Assume a virtue, if you have it not.

That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat,

Of habits devil, is angel yet in this.

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

There's no such thing in Nature; and you 'll draw

A faultless monster which the world ne'er saw.

Sheffield, Duke Of Buckinghamshire (1649-1720): Essay on Poetry.

O, beware, my lord, of jealousy!

It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock

The meat it feeds on.

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

The monster London laugh at me.

Abraham Cowley (1618-1667): Of Solitude, xi.

This many-headed monster.

Philip Massinger (1584-1640): The Roman Actor. Act iii. Sc. 2.

Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,

As to be hated needs but to be seen;

Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,

We first endure, then pity, then embrace.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Essay on Man. Epistle ii. Line 217.