Quod sors feret feremus æquo animo.
Whatever chance shall bring, we will bear with equanimity.
Who stemm'd the torrent of a downward age.
COURTESY
A moral, sensible, and well-bred man
Will not affront me, and no other can.
Life is not so short but that there is always time enough for 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.
Their accents firm and loud in conversation,
Their eyes and gestures eager, sharp and quick
Showed them prepared on proper provocation
To give the lie, pull noses, stab and kick!
And for that very reason it is said
They were so very courteous and well-bred.
When the king was horsed thore,
Launcelot lookys he upon,
How courtesy was in him more
Than ever was in any mon.
Morte d' Arthur—Harleian Library. (British Museum) MS. 2,252.
In thy discourse, if thou desire to please;
All such is courteous, useful, new, or wittie:
Usefulness comes by labour, wit by ease;
Courtesie grows in court; news in the citie.
Shepherd, I take thy word,
And trust thy honest offer'd courtesy,
Which oft is sooner found in lowly sheds
With smoky rafters, than in tap'stry halls,
And courts of princes.
The thorny point
Of bare distress hath ta'en from me the show
Of smooth civility.
The Retort Courteous.
Dissembling courtesy! How fine this tyrant
Can tickle where she wounds!
The mirror of all courtesy.
I am the very pink of courtesy.
That's too civil by half.
High erected thoughts seated in a heart of courtesy.
COURTIERS
To laugh, to he, to flatter to face,
Foure waies in court to win men's grace.
A mere court butterfly,
That flutters in the pageant of a monarch.
To shake with laughter ere the jest they hear,
To pour at will the counterfeited tear;
And, as their patron hints the cold or heat,
To shake in dog-days, in December sweat.
There is, betwixt that smile we would aspire to,
That sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin,
More pangs and fears than wars or women have.
At the throng'd levee bends the venal tribe:
With fair but faithless smiles each varnish'd o'er,
Each smooth as those that mutually deceive,
And for their falsehood each despising each.
COVETOUSNESS
Excess of wealth is cause of covetousness.
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Quicquid servatur, cupimus magis: ipsaque
furem
Cura vocat. Pauci, quod sinit alter, amant.
We covet what is guarded; the very care invokes the thief. Few love what they nay have.
Verum est aviditas dives, et pauper pudor.
True it is that covetousness is rich, modesty starves.
Alieni appetens sui profusus.
Covetous of the property of others and prodigal of his own.
I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires:
But if it be a sin to covet honor
I am the most offending soul alive.
When workmen strive to do better than well,
They do confound their skill in covetousness.
