Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Be
The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done, is that which shall be done; and there is no new thing under the sun.
Solomon.—Ecclesiastes, Chap. i. Ver. 9.
What has been, may be; and what may be, may be supposed to be.
Swift.—A Further Search, etc. (See Appendix, Page 832, in Roscoe’s Life of Swift, Vol. II.)
Things and actions are what they are, and the consequences of them will be what they will be.
Bishop Butler.—Sermon 7 at the Rolls.
Every thing is what it is, and not another thing.
Bishop Butler.—Pref. to the Rolls Sermons, p. 16.
To be, or not to be, that is the question;
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind, to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And, by opposing, end them?
Shakespeare.—Hamlet, Act III. Scene 1. (His Soliloquy on life and death.)
To be, contents his natural desire,
He asks no angel’s wing, no seraph’s fire;
But thinks admitted to that equal sky,
His faithful dog shall bear him company.
Pope.—Essay on Man, Epi. I. Line 109.