We, at the height, are ready to decline.

There is a tide in the affairs of men,

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;

220Omitted, all the voyage of their life

Is bound in shallows and in miseries.[121]

On such a full sea are we now afloat;

And we must take the current when it serves,

Or lose[122] our ventures.[123]

Cassius.