bk.  VIII.  MILTON.

  HAMLET.  The air bites shrewdly; it is very cold.

HORATIO.  It is a nipping and an ’eager air. Hamlet, Act i.  Sc. 4.  SHAKESPEARE.

  The parching air
  Burns frore, and cold performs the effect of fire.
Paradise Lost, Bk.  II.  MILTON.

  Drew audience and attention still as night
  Or summer’s noontide air.
Paradise Lost, Bk.  II.  MILTON.

  As one who long in populous city pent,
  Where houses thick and sewers annoy the air.
Paradise Lost, Bk.  IX, MILTON.

Nor waste their sweetness in the desert air. Gotham, Bk.  II.  C. CHURCHILL.

AMBITION.

Ambition is our idol, on whose wings
Great minds are carried only to extreme;
To be sublimely great, or to be nothing.
The Loyal Brother, Act i.  Sc. 1.  T. SOUTHERNE.

To reign is worth ambition, though in hell: 
Better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven.
Paradise Lost, Bk.  I.  MILTON.