Careful Words

private (n.)

private (adv.)

private (adj.)

  Private credit is wealth; public honour is security. The feather that adorns the royal bird supports its flight; strip him of his plumage, and you fix him to the earth.

Letters of Junius. Letter xlii. Affair of the Falkland Islands.

Statesman, yet friend to truth! of soul sincere,

In action faithful, and in honour clear;

Who broke no promise, serv'd no private end,

Who gain'd no title, and who lost no friend.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Epistle to Mr. Addison. Line 67.

The dog, to gain his private ends,

Went mad, and bit the man.

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774): Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog.

What private griefs they have, alas, I know not.

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

When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway,

The post of honour is a private station.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719): Cato. Act iv. Sc. 4.

And for our country 't is a bliss to die.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Iliad of Homer. Book xv. Line 583.