quotes
First, from one of the greatest dramas of all time...Hamlet, Act III, Scene ii, lines 56-89:
| Hamlet. To be, or not to be: that is the question: |
| Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer |
| The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, |
| Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, |
| And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep-- |
| No more--and by a sleep to say we end |
| The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks |
| That flesh is heir to! 'Tis a consummation |
| Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep-- |
| To sleep--perchance to dream; ay, there's the rub, |
| For in that sleep of death what dreams may come |
| When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, |
| Must give us pause. There's the respect |
| That makes calamity of so long life: |
| For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, |
| Th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, |
| The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, |
| The insolence of office, and the spurns |
| That patient merit of th' unworthy takes, |
| When he himself might his quietus make |
| With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear, |
| To grunt and sweat under a weary life, |
| But that the dread of something after death |
| The undiscovered country, from whose bourn |
| No traveler returns, puzzles the will, |
| And makes us rather bear those ills we have |
| Than to fly to others we know not of? |
| Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, |
| And thus the native hue of resolution |
| Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, |
| And enterprises of great pitch and moment, |
| With this regard their currents turn awry, |
| And lose the name of action. |
And then, a great encore from Hamlet, Act III, Scene iii, lines 73-95:
| Hamlet. Now might I do it pat, now 'a is a-praying, |
| And now I'll do't. And so 'a goes to heaven, |
| And so I am revenged. That would be scanned. |
| A villian kills my father, and for that |
| I, his sole son, do this same villain send |
| To heaven. |
| Why, this is hire and salary, not revenge. |
| 'A took my father grossly, full of bread, |
| With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May, |
| And how his audit stands, who knows save heaven? |
| But in our circumstance and course of thought, |
| 'Tis heavy with him; and am I then revenged, |
| To take him in the purging of his soul, |
| When he is fit and seasoned for his passage? |
| No. |
| Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent. |
| When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage, |
| Or in th' incestuous pleasure of his bed, |
| At game a-swearing, or about some act |
| That has no relish of salvation in't-- |
| Then trip him, that his heel may kick at heaven, |
| And that his soul may be as damned and black |
| As hell, whereto it goes. |
And lastly, from The Prince, by Machiavelli, Chapter 17:
From this arises the question whether it is better to be loved more than feared, or feared more than loved. The reply is, that one ought to be both feared and loved, but as it is difficult for the two to go together, it is much safer to be feared than loved, if one of the two has to be wanting. For it may be said of men in general that they are ungrateful, voluble, dissemblers, anxious to avoid danger, and covetous of gain; as long as you benefit them, they are entirely yours; they offer you their blood, their goods, their life, and their children, as I have before said, when the necessity is remote; but when it approaches, they revolt. And the prince who has relied solely on their words, without making other preparations, is ruined. . . . For love is held by a chain of obligation which, men being selfish, is broken whenever it serves their purpose; but fear is maintained by a dread of punishment which never fails.