Careful Words

affairs (n.)

Friendship is constant in all other things

Save in the office and affairs of love:

Therefore all hearts in love use their own tongues;

Let every eye negotiate for itself

And trust no agent.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Much Ado about Nothing. Act ii. Sc. 1.

  That the gods superintend all the affairs of men, and that there are such beings as daemons.

Diogenes Laertius (Circa 200 a d): Plato. xlii.

There is a tide in the affairs of men

Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;

Omitted, all the voyage of their life

Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Julius Caesar. Act iv. Sc. 3.

  He said they that were serious in ridiculous matters would be ridiculous in serious affairs.

Plutarch (46(?)-120(?) a d): Roman Apophthegms. Cato the Elder.