186 DEEDS
But the good deed, through the ages
Living in historic pages,
Brighter grows and gleams immortal,
Unconsumed by moth or rust.
We are our own fates. Our own deeds
Are our doomsmen. Man's life was made
Not for men's creeds,
But men's actions.
See golden days, fruitful of golden deeds,
With joy and love triumphing.
Nor think thou with wind
Of aery threats to awe whom yet with deeds
Thou canst not.
I on the other side
Us'd no ambition to commend my deeds;
The deeds themselves, though mute, spoke loud
the doer.
For men use, if they have an evil tourne, to
write it in marble; and whoso doth us a good
tourne we write it in duste.
Actis sevum implet, non segnibus annis.
He fills his lifetime with deeds, not with inactive years.
from Albinovanus Pedo, contemporary
poet with Ovid.Ipse decor, recti facti si prsemia desint,
Non movet.
Men do not value a good deed unless it brings a reward.
Di pia facta vident.
The gods see the deeds of the righteous.
The deed I intend is great,
But what, as yet, I know not.
Acta deos nunquam mortalia fallunt.
The deeds of men never escape the gods.
Les belles actions cachees sont les plus estimables.
Noble deeds that are concealed are most esteemed.
Dictis facta suppetant.
Let deeds correspond with words.
DEEDS
Nequam illud verbum est, Bene vult, nisi qui
benefacit.
"He wishes well" is worthless, unless the deed go with it.
We'll take the good-will for the deed.
Your deeds are known,
In words that kindle glory from the stone.
Wer gar zu viel bedenkt wird wenig leisten.
He who considers too much will perform little.
Nemo beneficia in calendario scribit.
Nobody makes an entry of his good deeds in his day-book.
From lowest place when virtuous things proceed,
The place is dignified by the doer's deed:
Where great additions swell's and virtue none,
It is a dropsied honour. Good alone
Is good without a name.
He covets less
Than misery itself would give; rewards
His deeds with doing them, and is content
To spend the time to end it.
I never saw
Such noble fury in so poor a thing;
Such precious deeds in one that promis'd nought
But beggary and poor looks.
There shall be done
A deed of dreadful note.
A deed without a name.
L. 43.
L.49.The flighty purpose never is o'ertook,
Unless the deed go with it.
Unnatural deeds
Do breed unnatural troubles: infected minds
To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets.
How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
O, would the deed were good!
For now the devil, that told me I did well,
Says that this deed is chronicled in hell.
