Before The World Was Made If I make the lashes dark and the eyes more bright and the lips more scarlet, or ask if all be right from mirror after mirror, no vanity's displayed: I'm looking for the face I had before the world was made. What if I look upon a man as though on my beloved, and my blood be cold the while and my heart unmoved? Why should he think me cruel or that he is betrayed? I'd have him love the thing that was before the world was made.

Evil comes to us men of imagination wearing as its mask all the virtues.

A lonely impulse of delight

How but in custom and in ceremony are innocence and beauty born?

For how can you compete Being honour bred, with one Who, were it proved he lies, Were neither shamed in his own Nor in his neighbour's eyes?

Life is a long preparation for something that never happens.

Choose your companions from the best; Who draws a bucket with the rest soon topples down the hill.