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Deeds: Quotations from Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations

Who doth right deeds Is twice born, and who doeth ill deeds vile. C.— EDWIN ARNOLD — Light of Asia. Bk. VI. L. 78.

All your better deeds Shall be in water writ, but this in marble. BEAUMONT and FLETCHER-Philaster. Act V. Sc. 3. 'Tis not what man Does which exalts him, but what man Would do.— ROBERT BROWNING — Saul. XVIII.

For now the field is not far off Where we must give the world a proof Of deeds, not words.— BUTLER — Hudibras. Pt. I. Canto I. L. 867.

His deedes inimitable, like the Sea That shuts still as it opes, and leaves no tracts Nor prints of Precedent for poore men's facts.— GEORGE CHAPMAN — Bussy D'Ambois. Act I. Sc. 1.

So our lives In acts exemplarie, not only winne Ourselves good Names, but doth to others give Matter for virtuous Deedes, by which wee live.— GEORGE CHAPMAN — Bussy D'Ambois. Act I. Sc. 1.

This is the Thing that I was born to do.— SAMUEL DANIEL — Musophilus. St. 100.

Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.— GEORGE ELIOT — Adam Bede. Ch. XXIX.

Things of to-day? Deeds which are harvest for Eternity!— EBENEZER ELLIOTT — Hymn. L. 22.

Go put your creed into your deed, Nor speak with double tongue.— EMERSON — Ode. Concord. July 4, 1857.

For as one star another far exceeds, So souls in heaven are placed by their deeds.— ROBERT GREENE — A Maiden's Dream.

My hour at last has come; Yet not ingloriously or passively I die, but first will do some valiant deed, Of which mankind shall hear in after time.— HOMER — The Iliad. Bk. XXII.

Bryant's trans. Oh! 'tis easy To beget great deeds; but in the rearing of them- The threading in cold blood each mean detail, And furze brake of half-pertinent circumstance- There lies the self-denial.— CHARLES KINGSLEY — Saint's Tragedy. Act IV. Sc. 3.

We are our own fates. Our own deeds Are our doomsmen. Man's life was made Not for men's creeds, But men's actions. OWEN MEREDITH (Lord Lytton)- Lucile. Pt. II. Canto V. St. 8. I on the other side Us'd no ambition to commend my deeds; The deeds themselves, though mute, spoke loud the doer.— MILTON — Samson Agonistes. L. 246.

Nor think thou with wind Of aery threats to awe whom yet with deeds Thou canst not.— MILTON — Paradise Lost. Bk. VI. L. 282.

See golden days, fruitful of golden deeds, With joy and love triumphing. S.— MILTON — Paradise Lost. Bk. III. L. 336.

You do the deeds, And your ungodly deeds find me the words. MILTON'S trans. of Sophocles. Electra. L. 624. Little deeds of kindness, little words of love, Make our earth an Eden like the heaven above.— JULIA A. CARNEY — Little Things.

The deed I intend is great, But what, as yet, I know not.— OVID — Metamorphoses. Sandy's trans.

A mighty deed is like the Heaven's thunder, That wakes the nation's slumberers from their rest.

From lowest place when virtuous things proceed, The place is dignified by the doer's deed : Where great additions swell's and virtue none, It is a dropsied honour. Good alone Is good without a name.— Shakespeare — All's Well That Ends Well. Act II. Sc. 3. L. 132.

Go in, and cheer the town: we'll forth and fight; Do deeds worth praise and tell you them at night.— Shakespeare — Troilus and Cressida. Act V. Sc. 3. L. 92.

He covets less Than misery itself would give; rewards His deeds with doing them, and is content To spend the time to end it.— Shakespeare — Coriolanus. Act II. Sc. 2. L. 130.

How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.— Shakespeare — Merchant of Venice. Act V. Sc. 1. L. 90.

I am in this earthly world; where to do harm, Is often laudable, to do good sometime Accounted dangerous folly.— Shakespeare — Macbeth. Act IV. Sc. 2. L. 75.

I give thee thanks in part of thy deserts, And will with deeds requite thy gentleness.— Shakespeare — Titus Andronicus. Act I. Sc. 1. L. 236.

I never saw Such noble fury in so poor a thing; Such precious deeds in one that promis'd nought But beggary and poor looks.— Shakespeare — Cymbeline. Act V. Sc. 5. L. 7.

One good deed dying tongueless Slaughters a thousand waiting upon that. Our praises are our wages.— Shakespeare — Winter's Tale. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 92.

The flighty purpose never is o'ertook, Unless the deed go with it.— Shakespeare — Macbeth. Act IV. Sc. 1. L. 146.

They look into the beauty of thy mind, And that, in guess, they measure by thy deeds.— Shakespeare — Sonnet LXIX.

Acta deos nunquam mortalia fallunt. The deeds of men never escape the gods.— OVID — Tristium. I. 2. 97.

Di pia facta vident. The gods see the deeds of the righteous.— OVID — Fasti. II. 117.

Ipse decor, recti facti si præmia desint, Non movet. Men do not value a good deed unless it brings a reward.— OVID — Epistolæ Ex Ponto. II. 3. 13.

Respue quod non es. Do not attempt to do what you cannot. S.— PERSIUS — Satiræ. IV. 51.

Nequam illud verbum est, Bene vult, nisi qui benefacit. "He wishes well" is worthless, unless the deed go with it.— PLAUTUS — Trinummus. II. 4. 38.

Nemo beneficia in calendario scribit. Nobody makes an entry of his good deeds in his day-book.— SENECA — De Beneficiis. I. 2.

Les belles actions cachées sont les plus estimables. Noble deeds that are concealed are most esteemed.— PASCAL — Pensées. I. IX. 21.

Quelque éclatante que soit une action, elle ne doit pas passer pour grande, lorsqu'elle n'est pas l'effet d'un grand dessein. However resplendent an action may be, it should not be accounted great unless it is the result of a great design.— LA ROCHEFOUCAULD — Maximes. 160.

Und künftige Thaten drangen wie die Sterne Rings um uns her unzählig aus der Nacht. And future deeds crowded round us as the countless stars in the night.— GOETHE — Iphigenia auf Tauris. II.

1. 121. Wer gar zu viel bedenkt wird wenig leisten. He who considers too much will perform little.— SCHILLER — Wilhelm Tell. III. 1.