Advice to a Son Leaving Home
Give thy thoughts no tongue,Nor any unproportioned thought his actBe thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.The friends thou hast, and their adoption triedGrapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel;But do not dull thy palm with entertainmentOf each new-hatched, unfledged comrade. BewareOf entrance to a quarrel: but, being in,Bear it, that the opposer may beware of thee.Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice:Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment,Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,But not expressed in fancy: rich, not gaudy:For the apparel oft proclaims the man;And they in France, of the best rank and station,Are most select and generous, chief in that.Neither a borrower, nor a lender be:For loan oft loses both itself and friend;And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.This above all.—To thine ownself be true;And it must follow, as the night the day,Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Hamlet—I. 3.
Age
My May of life Isfallen into the sear, the yellow leaf:And that which should accompany old age,As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends,I must not look to have; but, in their stead,Curses not loud, but deep, mouth-honor, breath,Which the poor heart would feign deny, but dare not.
Macbeth—V. 3.