Page:Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922).djvu/44

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ACTION
ACTION
1
Is there no play,
To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?

Midsummer Night's Dream. Act V. Sc. 1. L. 36.


2

A play there is, my lord, some ten words long,
Which is as brief as I have known a play;
But by ten words, my lord, it is too long,
Which makes it tedious.

Midsummer Night's Dream. Act V. Sc. 1. L. 61.


3

 As in a theatre, the eyes of men,
After a well-grac'd actor leaves the stage,
Are idly bent on him that enters next,
Thinking his prattle to be tedious.

Richard II. Act V. Sc. 2. L. 23.


4

I can counterfeit the deep tragedian;
Speak and look back, and pry on every side,
Tremble and start at wagging of a straw,
Intending deep suspicion.

Richard III. Act III. Sc. 5. L. 5.


5
A beggarly account of empty boxes.
Romeo and Juliet. Act V. Sc. 1. L. 45.


6

And, like a strutting player, whose conceit
Lies in his hamstring, and doth think it rich
To hearthe wooden dialogue and sound
'Twixt his stretch'd footing and the scaffoldage.

Troilus and Cressida. Act I. Sc. 3. L. 153.


7
(The) play of limbs succeeds the play of wit.
Horace and James SmithRejected Addresses. By Lord B. Cui Bono. 11.


8

Lo, where the Stage, the poor, degraded Stage,
Holds its warped mirror to a gaping age!

Charles SpragueCuriosity.
(See also Lloyd)


9

The play is done; the curtain drops,
Slow falling to the prompter's bell:
A moment yet the actor stops,
And looks around, to say farewell.
It is an irksome word and task:
And, when he's laughed and said his say,
He shows, as he removes the mask,
A face that's anything but gay.

ThackerayThe End of the Play.


10

In other things the knowing artist may
Judge better than the people; but a play,
(Made for delight, and for no other use)
If you approve it not, has no excuse.

Edmund WallerPrologue to the Maid's Tragedy. L. 35.

ACTION

(See also Deeds)

11
Let's meet and either do or die.
Beaumont and FletcherThe Island Princess. Act II. Sc. 2.
(See also Burns)


12

Of every noble action the intent
Is to give worth reward, vice punishment.

Beaumont and FletcherThe Captain. Act V. Sc.5.


13

That low man seeks a little thing to do,
Sees it and does it;
This high man, with a great thing to pursue,
Dies ere he knows it.

Robert BrowningA Grammarian's Funeral.


14
Let us do or die.
BurnsBannockburn.
(See also Beaumont, Campbell)


15

What's done we partly may compute,
But know not what's resisted.

BurnsAddress to the Unco Guid.


16
Put his shoulder to the wheel.
BurtonAnatomy of Melancholy. Pt. II. Sect. I. Memb. 2.


17
To-morrow let us do or die.
CampbellGertrude of Wyoming. Pt. III. St. 37.
(See also Burns)


18

 
Our grand business undoubtedly is, not to see
what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what
lies clearly at hand.
Carlyle—Essays. Signs of the Times.


19
The best way to keep good acts in memory is to refresh them with new.
 Attributed to Cato by BaconApothegms. No. 247.


20

He is at no end of his actions blest
Whose ends will make him greatest and not best.

George ChapmanTragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron. Act V. Sc. 1.


21

Quod est, eo decet uti: et quicquid agas, agere pro viribus.
What one has, one ought to use: and whatever he does he should do with all his might.

CiceroDe Senectute. IX.


22
It is better to wear out than to rust out.
Bishop Cumberland. See Home's Sermon—On the Duty of Contending for the Truth.


23
Actions of the last age are like almanacs of the last year.
Sir John DenhamThe Sophy. A Tragedy.


24
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.
Ecclesiastes. IX. 10.


25
For strong souls
Live like fire-hearted suns; to spend their strength
In furthest striving action.

George EliotSpanish Gypsy. Bk. IV.


26
Zeus hates busybodies and those who do too much.
Euripides Quoted by Emerson.


27

Man is his own star, and the soul that can
Render an honest and a perfect man,
Commands all light, all influence, all fate.
Nothing to him falls early or too late.
Our acts, our angels are, or good or ill,
Our fatal shadows that walk by us still.

John FletcherUpon an Honest Man's Fortune. L. 37.