The end crowns all,

And that old common arbitrator, Time,

Will one day end it.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Troilus and Cressida. Act iv. Sc. 5.

All love is sweet,

Given or returned. Common as light is love,

And its familiar voice wearies not ever.

 .   .   .   .   .

They who inspire it most are fortunate,

As I am now; but those who feel it most

Are happier still.

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822): Prometheus Unbound. Act ii. Sc. 5.

The common curse of mankind,—folly and ignorance.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Troilus and Cressida. Act ii. Sc. 3.

The common growth of Mother Earth

Suffices me,—her tears, her mirth,

Her humblest mirth and tears.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): Peter Bell. Prologue. Stanza 27.

He nothing common did, or mean,

Upon that memorable scene.

Andrew Marvell (1620-1678): Upon Cromwell's return from Ireland.

I am not in the roll of common men.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 1.

'T is education forms the common mind:

Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Moral Essays. Epistle i. Line 149.

Tender-handed stroke a nettle,

And it stings you for your pains;

Grasp it like a man of mettle,

And it soft as silk remains.

'T is the same with common natures:

Use 'em kindly, they rebel;

But be rough as nutmeg-graters,

And the rogues obey you well.

Aaron Hill (1685-1750): Verses written on a window in Scotland.

It is no act of common passage, but

A strain of rareness.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Cymbeline. Act iii. Sc. 4.

You meaner beauties of the night,

That poorly satisfy our eyes

More by your number than your light;

You common people of the skies,—

What are you when the moon shall rise?

Sir Henry Wotton (1568-1639): On his Mistress, the Queen of Bohemia.

Above the vulgar flight of common souls.

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

The meanest floweret of the vale,

The simplest note that swells the gale,

The common sun, the air, the skies,

To him are opening paradise.

Thomas Gray (1716-1771): Ode on the Pleasure arising from Vicissitude. Line 53.

The trivial round, the common task,

Would furnish all we ought to ask.

John Keble (1792-1866): Morning.

With too much quickness ever to be taught;

With too much thinking to have common thought.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Moral Essays. Epistle ii. Line 97.

The languages, especially the dead,

The sciences, and most of all the abstruse,

The arts, at least all such as could be said

To be the most remote from common use.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: Don Juan. Canto i. Stanza 40.

The chamber where the good man meets his fate

Is privileg'd beyond the common walk

Of virtuous life, quite in the verge of heaven.

Edward Young (1684-1765): Night thoughts. Night ii. Line 633.

Milton! thou should'st be living at this hour:

England hath need of thee!

 .   .   .   .   .

Thy soul was like a star, and dwelt apart:

So didst thou travel on life's common way

In cheerful godliness.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): London, 1802.

Rich in saving common-sense,

And, as the greatest only are,

In his simplicity sublime.

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892): Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington. Stanza 4.