When honor comes to you be ready to take it;
But reach not to seize it before it is near.
Honour, the spur that pricks the princely mind,
To follow rule and climb the stately chair.
We'll shine in more substantial honours,
And to be noble, we'll be good.
Thos. Percy—Reliques. Winifreda.
Et ille quidem plenus annis abiit, plenus
honoribus, illis etiam quos recusavit.
He died full of years and of honors, equally illustrious by those he refused as by those he accepted.
Pliny the Younger—Epistles. II. 1.
A Quixotic sense of the honorable—of the chivalrous.
Poe—Letter to Mrs. Whitman. Oct. 18, 1848.
Honour and shame from no condition rise;
Act well your part, there all the honour lies.
A bon entendeur ne faut qu'un parole.
A good intention does not mean honor. Rabelais—Pantagruel. Bk. V. Ch. VII. </poem>
Faisons ce que l'honneur exige.
Let us do what honor demands. Racine—Berenice. IV. 4. </poem>
Mais sans argent l'honneur n'est qu'une maladie.
But without money honor is nothing but a malady.
Racine—Plaideurs. I. 1.
Nichtswurdig ist die Nation, die nicht
Ihr alles freudig setzt an ihre Ehre.
That nation is worthless which does not joyfully stake everything on her honor.
Das Herz und nicht die Meinung elirt den Mann.
What he feels and not what he does honors a man. Schiller—Wallenstein's Tod. IV. 8. 70. </poem>
See that you come
Not to woo honour, but to wed it.
All's Well That Ends Well. Act II. Sc. 1.
L. 14.
Honours thrive,
When rather from our acts we them derive
Than our foregoers.
All's Well That Ends Well. Act II. Re. 3. L.
142.
A scar nobly got,. or a noble scar, is a good
livery of honour.
All's Well That Ends Well. Act IV. Sc. 5. L.
105.
If I lose mine honour,
I lose myself; better I were not yours
Than yours so branchless.
Antony and Cleopatra. Act III. Sc. 4. L. 22.
For he's honourable
And doubling that, most holy.
Cymbeline. Act III. Sc. 4. L. 179.
Methinks it were an easy leap,
To pluck bright honour from the pale-fac'd moon.
Henry IV. Pt. I. Act I. Sc. 3. L. 201.
And pluck up drowned honour by the locks.
Henry IV. Pt. K Act I. Sc. 3. L. 205.
Well, 'tis no matter; honour pricks me on. Yea, but how if honour prick me off, when I come on? how then? Can honour set to a leg? no: or an arm? no: or take away the grief of a wound? no: Honour hath no skill in surgery, then? no. What is honour? a word. What is that word honour? air. A trim reckoning! Who hath it? he that died o' Wednesday. Doth he feel it? no. Doth he hear it? no. Is it insensible, then? Yea, to the dead. But will it not live with the living? no. Why? detraction will not suffer it. Therefore, I'll none of it. Honour is a mere scutcheon; and so ends my catechism.
For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all, all honourable men.
Julius Caesar. Act III. Sc. 2. L. 87.
Thou art a fellow of a good respect;
Thy life hath had some smatch of honour in it.
Julius Caesar. Act V. Sc. 5. L. 45.
Let none presume
To wear an undeserv'd dignity.
O. that estates, degrees and offices
Were not deriv'd corruptly, and that clear honour
Were purchas'd by the merit of the wearer!
Merchant of Venice. Act II. Sc. 9. L. 39.
Mine honour let me try:
In that I live, and for that will I die.
Richard II. Act I. Sc. I. L. 184.
And as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds,
So honour peereth in the meanest habit.
Taming of the Shrew. Act IV. Sc. 3. L. 175.
I had rather crack my sinews, break my back,
Than you should such dishonour undergo.
Tempest. Act III. Sc. 1. L. 26.
For honour travels in a strait so narrow,
Where one but goes abreast.
Troilus and Cressida. Act III. -Sc. 3. L. 154.
Honour sits smiling at the sale of truth.
