This world is all a fleeting show,

For man's illusion given;

The smiles of joy, the tears of woe,

Deceitful shine, deceitful flow,—

There's nothing true but Heaven.

Thomas Moore (1779-1852): This World is all a fleeting Show.

Neither a borrower nor a lender be;

For loan oft loses both itself and friend,

And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.

This above all: to thine own self be true,

And it must follow, as the night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to any man.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 3.

The Lord descended from above

And bow'd the heavens high;

And underneath his feet he cast

The darkness of the sky.

On cherubs and on cherubims

Full royally he rode;

And on the wings of all the winds

Came flying all abroad.

Thomas Sternhold (Circa 1549): A Metrical Version of Psalm civ.

Choice word and measured phrase above the reach

Of ordinary men.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): Resolution and Independence. Stanza 14.

Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot

Which men call earth.

John Milton (1608-1674): Comus. Line 5.

Above the vulgar flight of common souls.

Arthur Murphy (1727-1805): Zenobia. Act v.

Beyond this vale of tears

There is a life above,

Unmeasured by the flight of years;

And all that life is love.

James Montgomery (1771-1854): The Issues of Life and Death.

But they that are above

Have ends in everything.

Beaumont And Fletcher: The Maid's Tragedy. Act v. Sc. 1.

'T is not so above;

There is no shuffling, there the action lies

In his true nature.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 3.