Virtue itself scapes not calumnious strokes.
Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful.
Sweet mercy is nobility’s true badge.
Give me that man that is not passion’s slave.
For he’s honourable, and doubling that, most holy.
Do but see his vice. ‘Tis to his virtue a just equinox, the one as long as the other.
There is no vice so simple but assumes some mark of virtue on his outward parts.
Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.
So thou be good, slander doth but approve thy worth the greater.
Small herbs have grace, great weeds do grow apace.
Most dangerous is that temptation that doth goad us on to sin in loving virtue.
Men’s evil manners live in brass; their virtues we write in water.
