It is a great sin to swear unto a sin,
But greater sin to keep a sinful oath.
Or, having sworn too hard a keeping oath,
Study to break it and not break my troth.
What fool is not so wise
To lose an oath to win a paradise?
An oath, an oath, I have an oath in heaven:
Shall I lay perjury upon my soul?
No, not for Venice.
Merchant of Venice. Act IV. Sc. 1. L. 228
I'll take thy word for faith, not ask thine oath;
Who shuns not to break one will sure crack both.
Pericles. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 120.
I write a woman's oaths in water.
Sophocles—Fragment. 694.
OBEDIENCE
Obedience is the mother of success, the wife of
safety.
Æschylus—Septem. Duces. 224.
| author =
| work =
| place =
| note =
| topic =
| page = 564
}}
{{Hoyt quote
| num = 5
| text = The fear of some divine and supreme powers
keeps men in obedience.
| author = Burton
| work = Anatomy of Melancholy.
| place = Pt. III.
Sec. 4. Memb. 1. Subsec. 2.
Qui modeste paret, videtur qui aliquando
imperet dignus esse.
He who obeys with modesty appears
worthy of being some day a commander.
Cicero—De Legibus. III. 2.
Tis the same, with common natures,
Use 'em kindly, they rebel,
But, be rough as nutmeg graters,
And the rogues obey you well.
Aabon Hill—Verses written on a Window in a
Journey to Scotland.
All arts his own, the hungry Greekling counts;
And bid him mount the skies, the skies he mounts.
JirvENAii—Third Satire. Trans, by Gifford.
All sciences a fasting Monsieur knows ;
And bid him go to hell—to hell he goes.
Juvenal—Third Satire. Paraphrased by
Johnson—London.
No nice extreme a true Italian knows;
But bid him go to hell, to hell he goes.
Juvenal—Third Satire. Paraphrased by
Phillips, in a letter to the king in reference
to the Italian witnesses at the trial of
Queen Caroline.
Obedience is the key to every door.
George MacDonald—The Marquis of Lossie.
Ch.LHI.
I find the doing of the will of God, leaves
me no time for disputing about His plans.
George MacDonald—The Marquis of Lossie.
Ch. LXXII.
Son of Heav'n and Earth,
Attend! That thou art happy, owe to God;
That thou continuest such, owe to thyself,
That is, to thy obedience; therein stand.
| author = Milton
| work = Paradise Lost.
| place = Bk. V. L. 519.
Ascend, I follow thee, safe guide, the path
Thou lead'st me, and to the hand of heav'n
submit.
| author = Milton
| work = Paradise Lost.
| place = Bk. XI. L. 371.
| note =
| topic =
| page = 564
}}
{{Hoyt quote
| num =
| text = Though a god I have learned to obey the times.
| author = Palladas
| work = Epigram.
| place =
| note = In Palatine Anthology. IX. 441.
| topic =
| page = 564
}}
{{Hoyt quote
| num =
| text = <poem>Through obedience learn to command.
Founded on a passage in Plato—Leges.
762 E. Same idea in Pliny—Letters.
VIII. 14. 5.
The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the
valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles
shall eat it.
Proverbs. XXX. 17.
Obedience decks the Christian most.
Schiller—Fight with the Dragon. Bowbing's trans.
Let them obey that know not how to rule.
Henry VI. Pt.II. Act V. Sc. 1. L. 6.
It fits thee not to ask the reason why,
Because we bid it.
Pericles. Act I. Sc. 1. L. 157.
One so small
Who knowing nothing knows but to obey.
| author = Tennyson
| work = Idylls of the King. Guinevere.
L. 183.
OBLIVION
| seealso = (See also Forgetfulness)
| topic =
| page = 564
}}
{{Hoyt quote
| num =
| text = <poem>Oblivion is not to be hired.
Sir Thomas Browne—Hydriotaphia. Ch. V.
For those sacred powers
Tread on oblivion: no desert of ours
Can be entombed in their celestial breasts.
Wm. Browne—Britannia's Pastorals. Bk.
III. Song II. St. 23.
It is not in the storm nor in the strife
We feel benumb 'd, and wish to be no more,
But in the after-silence on the shore,
When all is lost, except a little life.
Without oblivion, there is no remembrance possible. When both oblivion and memory are wise, when the general soul of man is clear, melodious, true, there may come a modern Iliad as memorial of the Past.
