What is got over the devil's back is spent under his belly.

What is got over the devil's back is spent under his belly.

But pleasures are like poppies spread:
You seize the flower,--its bloom is shed.

But pleasures are like poppies spread:
You seize the flower,--its bloom is shed.

Strike the iron whilst it is hot.

Strike the iron whilst it is hot.

The wise man sets bounds even to his innocent desires.

The wise man sets bounds even to his innocent desires.

The thought hath good leggs, and the quill a good tongue.

The thought hath good leggs, and the quill a good tongue.

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied read more

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.

Blest tears of soul-felt penitence!
In whose benign, redeeming flow
Is felt the first, the only sense
read more

Blest tears of soul-felt penitence!
In whose benign, redeeming flow
Is felt the first, the only sense
Of guiltless joy that guilt can know.

The mind flies back with a grand recoil
From debts not due till to-morrow.

The mind flies back with a grand recoil
From debts not due till to-morrow.

He that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that, which not enriches him,
And read more

He that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that, which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.