Modest doubt is called
The beacon of the wise.
_Troilus and Cressida, Act ii. Sc. 2_. SHAKESPEARE.
Who never doubted, never half believed,
Where doubt there truth is--'tis her shadow.
_Festus: Sc. A Country Town_. P.J. BAILEY.
Uncertain ways unsafest are,
And doubt a greater mischief than despair.
_Cooper's Hill_. SIR J. DENHAM.
But the gods are dead--
Ay, Zeus is dead, and all the gods but Doubt,
And Doubt is brother devil to Despair!
_Prometheus: Christ_. J.B. O'REILLY.
Our doubts are traitors
And make us lose the good we oft might win
By fearing to attempt.
_Measure for Measure, Act i. Sc. 4_. SHAKESPEARE.
But now, I am cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in
To saucy doubts and fears.
_Macbeth, Act iii. Sc. 4_. SHAKESPEARE.
Attempt the end, and never stand to doubt;
Nothing's so hard but search will find it out.
_Seek and Find_. R. HERRICK.
Dubious is such a scrupulous good man--
Yes--you may catch him tripping if you can,
He would not, with a peremptory tone,
Assert the nose upon his face his own;
With hesitation admirably slow,
He humbly hopes--presumes--it may be so.
_Conversation_. W. COWPER.
But there are wanderers o'er Eternity
Whose bark drives on and on, and anchored ne'er shall be.
_Childe Harold, Canto III_. LORD BYRON.
The wound of peace is surety,
Surety secure; but modest doubt is called
The beacon of the wise, the tent that searches
To the bottom of the worst.
_Troilus and Cressida, Act ii. Sc. 2_. SHAKESPEARE.