Be stirring as the time: be fire with fire:
Threaten the threatener and outface the brow
Of bragging horror: so shall inferior eyes,
That borrow their behaviors from the great,
Grow great by your example and put on
The dauntless spirit of resolution.
_King John, Act v. Sc. 1_. SHAKESPEARE.
My resolution 's placed, and I have nothing
Of woman in me: now from head to foot
I am marble--constant.
_Antony and Cleopatra, Act v. Sc. 2_. SHAKESPEARE.
When two
Join in the same adventure, one perceives
Before the other how they ought to act;
While one alone, however prompt, resolves
More tardily and with a weaker will.
_Iliad, Bk. X_. HOMER. _Trans. of_ BRYANT.
I pull in resolution, and begin
To doubt the equivocation of the fiend
That lies like truth: "Fear not, till Birnam wood
Do come to Dunsinane."
_Macbeth, Act v. Sc. 5_. SHAKESPEARE.
In life's small things be resolute and great
To keep thy muscle trained: know'st thou when Fate
Thy measure takes, or when she'll say to thee,
"I find thee worthy; do this deed for me"?
_Epigram_. J.R. LOWELL.