John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.
Page 141
| William Shakespeare. (1564–1616) (continued) |
| 1639 |
| A king of shreds and patches. |
| Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 4. |
| 1640 |
| Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works. |
| Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 4. |
| 1641 |
| How is ’t with you, That you do bend your eye on vacancy? |
| Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 4. |
| 1642 |
| This is the very coinage of your brain: This bodiless creation ecstasy Is very cunning in. |
| Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 4. |
| 1643 |
| Bring me to the test, And I the matter will re-word; which madness Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace, Lay not that flattering unction to your soul. |
| Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 4. |
| 1644 |
| Confess yourself to heaven; Repent what’s past; avoid what is to come. |
| Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 4. |
| 1645 |
| Assume a virtue, if you have it not. That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat, Of habits devil, is angel yet in this. |
| Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 4. |
| 1646 |
| Refrain to-night, And that shall lend a kind of easiness To the next abstinence: the next more easy; For use almost can change the stamp of nature. |
| Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 4. |
| 1647 |
| I must be cruel, only to be kind: Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind. |
| Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 4. |
| 1648 |
| For ’t is the sport to have the enginer Hoist with his own petar. |
| Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 4. |
| 1649 |
| Diseases desperate grown By desperate appliance are relieved, Or not at all. 1 |
| Hamlet. Act iv. Sc. 3. |
| 1650 |
| A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm. |
| Hamlet. Act iv. Sc. 3. |
| Note 1. Extreme remedies are very appropriate for extreme disease.—Hippocrates: Aphorism i. [back] |