Oh, for _a forty-parson power_ to chant
Thy praise, Hypocrisy! Oh, for a hymn
Loud as the virtues thou dost loudly vaunt,
Not practise!
_Don Juan, Canto X_. LORD BYRON.
For neither man nor angel can discern
Hypocrisy, the only evil that walks
Invisible, except to God alone,
By his permissive will, through heaven and earth.
_Paradise Lost, Bk. III_. MILTON.
Away, and mock the time with fairest show;
False face must hide what the false heart doth know.
_Macbeth, Act i. Sc. 7_. SHAKESPEARE.
O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face!
Did ever a dragon keep so fair a cave?
_Romeo and Juliet, Act iii. Sc. 2_. SHAKESPEARE.
Dissembling courtesy! How fine this tyrant
Can tickle where she wounds!
_Cymbeline, Act i. Sc. 1_. SHAKESPEARE.
She that asks
Her dear five hundred friends, contemns them all,
And hates their coming.
_The Task, Bk. II_. W. COWPER.
He seemed
For dignity composed and high exploit:
But all was false and hollow.
_Paradise Lost, Bk. II_. MILTON.
He was a man
Who stole the livery of the court of Heaven
To serve the Devil in.
_Course of Time, Bk. VIII_ R. POLLOK.
The Devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
An evil soul, producing holy witness,
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek,
A goodly apple rotten at the heart.
O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!
_Merchant of Venice, Act i. Sc. 3_. SHAKESPEARE.
But then I sigh, and with a piece of Scripture
Tell them that God bids us do good for evil:
And thus I clothe my naked villany
With odd old ends stol'n forth of holy writ,
And seem a saint when most I play the devil.
_King Richard III., Act i. Sc. 3_. SHAKESPEARE.
O villain, villain, smiling damnèd villain!
My tables,--meet it is I set it down,
That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain.
_Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 5_. SHAKESPEARE.
That practised falsehood under saintly shew,
Deep malice to conceal, couched with revenge.
_Paradise Lost, Bk. IV_. MILTON.
Built God a church, and laughed his word to scorn.
_Retirement_. W. COWPER.
And the devil did grin, for his darling sin
Is pride that apes humility.
_The Devil's Thoughts_. S.T. COLERIDGE.
O, what may man within him hide,
Though angel on the outward side!
_Measure for Measure, Act iii. Sc. 2_. SHAKESPEARE.
'Tis too much proved--that with devotion's visage
And pious action we do sugar o'er
The devil himself.
_Hamlet, Act iii, Sc. 1_. SHAKESPEARE.
I waive the quantum o' the sin,
The hazard of concealing:
But, och! it hardens a' within,
And petrifies the feeling.
_Epistle to a Young Friend_. R. BURNS.