I am thy father's spirit,
Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night,
And for the day confin'd to fast in fires,
Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature
Are burnt and purg'd away. But that I am forbid
To tell the secrets of my prison-house,
I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word
Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,
Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres,
Thy knotted and combined locks to part
And each particular hair to stand an end,
Like quills upon the fretful porpentine:
But this eternal blazon must not be
To ears of flesh and blood. List, list, O, list!
With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May.
Tremble, thou wretch,
That hast within thee undivulged crimes,
Unwhipp'd of justice.
The atrocious crime of being a young man, which the honourable gentleman has with such spirit and decency charged upon me, I shall neither attempt to palliate nor deny; but content myself with wishing that I may be one of those whose follies may cease with their youth, and not of that number who are ignorant in spite of experience.
One murder made a villain,
Millions a hero. Princes were privileged
To kill, and numbers sanctified the crime.
The reign of Antoninus is marked by the rare advantage of furnishing very few materials for history, which is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.
Small habits well pursued betimes
May reach the dignity of crimes.
Too late I stayed,--forgive the crime!
Unheeded flew the hours;
How noiseless falls the foot of time
That only treads on flowers.
That kill the bloom before its time,
And blanch, without the owner's crime,
The most resplendent hair.
Know ye the land where the cypress and myrtle
Are emblems of deeds that are done in their clime;
Where the rage of the vulture, the love of the turtle,
Now melt into sorrow, now madden to crime?
He left a corsair's name to other times,
Link'd with one virtue and a thousand crimes.
Debt is the prolific mother of folly and of crime.
The poor must be wisely visited and liberally cared for, so that mendicity shall not be tempted into mendacity, nor want exasperated into crime.
The curious crime, the fine
Felicity and flower of wickedness.
My object all sublime
I shall achieve in time--
To let the punishment fit the crime.
Where it is a duty to worship the sun it is pretty sure to be a crime to examine the laws of heat.
Successful and fortunate crime is called virtue.
Cato instigated the magistrates to punish all offenders, saying that they that did not prevent crimes when they might, encouraged them. Of young men, he liked them that blushed better than those who looked pale.
History is little else than a picture of human crimes and misfortunes.
O Liberty! Liberty! how many crimes are committed in thy name!
It is more than a crime; it is a political fault," --words which I record, because they have been repeated and attributed to others.
He wasn't negative. Is that a crime? Is it a crime to live? He bade us live.
Destiny: A tyrant's authority for crime and a fool's excuse for failure.
He who allows oppression, shares the crime.
Those who are incapable of committing great crimes do not readily suspect them in others.