Careful Words

to (n.)

to (v.)

to (adv.)

to (adj.)

To all, to each, a fair good-night,

And pleasing dreams, and slumbers light.

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832): L' Envoy. To the Reader.

For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak

With most miraculous organ.

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

Perish that thought! No, never be it said

That Fate itself could awe the soul of Richard.

Hence, babbling dreams! you threaten here in vain!

Conscience, avaunt! Richard's himself again!

Hark! the shrill trumpet sounds to horse! away!

My soul's in arms, and eager for the fray.

Colley Cibber (1671-1757): Richard III. (altered). Act v. Sc. 3.

Happy the man, and happy he alone,

He who can call to-day his own;

He who, secure within, can say,

To-morrow, do thy worst, for I have liv'd to-day.

John Dryden (1631-1701): Imitation of Horace. Book iii. Ode 29, Line 65.

Happy the man, and happy he alone,

He who can call to-day his own;

He who, secure within, can say,

To-morrow, do thy worst, for I have liv'd to-day.

John Dryden (1631-1701): Imitation of Horace. Book iii. Ode 29, Line 65.

Often do the spirits

Of great events stride on before the events,

And in to-day already walks to-morrow.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834): The Death of Wallenstein. Act v. Sc. 1.

Alas! regardless of their doom,

The little victims play;

No sense have they of ills to come,

Nor care beyond to-day.

Thomas Gray (1716-1771): On a Distant Prospect of Eton College. Stanza 6.

Our youth we can have but to-day,

We may always find time to grow old.

Bishop Berkeley (1684-1753): Can Love be controlled by Advice?

Petition me no petitions, sir, to-day;

Let other hours be set apart for business.

To-day it is our pleasure to be drunk;

And this our queen shall be as drunk as we.

Henry Fielding (1707-1754): Tom Thumb the Great. Act i. Sc. 2.

Full little knowest thou that hast not tride,

What hell it is in suing long to bide:

To loose good dayes, that might be better spent;

To wast long nights in pensive discontent;

To speed to-day, to be put back to-morrow;

To feed on hope, to pine with feare and sorrow.

  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

To fret thy soule with crosses and with cares;

To eate thy heart through comfortlesse dispaires;

To fawne, to crowche, to waite, to ride, to ronne,

To spend, to give, to want, to be undonne.

Unhappie wight, borne to desastrous end,

That doth his life in so long tendance spend!

Edmund Spenser (1553-1599): Mother Hubberds Tale. Line 895.

Oh, blest with temper whose unclouded ray

Can make to-morrow cheerful as to-day!

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Moral Essays. Epistle ii. Line 257.

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day

To the last syllable of recorded time,

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more: it is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 5.

  Boast not thyself of to-morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.

Old Testament: Proverbs xxvii. 1.

Oh, blest with temper whose unclouded ray

Can make to-morrow cheerful as to-day!

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Moral Essays. Epistle ii. Line 257.

Defer not till to-morrow to be wise,

To-morrow's sun to thee may never rise.

William Congreve (1670-1729): Letter to Cobham.

Happy the man, and happy he alone,

He who can call to-day his own;

He who, secure within, can say,

To-morrow, do thy worst, for I have liv'd to-day.

John Dryden (1631-1701): Imitation of Horace. Book iii. Ode 29, Line 65.

Often do the spirits

Of great events stride on before the events,

And in to-day already walks to-morrow.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834): The Death of Wallenstein. Act v. Sc. 1.

When I consider life, 't is all a cheat.

Yet fool'd with hope, men favour the deceit;

Trust on, and think to-morrow will repay.

To-morrow's falser than the former day;

Lies worse, and while it says we shall be blest

With some new joys, cuts off what we possest.

Strange cozenage! none would live past years again,

Yet all hope pleasure in what yet remain;

And from the dregs of life think to receive

What the first sprightly running could not give.

John Dryden (1631-1701): Aurengzebe. Act iv. Sc. 1.

  Never leave that till to-morrow which you can do to-day.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790): Maxims prefixed to Poor Richard's Almanac, 1757.

Full little knowest thou that hast not tride,

What hell it is in suing long to bide:

To loose good dayes, that might be better spent;

To wast long nights in pensive discontent;

To speed to-day, to be put back to-morrow;

To feed on hope, to pine with feare and sorrow.

  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

To fret thy soule with crosses and with cares;

To eate thy heart through comfortlesse dispaires;

To fawne, to crowche, to waite, to ride, to ronne,

To spend, to give, to want, to be undonne.

Unhappie wight, borne to desastrous end,

That doth his life in so long tendance spend!

Edmund Spenser (1553-1599): Mother Hubberds Tale. Line 895.

Beware of desperate steps! The darkest day,

Live till to-morrow, will have pass'd away.

William Cowper (1731-1800): The Needless Alarm. Moral.

Be thou the rainbow to the storms of life,

The evening beam that smiles the clouds away,

And tints to-morrow with prophetic ray!

Lord Byron 1788-1824: The Bride of Abydos. Canto ii. Stanza 20.

To-morrow to fresh woods and pastures new.

John Milton (1608-1674): Lycidas. Line 193.

  Let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we shall die.

Old Testament: Isaiah xxii. 13.

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,

Old Time is still a-flying,

And this same flower that smiles to-day

To-morrow will be dying.

Robert Herrick (1591-1674): To the Virgins to make much of Time.

You must wake and call me early, call me early, mother dear;

To-morrow 'll be the happiest time of all the glad New Year,—

Of all the glad New Year, mother, the maddest, merriest day;

For I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be queen o' the May.

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892): The May Queen.

When I consider life, 't is all a cheat.

Yet fool'd with hope, men favour the deceit;

Trust on, and think to-morrow will repay.

To-morrow's falser than the former day;

Lies worse, and while it says we shall be blest

With some new joys, cuts off what we possest.

Strange cozenage! none would live past years again,

Yet all hope pleasure in what yet remain;

And from the dregs of life think to receive

What the first sprightly running could not give.

John Dryden (1631-1701): Aurengzebe. Act iv. Sc. 1.

A man he seems of cheerful yesterdays

And confident to-morrows.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): The Excursion. Book vii.

Defer not till to-morrow to be wise,

To-morrow's sun to thee may never rise.

William Congreve (1670-1729): Letter to Cobham.