Trade it may help, society extend,
But lures the pirate, and corrupts the friend:
It raises armies in a nation's aid,
But bribes a senate, and the land's betray'd.
—Pope, Moral Essays.[5]
O God, that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal
away their brains!
—Shakespeare, Othello.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishment the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.
—Henley, Invictus.
The world is so full of a number of things,
I am sure we should all be happy as kings.
—Stevenson, A Child's Garden of Verses.
If your morals are dreary, depend upon it they are wrong.
—Stevenson, Essays.