Modest doubt is call'd

The beacon of the wise, the tent that searches

To the bottom of the worst.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Troilus and Cressida. Act ii. Sc. 2.

The worst comes to the worst.

Thomas Middleton (1580-1627): The Phoenix. Act iii. Sc. 1.

In the worst inn's worst room, with mat half hung.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Moral Essays. Epistle iii. Line 299.

Corrupted freemen are the worst of slaves.

David Garrick (1716-1779): Prologue to the Gamesters.

Speak to me as to thy thinkings,

As thou dost ruminate, and give thy worst of thoughts

The worst of words.

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

The worst speak something good; if all want sense,

God takes a text, and preacheth Pa-ti-ence.

George Herbert (1593-1632): The Church Porch.

This, this is misery! the last, the worst

That man can feel.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Iliad of Homer. Book xxii. Line 106.

Past and to come seems best; things present worst.

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

The worst is not

So long as we can say, "This is the worst."

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Lear. Act iv. Sc. 1.

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.

Better be with the dead,

Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace,

Than on the torture of the mind to lie

In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave;

After life's fitful fever he sleeps well:

Treason has done his worst; nor steel, nor poison,

Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing,

Can touch him further.

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

It's wiser being good than bad;

It's safer being meek than fierce;

It's fitter being sane than mad.

My own hope is, a sun will pierce

The thickest cloud earth ever stretched;

That after Last returns the First,

Though a wide compass round be fetched;

That what began best can't end worst,

Nor what God blessed once prove accurst.

Robert Browning (1812-1890): Apparent Failure. vii.

It is a very good world to live in,

To lend, or to spend, or to give in;

But to beg or to borrow, or to get a man's own,

It is the very worst world that ever was known.

The best-humour'd man, with the worst-humour'd Muse.

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774): Postscript.

For pointed satire I would Buckhurst choose,

The best good man with the worst-natured muse.

Earl Of Rochester (1647-1680): An allusion to Horace, Satire x. Book i.