passion (n.)

So on the tip of his subduing tongue

All kinds of arguments and questions deep,

All replication prompt, and reason strong,

For his advantage still did wake and sleep.

To make the weeper laugh, the laugher weep,

He had the dialect and different skill,

Catching all passion in his craft of will.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): A Lover's Complaint. Line 120.

Chaos of thought and passion, all confused;

Still by himself abused or disabused;

Created half to rise, and half to fall;

Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;

Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled,—

The glory, jest, and riddle of the world.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Essay on Man. Epistle ii. Line 13.

We are ne'er like angels till our passion dies.

Thomas Dekker (1572-1632): The Honest Whore. Part ii. Act i. Sc. 2.

Misled by fancy's meteor ray,

By passion driven;

But yet the light that led astray

Was light from heaven.

Robert Burns (1759-1796): The Vision.

The sounding cataract

Haunted me like a passion; the tall rock,

The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood,

Their colours and their forms, were then to me

An appetite,—a feeling and a love,

That had no need of a remoter charm

By thoughts supplied, nor any interest

Unborrowed from the eye.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey.

On life's vast ocean diversely we sail,

Reason the card, but passion is the gale.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Essay on Man. Epistle ii. Line 107.

Where passion leads or prudence points the way.

Robert Lowth (1710-1787): Choice of Hercules, i.

Alas! it is not till time, with reckless hand, has torn out half the leaves from the Book of Human Life to light the fires of passion with from day to day, that man begins to see that the leaves which remain are few in number.

Henry W Longfellow (1807-1882): Hyperion. Book iv. Chap. viii.

May I govern my passion with absolute sway,

And grow wiser and better as my strength wears away.

Walter Pope (1630-1714): The Old Man's Wish.

For one heat, all know, doth drive out another,

One passion doth expel another still.

George Chapman (1557-1634): Monsieur D'Olive. Act v. Sc. 1.

Only I discern

Infinite passion, and the pain

Of finite hearts that yearn.

Robert Browning (1812-1890): Two in the Campagna. xii.

Fountain heads and pathless groves,

Places which pale passion loves.

John Fletcher (1576-1625): The Nice Valour. Act iii. Sc. 3.

The bravery of his grief did put me

Into a towering passion.

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

And you, brave Cobham! to the latest breath

Shall feel your ruling passion strong in death.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Moral Essays. Epistle i. Line 262.

The ruling passion, be it what it will,

The ruling passion conquers reason still.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Moral Essays. Epistle iii. Line 153.

Something the heart must have to cherish,

Must love and joy and sorrow learn;

Something with passion clasp, or perish

And in itself to ashes burn.

Henry W Longfellow (1807-1882): Hyperion. Book ii.

He will hold thee, when his passion shall have spent its novel force,

Something better than his dog, a little dearer than his horse.

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892): Locksley Hall. Line 49.

Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness. Oh, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb-shows and noise. I would have such a fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant; it out-herods Herod.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.

Vows with so much passion, swears with so much grace,

That 't is a kind of heaven to be deluded by him.

Nathaniel Lee (1655-1692): Alexander the Great. Act i. Sc. 3.

The pleasure of love is in loving. We are happier in the passion we feel than in that we inspire.

Isaac De Benserade (1612-1691): Maxim 259.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.

In her first passion woman loves her lover:

In all the others, all she loves is love.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: Don Juan. Canto iii. Stanza 3.

In their first passion women love their lovers, in all the others they love love.

Isaac De Benserade (1612-1691): Maxim 471.

There is an evening twilight of the heart,

When its wild passion-waves are lulled to rest.

Alfred Bunn (1790-1860): Twilight.

Careful Words

passion (n.)