plead quotes

   Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend With thee; but, sir, so what I plead is just. Why do sinners' ways prosper? and why must Disappointment all I endeavour end?

-Gerard Manley Hopkins
  'Thou art indeed just, Lord'.

But when I plead, she bids me play my part, And when I weep, she says tears are but water: And when I sigh, she says I know the art, And when I wail, she turns herself to laughter.

- Edmund Spenser
  Amoretti, sonnet18.