The cock, that is the trumpet of the morn, / Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat / Awake the god of day. Ham., i. 1.
The coin that is most current among mankind is flattery; the only benefit of which is that by hearing what we are not we may be instructed what we ought to be. (?)
The combined arts appear to me like a family of sisters, of whom the greater part were inclined to good company, but one was light-headed, and desirous to appropriate and squander the whole goods and chattels of the household—the theatre is this wasteful sister. Goethe.
The comic and the tragic lie close together, inseparable, like light and shadow. Socrates.
The command "thou shalt" is in all circumstances 10 a hard one, unless it is softened down by the adjunct "for that which 'thou shalt' is just the same as that which rationally thou also willest." Lindner.
The commencement of atonement is / The sense of its necessity. Byron.
The common crowd but see the gloom / Of wayward deeds and fitting doom; / The close observer can espy / A noble soul and lineage high. Byron.
The common fluency of speech in many men and most women is owing to a scarcity of matter and a scarcity of words. Swift.
The common "keeping up appearances" of society is a mere selfish struggle of the vain with the vain. Ruskin.
The company of fools may at first make us 15 smile, but at last never fails of rendering us melancholy. Goldsmith.