Virtuous and vicious every man must be,—

Few in the extreme, but all in the degree.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Essay on Man. Epistle ii. Line 231.

Who love too much, hate in the like extreme,

And both the golden mean alike condemn.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Odyssey of Homer. Book xv. Line 79.

I have done the state some service, and they know 't.

No more of that. I pray you, in your letters,

When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,

Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate,

Nor set down aught in malice. Then, must you speak

Of one that loved not wisely but too well;

Of one not easily jealous, but being wrought

Perplex'd in the extreme; of one whose hand,

Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away

Richer than all his tribe; of one whose subdued eyes,

Albeit unused to the melting mood,

Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees

Their medicinal gum.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Othello. Act v. Sc. 2.