Why comes temptation but for man to meet And master and make crouch beneath his foot, And so be pedestaled in triumph?
Robert BrowningO woman-country! wooed not wed, Loved all the more by earth's male-lands, Laid to their hearts instead.
Robert BrowningWhite shall not neutralize the black, nor good compensate bad in man, absolve him so; life's business being just the terrible choice.
Robert BrowningI hear you reproach, "But delay was best, For their end was a crime." Oh, a crime will do As well, I reply, to serve for a test As a virtue golden through and through, Sufficient to vindicate itself And prove its worth at a moment's view! . . . . . . Let a man contend to the uttermost For his life's set prize, be it what it will! The counter our lovers staked was lost As surely as if it were lawful coin; And the sin I impute to each frustrate ghost Is-the unlit lamp and the ungirt loin, Though the end in sight was a vice, I say.
Robert Browning