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Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.

World

O, how full of briers is this working-day world!
Shakespeare.—As You Like It, Act I. Scene 3. (Rosalind to Celia.)

They most the world enjoy, who least admire.
Dr. Young.—Night VIII. Line 1173.

To know the world, not love her, is thy point;
She gives but little, nor that little long.
Dr. Young.—Night VIII. Virtue’s Apology, Line 1276.

I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano;
A stage, where every man must play a part,
And mine a sad one.
Shakespeare.—Merchant of Venice, Act I. Scene 1. (Antonio to Gratiano.)

All this world’s noise appears to me
A dull ill-acted comedy.
Cowley.—The Despair, v. 3.

Such stuff the world is made of.
Cowper.—Hope, Line 211.

The world was all before them, where to choose
Their place of rest, and Providence their guide.
Milton.—Paradise Lost, Book XII. Line 646.

Allured to brighter worlds, and led the way.
Goldsmith.—Deserted Village, Line 170.

What is the world to them,
Its pomp, its pleasure, and its nonsense all?
Thomson.—Spring, Line 1134.

For still the world prevail’d, and its dread laugh,
Which scarce the firm philosopher can scorn.
Thomson.—Autumn, Line 233.

O who would trust this world, or prize what’s in it,
That gives and takes, and chops and changes, ev’ry minute?
Quarles.—Book I. No. IX. Stanza 5.

Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change.
Tennyson.—Locksley Hall, Verse 91.

The world is a bundle of hay
Mankind are the asses who pull;
Each tugs it a different way,
And the greatest of all is John Bull.
Byron.—An Epigram.

I am sick of this bad world!
The daylight and the sun grow painful to me.
Addison.—Cato, Act IV.

’Tis a busy, talking world,
That, with licentious breath, blows like the wind
As freely on the palace as the cottage.
Rowe.—The Fair Penitent, Act III. Scene 1.

O, what a world is this, when what is comely
Envenoms him that bears it!
Shakespeare.—As You Like It, Act II. Scene 3. (Adam to Orlando.)

The world is ashamed of being virtuous.
Sterne.—Tristram Shandy, Vol. VIII. Chap. XXVII.

For he who gave this vast machine to roll,
Breathed Life in them, in us a reasoning Soul;
That kindred feelings might our state improve,
And mutual wants conduct to mutual love.
Juvenal.—Sat. XV. Line 150. (Gifford.)

The world, defrauded of the high design,
Profaned the God-given strength, and marred the lofty line.
Scott.—Marmion, Intro. to Canto I. Line 282.

O what a glory doth this world put on,
For him who with a fervent heart goes forth,
Under the bright and glorious sky, and looks
On duties well performed and days well spent.
Longfellow.—Autumn (Earlier Poems.)

I am one, my liege,
Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world
Have so incens’d, that I am reckless what
I do, to spite the world.
Shakespeare.—Macbeth, Act III. Scene 1. (The Second Murderer to Macbeth.)

Why, then, the world’s mine oyster,
Which I with sword will open.
Shakespeare.—Merry Wives of Windsor, Act II. Scene 2. (Pistol to Falstaff.)

A mad world, my masters.
Middleton.—A Play.

He who for scorn had daffed the world aside.
Ariosto.—Orlando Furioso, Canto XIV. Stanza 41. (Rose’s Transl.)

The world knows nothing of its greatest men.
Henry Taylor.—Philip Van Artevelde, Act I. Scene 5.

Ah! world unknown! how charming is thy view,
Thy pleasures many, and each pleasure new:
Ah!—world experienc’d! what of thee is told?
How few thy pleasures, and those few how old!
Crabbe.—The Borough, Letter 24.

What is this world?
What but a spacious burial-field unwall’d:
The very turf on which we tread once lived.
Blair.—The Grave, Line 483.

Me seems the world is run quite out of square
From the first point of his appointed source;
And being once amiss grows daily worse and worse.
Spenser.—Fairy Queen, Book V. Verse 1.

Nor is this world but a huge inn,
And men the rambling passengers.
Howell.—A Poem, Page 9.

And the whole earth would henceforth be
A wider prison unto me.
Byron.—Prisoner of Chillon, Div. XII.

The world’s at an end—What’s to be done, Jasper?
Garrick.—Miss in her Teens, Act II.

There is another and a better world.
Kotzebue.—The Stranger, Act I. Scene 1. (Thompson.)