The world is not to be despised but as it is compared with something better. Company is in itself better than solitude, and pleasure better than indolence. Johnson.
The world is nothing but a wheel; in its whole periphery it is everywhere similar, but, nevertheless, it appears to us so strange, because we ourselves are carried round with it. Goethe.
The world is nothing; the man is all. Emerson. 40
The world is only governed by self-interest. Schiller.
The world is so busied with selfish pursuits, ambition, vanity, interest, or pleasure, that very few think it worth their while to make any observation on what passes around them, except where that observation is a sucker, or branch of the darling plant they are rearing in their fancy. Burns.
The world is still deceived with ornament. / In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt, / But, being seasoned with a gracious voice, / Obscures the show of evil? In religion, / What damnéd error but some sober brow / Will bless it and approve it with a text, / Hiding the grossness with fair ornament? Mer. of Ven., iii. 2.
The world is too much with us; late and soon, / Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers; / Little we see in Nature that is ours. Wordsworth.
The world is undone by looking at things at a 45 distance. Sir Thomas More.
The world is upheld by the veracity of good men; they make the earth wholesome. Emerson.
The world is wide enough for all to live and let live, and every one has an enemy in his own talent, who gives him quite enough to do. But no! one gifted man and one talented persecutes another ... and each seeks to make the other hateful. Goethe.