"If" is the only peacemaker—much virtue in "if." As You Like It, v. 4.
If it be a bliss to enjoy the good, it is still 5 greater happiness to discern the better; for in art the best only is good enough. Goethe.
If it be asked, What is the improper expectation which it is dangerous to indulge, experience will quickly answer that it is such expectation as is dictated not by reason but by desire—an expectation that requires the common course of things to be changed, and the general rules of action to be broken. Johnson.
If it be aught toward the general good, / Set honour in one eye, and death i' the other, / And I will look on both indifferently; / For, let the gods so speed me, as I love / The name of honour more than I fear death. Jul. Cæs., i. 2.
If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. St. Paul.
If it is a happiness to be nobly descended, it is not less to have so much merit that nobody inquires whether we are so or not. La Bruyère.
If it is disgraceful to be beaten, it is only a 10 shade less disgraceful to have so much as fought. Carlyle.
If it rains—well! If it shines—well! Pr.
If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well / It were done quickly ... that but this blow / Might be the be all and the end all here. Macb., i. 7.
If it were not for hope, the heart would break. Pr.