O, how thy worth with manners may I sing
When thou art all the better part of me?
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O, how thy worth with manners may I sing
When thou art all the better part of me?
What can mine own praise to mine own self bring,
And what is't but mine own when I praise thee?

Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow;
The rest is all but leather and prunello.

Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow;
The rest is all but leather and prunello.

This mournful truth is everywhere confess'd,
Slow rises worth by poverty depress'd.

This mournful truth is everywhere confess'd,
Slow rises worth by poverty depress'd.

Too good for great things and too great for good.

Too good for great things and too great for good.

'Tis fortune gives us birth,
But Jove alone endues the soul with worth.

'Tis fortune gives us birth,
But Jove alone endues the soul with worth.

It is easier to appear worthy of a position one does not hold,
than of the office which one read more

It is easier to appear worthy of a position one does not hold,
than of the office which one fills.
[Fr., Il est plus facile de paraitre digne des emplois qu'on n'a
pas que de ceux que l'on exerce.]

I care not twopence.

I care not twopence.

It is a maxim, that those to whom everybody allows the second
place have an undoubted title to the read more

It is a maxim, that those to whom everybody allows the second
place have an undoubted title to the first.

One suggestion with a spark of truth is worth a hundred repetitions of sound platitudes.

One suggestion with a spark of truth is worth a hundred repetitions of sound platitudes.