The world is still deceived with ornament,
   In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt,
   But, being seasoned with a gracious voice,
   Obscures the show of evil?  In religion,
   What damned error, but some sober brow
   Will bless it and approve it with a text,
   Hiding the grossness with fair ornament?
Merchant of Venice, Act iii.  Sc. 2.  SHAKESPEARE.

   Think’st thou there are no serpents in the world
   But those who slide along the grassy sod. 
   And sting the luckless foot that presses them? 
   There are who in the path of social life
   Do bask their spotted skins in Fortune’s sun,
   And sting the soul.
De Montford, Act i.  Sc. 2.  J. BAILLIE.

   Hateful to me as are the gates of hell,
   Is he who, hiding one thing in his heart,
   Utters another.
The Iliad, Bk.  IX.  HOMER. Trans. of BRYANT.

   Oh, that deceit should steal such gentle shapes,
   And with a virtuous vizard hide foul guile!
K.  Richard III., Act ii.  Sc. 2.  SHAKESPEARE.

   Our better part remains
   To work in close design, by fraud or guile,
   What force effected not; that he no less
   At length from us may find, who overcomes
   By force hath overcome but half his foe.
Paradise Lost, Bk.  I.  MILTON.

   Appearances to save, his only care;
   So things seem right, no matter what they are.
Rosciad.  C. CHURCHILL.

Stamps God’s own name upon a lie just made,
To turn a penny in the way of trade.
Table Talk.  W. COWPER.

DEEDS.

                       From this moment,
  The very firstlings of my heart shall be
  The firstlings of my hand.  And even now,
  To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and done.
Macbeth, Act iv.  Sc. 1.  SHAKESPEARE.

Count that day lost whose low descending sun
Views from thy hand no worthy action done.
Staniford’s Art of Reading.  Author Unknown.

That low man seeks a little thing to do,
Sees it and does it;
This high man, with a great thing to pursue,
Dies ere he knows it.
A Grammarian’s Funeral.  R. BROWNING.

  ’Tis not what man Does which exalts him, but what man
      Would do.
 Saul, XVIII.  R. BROWNING.

   From lowest place when virtuous things proceed,
   The place is dignified by the doer’s deed.
All’s Well that Ends Well, Act ii.  Sc. 3.  SHAKESPEARE.

Little deeds of kindness, little words of love. 
Make our earth an Eden like the heaven above.
Little Things.  J.A.  CARNEY.

I profess not talking:  only this,
Let each man do his best.
Henry IV., Pt.  I. Act v.  Sc. 2.  SHAKESPEARE.

                            Things done well. 
   And with a care, exempt themselves from fear;
   Things done without example, in their issue
   Are to be feared.
Henry VIII.  Act i.  Sc. 2.  SHAKESPEARE.