Sweet childish days, that were as long
As twenty days are now.
A simple child,
That lightly draws its breath.
And feels its life in every limb,
What should it know of death?
The booby father craves a booby son,
And by heaven's blessing thinks himself undone.
CHOICE
If I were not Alexander, I should wish to be Diogenes.
He that will not when he may,
When he will he shall have nay.
Better to sink beneath the shock
Than moulder piecemeal on the rock!
Byron—The Giaour. L. 969.
Of harmes two the less is for to chose.
Chaucer—Troilus and Criseyde.
| place = Bk. II. L.
470.
| seealso = (See also quotations under Evil)
What voice did on my spirit fall,
Peschiera, when thy bridge I crost?
'Tis better to have fought and lost
Than never to have fought at all!
Arthur Hugh Clough—Peschiera.
| seealso = (See also Tennyson under Love)
Life often presents us with a choice of evils, rather than of goods.
C. C. Colton—Loam. P. 362.
Devine, si tu peux, et choisis, si tu l'oses.
Guess, if you can, and choose, if you dare.
Corneille—Heraclius. IV. 4.
The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice.
God offers to every mind its choice between
truth and repose.
Emerson—Essay. Intellect.
Betwixt the devil and the deep sea.
Erasmus—Adagia. Ch. III. Cent. W. 94.
Quoted from the Greek. Proverb in Hazlttt—English Proverbs. Clarke—Paramiologia. (1639) Said by Col. Monroe—Expedition and Observations. Pt. III. P. 55.
(Ed. 1637)
| topic =
| page =
}}
{{Hoyt quote
| num =
| text = <poem>Inter sacrum et sazim.
Between the victim and the stone knife.
Erasmus—Letter to Pirkheimer. Plautus—
Captwi. 3. 4. 84. Also said by Appuleius.
Se soumettre ou se demettre.
Submit or resign.
Gambetta.
Where passion leads or prudence points the
way.
Robert Lowth—TAe Choice of H erodes. 1.
But one thing is needful; and Mary hath
chosen that good part which shall not be taken
away from her.
Luke. X. 42.
For many are called, but few are chosen.
Matthew. XXII. 14.
Rather than be less
Car'd not to be at all.
Who would not, finding way, break loose from
hell,
And boldly venture to whatever place
Farthest from pain?
| author = Milton
| work = Paradise Lost
| place = Bk. IV. L. 889.
The difficulty in life is the choice.
George Moore—Bending of the Bough. Act
rv.
Or fight or fly.
This choice is left ye, to resist or die.
| author = Pope
| work = Homer's Odyssey.
| place = Bk. XXII. L. 79.
S'asseoir entre deux selles le cul a terre.
Between two stools one sits on the ground.
Rabelais—Gargantua.
| place = Bk. I. Ch. II. Entre deux arcouns chet cul a terre. In Les Proverbes del Vilain. MS. Bodleian. (About 1303)
| topic =
| page =
}}
{{Hoyt quote
| num =
| text = <poem>Set honour in one eye and death i' the other,
And I will look on both indifferently.
Julius Caesar. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 86.
Which of them shall I take?
Both? one? or neither? Neither can be enjoy'd,
If both remain alive.
King Lear. Act V. Sc. 1. L. 57.
I will not choose what many men desire,
Because I will not jump with common spirits,
And rank me with the barbarous multitudes.
Merchant of Venice. Act II. Sc. 9. L. 31.
Preferment goes by letter and affection.
Othello. Act I. Sc. 1. L. 36.
There's small choice in rotten apples.
Taming of the Shrew. Act I. Sc. 1. L. 138.
"Thy royal will be done—'tis just,"
Replied the wretch, and kissed the dust;
" Since, my last moments to assuage,
Your Majesty's humane decree
Has deigned to leave the choice to me,
I'll die, so please you, of old age."
Horace Smith—The Jester Condemned to
Death.
