wunder · Library

Part 48

Beautiful Stories From Shakespeare · E. Nesbit — chapter 48 of 58 · ~326 words · public domain

Read in the Wunder reader — free

Coriolanus -- III. 1.

CONTENTMENT.

'Tis better to be lowly born, And range with humble livers in content, Than to be perked up in a glistering grief, And wear a golden sorrow.

King Henry VIII. -- II. 3.

COWARDS.

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

Julius Caesar -- II. 2.

CUSTOM.

That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat Of habit's devil, is angel yet in this: That to the use of actions fair and good He likewise gives a frock, or livery, That aptly is put on: Refrain to-night: And that shall lend a kind of easiness To the next abstinence: the next more easy: For use almost can change the stamp of nature, And either curb the devil, or throw him out With wondrous potency.

Hamlet -- III. 4.

A custom More honored in the breach, then the observance.

Idem -- I. 4.

DEATH.

Kings, and mightiest potentates, must die; For that's the end of human misery.

King Henry VI., Part 1st -- III. 2.

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. 2.

The dread of something after death, Makes us rather bear those ills we have, Than fly to others we know not of.

Hamlet -- III. 1.

The sense of death is most in apprehension.

Measure for Measure -- III. 1.

By medicine life may be prolonged, yet death Will seize the doctor too.

Cymbeline -- V. 5.

DECEPTION.

The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. An evil soul, producing holy witness, Is like a villain with a smiling cheek; A goodly apple rotten at the heart; O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!

Merchant of Venice -- I. 3.

DEEDS.

Foul deeds will rise, Though all the earth o'erwhelm them to men's eyes.

← Previous chapterAll chaptersNext chapter →

Beautiful Stories From Shakespeare · The Wunder Library — complete classics, free to read, with narration.

© 2026 Wunder Learning LLC · Terms & Privacy