Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud;
Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun,
And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud.
All men make faults.
_Sonnet XXXV_. SHAKESPEARE.
Men still had faults, and men will have them still;
He that hath none, and lives as angels do,
Must be an angel.
_On Mr. Dryden's Religio Laici_. W. DILLON.
Go to your bosom;
Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know
That's like my brother's fault.
_Measure for Measure, Act ii. Sc_. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
And oftentimes excusing of a fault
Doth make the fault the worse by the excuse,
As patches, set upon a little breach,
Discredit more in hiding of the fault
Than did the fault before it was so patched.
_King John, Act iv. Sc_. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
Condemn the fault, and not the actor of it?
Why, every fault's condemned ere it be done.
Mine were the very cipher of a function,
To fine the faults whose fine stands in record,
And let go by the actor.
_Measure for Measure, Act ii. Sc_. 2. SHAKESPEARE.