Oh! it is excellent
To have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous
To use it like a giant.
* * * * *
Could great men thunder
As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet;
For every pelting, petty officer
Would use his heaven for thunder,—
Nothing but thunder. Merciful Heaven!
Thou rather, with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt,
Split'st the unwedgeable and gnarled oak,
Than the soft myrtle: but man, proud man!
Drest in a little brief authority,—
Most ignorant of what he's most assured,
His glassy essence,—like an angry ape,
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven,
As make the angels weep; who, with our spleens,
Would all themselves laugh mortal.
Measure for Measure, Act ii. Sc. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
VANITY.
As eddies draw things frivolous and light,
How is man's heart by vanity drawn in!
Night Thoughts DR. E. YOUNG.
One prospect lost, another still we gain;
And not a vanity is giv'n in vain:
Even mean Self-love becomes, by force divine,
The scale to measure others' wants by thine.
Essay on Man, Epistle II. A. POPE.
Sir Plume (of amber snuff-box justly vain,
And the nice conduct of a clouded cane),
With earnest eyes, and round unthinking face,
He first the snuff-box opened, then the case.
Rape of the Lock A. POPE.
Light vanity, insatiate cormorant.
Consuming means, soon preys upon itself.
King Richard II., Act ii. Sc. I. SHAKESPEARE.
VARIETY.
The earth was made so various, that the mind
Of desultory man, studious of change.
And pleased with novelty, might be indulged.
The Task, Bk. I. W. COWPER.