'twere Quotes
More 'twere Quotes
With aching hands and bleeding feet We dig and heap, lay stone on stone; We bear the burden and the heat Of the long day, and wish 'twere done. Not till the hours of light return, All we have built do we discern.
Matthew Arnold— 1852 Empedocles on Etna and Other Poems,'Morality'.
'Twas beyond a mortal's share To wander solitary there: Two paradises 'twere in one To live in paradise alone.
Andrew Marvell— c.1650-1652 'The Garden' (published1681), stanza 8.
O that 'twere possible After long grief and pain To find the arms of my true love Round me once again!
Tennyson— 1855 Maud, pt.2, sect.4, stanza1, l.141-4.
Weep not that the world changes—did it keepA stable, changeless state, 'twere cause indeed to weep.
william cullen bryant— Mutation. A Sonnet.
Who is the happiest of men? He who values the merits of others, And in their pleasure takes joy, even as though 'twere his own. Not in the morning alone, not only at mid-day he charmeth; Even at setting, the sun is still the same glorious planet.
— "Distichs" in The Poems of Goethe (1853) as translated in the original metres by Edgar Alfred Bowring
Methinks the truth should live from age to age, As 'twere retail'd to all posterity, Even to the general all-ending day.
william shakespeare— William Shakespeare, Richard III (c. 1591), Act III, scene 1, line 76.
If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well It were done quickly.
william shakespeare— William Shakespeare, Macbeth (1605 ), Act I, scene vii, line 1.
If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well It were done quickly. If the assassination Could trammel up the consequence, and catch, With his surcease, success; that but this blow Might be the be-all and the end-all here, But here, upon this bank and shoal of time, We'd jump the life to come. But in these cases We still have judgement here; that we but teach Bloody instructions, which being taught, return To plague the inventor: this even-handed justice Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice To our own lips.
william shakespeare— William Shakespeare, in the first use of the word "assassination" in Macbeth (c. 1605)
It engenders choler, planteth anger; And better 'twere that both of us did fast, Since, of ourselves, ourselves are choleric, Than feed it with such over-roasted flesh.
william shakespeare— William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew (c. 1593-94), Act IV, scene 1, line 175.
Oh! I have pass'd a miserable night, So full of ugly sights, of ghastly dreams, That, as I am a Christian faithful man, I would not spend another such a night, Though 'twere to buy a world of happy days.
william shakespeare— William Shakespeare, Richard III (c. 1591), Act I, scene 4, line 2.
Do I? yea, in very truth do I, An 'twere an aspen leaf.
william shakespeare— William Shakespeare, II Henry IV, Act II, scene 4, line 117.
Nay, then, what flames are these that leap and swell As 'twere to show, where earth's foundations crack, The secrets of the sepulchres of hell On Dante's track?
algernon charles swinburne— Algernon Charles Swinburne, In Guernsey, Part IV, Stanza 3.
Nothing in his life Became him like the leaving it; he died As one that had been studied in his death, To throw away the dearest thing he ow'd, As 'twere a careless trifle.
— Malcolm, Scene IV
As virtuous men pass mildly away, And whisper to their souls, to go, Whilst some of their sad friends do say, The breath goes now, and some say, no: 280 So let us melt, and make no noise, No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move; 'twere profanation of our joys To tell the laity of our love.
john donne— c.1595-1605 'A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning', collected in Songs and Sonnets (1633).
As in a month you've got to die If Ko-Ko tells us true, 'twere empty compliment to cry 'Long life to Nanki-Poo!' But as one month you have to live As fellow-citizen, This toast with three times three we'll give 'Long life to youtill then!'
Sir W(illiam) S(chwenck) Gilbert— 1885 Pooh-Bah's solo, The Mikado, act1.
You say, as I have often given tongue In praise of what another's said or sung, 'twere politic to do the like by these; But was there ever dog that praised his fleas?
— 1909 'To a Poet, who would have me Praise certain Bad Poets, Imitators of His and Mine', complete poem. Collected in The Green Helmet and Other Poems (1910).
You say, as I have often given tongue In praise of what another's said or sung, 'twere politic to do the like by these; But was there ever a dog that praised his fleas?
William Butler Yeats— To A Poet, Who Would Have Me Praise Certain Bad Poets, Imitators of His and Mine
And the world's so rich in resplendent eyes, 'twere a pity to limit one's love to a pair.
thomas moore— Thomas Moore, 'Tis Sweet to Think.
'twere better to be born a stone Of ruder shape, and feeling none, Than with a tenderness like mine And sensibilities so fine! Ah, hapless wretch! condemn'd to dwell Forever in my native shell, Ordained to move when others please, Not for my own content or ease; But toss'd and buffeted about, Now in the water and now out.
william cowper— William Cowper, The Poet, the Oyster and Sensitive Plant; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 575.
If it were now to die, 'twere now to be most happy; for I fear My soul hath her content so absolute That not another comfort like to this Succeeds in unknown fate.
william shakespeare— William Shakespeare, Othello (c. 1603), Act II, scene 1, line 191.
'twere to consider too curiously, to consider so.
william shakespeare— William Shakespeare, Hamlet (1600-02), Act V, scene 1.
Why, courage, then! what cannot be avoided, 'twere childish weakness to lament or fear.
— Queen Margaret, scene iv
Gentle powers, forbear! Twere worse than all my miseries foreseen Should my huge wreck suck down the friendly skiffs That proffer'd aid. Oh! would that Jupiter Had hurl'd me to the deep of Erebus, Where neither god nor man might pity me.
hartley coleridge— Prometheus, fragment of an unfinished play, written c. 1820.
Twere better far That gods should quaff their nectar merrily, And men sing out the day like grasshoppers, So may they haply lull the watchful thunder.
hartley coleridge— Hartley Coleridge, Poems (1851), "Prometheus".
