Careful Words

take (n.)

take (v.)

take (adv.)

A narrow compass! and yet there

Dwelt all that's good, and all that's fair;

Give me but what this riband bound,

Take all the rest the sun goes round.

Edmund Waller (1605-1687): On a Girdle.

What man dare, I dare:

Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,

The arm'd rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger,—

Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves

Shall never tremble.

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

Take away the sword;

States can be saved without it.

Edward Bulwer Lytton (1805-1873): Richelieu. Act ii. Sc. 2.

Better to give then to take.

John Heywood (Circa 1565): Proverbes. Part i. Chap. v.

  I knew once a very covetous, sordid fellow, who used to say, "Take care of the pence, for the pounds will take care of themselves."

Earl Of Chesterfield (1694-1773): Letter, Nov. 6, 1747.

Beware

Of entrance to a quarrel; but being in,

Bear 't that the opposed may beware of thee.

Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;

Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.

Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,

But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy;

For the apparel oft proclaims the man.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 3.

  Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

New Testament: 1 Corinthians x. 12.

Take her up tenderly,

Lift her with care;

Fashioned so slenderly,

Young, and so fair!

Thomas Hood (1798-1845): The Bridge of Sighs.

He was a man, take him for all in all,

I shall not look upon his like again.

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

Take, O boatman, thrice thy fee,—

Take, I give it willingly;

For, invisible to thee,

Spirits twain have crossed with me.

Johann L Uhland (1787-1862): The Passage. Edinburgh Review, October, 1832.

In vain sedate reflections we would make

When half our knowledge we must snatch, not take.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Moral Essays. Epistle i. Line 39.

Shall I not take mine ease in mine inn?

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 3.

  Dogb.  Why, then, take no note of him, but let him go; and presently call the rest of the watch together, and thank God you are rid of a knave.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Much Ado about Nothing. Act iii. Sc. 3.

The bell strikes one. We take no note of time

But from its loss.

Edward Young (1684-1765): Night thoughts. Night i. Line 55.

Take note, take note, O world,

To be direct and honest is not safe.

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

Take, O boatman, thrice thy fee,—

Take, I give it willingly;

For, invisible to thee,

Spirits twain have crossed with me.

Johann L Uhland (1787-1862): The Passage. Edinburgh Review, October, 1832.

Take, O, take those lips away,

That so sweetly were forsworn;

And those eyes, the break of day,

Lights that do mislead the morn:

But my kisses bring again, bring again;

Seals of love, but sealed in vain, sealed in vain.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Measure for Measure. Act iv. Sc. 1.

Take physic, pomp;

Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel.

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

I will take some savage woman, she shall rear my dusky race.

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892): Locksley Hall. Line 168.

Men, some to business, some to pleasure take;

But every woman is at heart a rake.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Moral Essays. Epistle ii. Line 215.

We must take the current when it serves,

Or lose our ventures.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Julius Caesar. Act iv. Sc. 3.

Softly sweet, in Lydian measures,

Soon he sooth'd his soul to pleasures.

War, he sung, is toil and trouble;

Honour but an empty bubble;

Never ending, still beginning,

Fighting still, and still destroying.

If all the world be worth the winning,

Think, oh think it worth enjoying:

Lovely Thais sits beside thee,

Take the good the gods provide thee.

John Dryden (1631-1701): Alexander's Feast. Line 97.

Who, as they sung, would take the prison'd soul

And lap it in Elysium.

John Milton (1608-1674): Comus. Line 256.

  If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea.

Old Testament: Psalm cxxxix. 9.

Take time enough: all other graces

Will soon fill up their proper places.

John Byrom (1691-1763): Advice to Preach Slow.

Give what thou canst, without Thee we are poor;

And with Thee rich, take what Thou wilt away.

William Cowper (1731-1800): The Task. Book v. The Winter Morning Walk. Line 905.

Because the good old rule

Sufficeth them,—the simple plan,

That they should take who have the power,

And they should keep who can.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): Rob Roy's Grave.

Love divine, all love excelling,

Joy of heaven to earth come down.

Divine Love.

Of right and wrong he taught

Truths as refined as ever Athens heard;

And (strange to tell!) he practised what he preached.

John Armstrong (1709-1779): The Art of Preserving Health. Book iv. Line 301.

Let me take you a button-hole lower.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Love's Labour's Lost. Act v. Sc. 2.

by simon sarris • about