The World's Best Poetry, Volume 10 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 448 pages of information about The World's Best Poetry, Volume 10.

The World's Best Poetry, Volume 10 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 448 pages of information about The World's Best Poetry, Volume 10.

COURTESY.

  How sweet and gracious, even in common speech,
  Is that fine sense which men call Courtesy! 
  Wholesome as air and genial as the light,
  Welcome in every clime as breath of flowers,
  It transmutes aliens into trusting friends,
  And gives its owner passport round the globe.
Courtesy.  J.T.  FIELDS.

  In thy discourse, if thou desire to please;
  All such is courteous, useful, new, or wittie: 
  Usefulness comes by labor, wit by ease;
  Courtesie grows in court; news in the citie.
The Church Porch.  G. HERBERT.

I am the very pink of courtesy. Romeo and Juliet, Act ii.  Sc. 4.  SHAKESPEARE.

   The kindest man,
  The best-conditioned and unwearied spirit
  In doing courtesies.
Merchant of Venice, Act iii.  Sc. 2.  SHAKESPEARE.

Would you both please and be instructed too,
Watch well the rage of shining, to subdue;
Hear every man upon his favorite theme,
And ever be more knowing than you seem. 
B. STILLINGFLEET.

COWARDICE.

                               What is danger
  More than the weakness of our apprehensions? 
  A poor cold part o’ th’ blood.  Who takes it hold of? 
  Cowards and wicked livers:  valiant minds
  Were made the masters of it.
Chances.  BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER.

Alike reserved to blame, or to commend,
A timorous foe, and a suspicious friend;
Dreading even fools, by flatteries besieged,
And so obliging that he ne’er obliged.
Satires:  Prologue.  A. POPE.

Cowards are cruel, but the brave
Love mercy, and delight to save.
Fables, Pt.  I. Fable I.  J. GAY.

When desp’rate ills demand a speedy cure,
Distrust is cowardice, and prudence folly.
Irene, Act iv.  Sc. 1.  DR. S. JOHNSON.

                                          He
  That kills himself to avoid misery, fears it,
  And, at the best, shows but a bastard valor. 
  This life’s a fort committed to my trust,
  Which I must not yield up, till it be forced: 
  Nor will I. He’s not valiant that dares die,
  But he that boldly bears calamity.
Maid of Honor, Act iv.  Sc. 1.  P. MASSINGER.

Thou slave, thou wretch, thou coward! 
Thou little valiant, great in villany! 
Thou ever strong upon the stronger side! 
Thou Fortune’s champion, that dost never fight
But when her humorous ladyship is by
To teach thee safety!
King John, Act iii.  Sc. 1.  SHAKESPEARE.

  For he who fights and runs away
  May live to fight another day;
  But he who is in battle slain
  Can never rise and fight again.
The Art of Poetry on a New Plan.  O. GOLDSMITH.

  Cowards die many times before their deaths;
  The valiant never taste of death but once.
Julius Caesar, Act ii.  Sc. 3.  SHAKESPEARE.

Copyrights
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The World's Best Poetry, Volume 10 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.