Measure for Measure

• O! it is excellent to have a giant's strength, but it is tyrannous to use it like a giant. (Isabella, II.ii)

• Let me be ignorant, and in nothing good, but graciously to know I am no better. (Isabella, II.iv)

• They say, best men are moulded out of faults: And, for the most, become much more the better, for being a little bad. (Mariana, V.i)

• We have strict statutes and most biting laws. The needful bits and curbs to headstrong weeds. Which for this nineteen years we have let slip; Even like an o'ergrown lion in a cave, that does not go out to prey. Now, as fond fathers, having bound up the threatening twigs of birch, Only to stick it in their children's sight For terror, not to use, in time the rod Becomes more mocked than feared; so our decrees, Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead; And liberty plucks justice by the nose; The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart goes all decorum. (Duke Vincentio, I.iii)

• Our doubts are traitors, And make us lose the good we oft might win, By fearing to attempt. (Lucio, I.iv)