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O ye powers that search
The heart of man, and weigh his inmost thoughts,
If I have done amiss, impute it not!
The best may err, but you are good.
Author: Joseph Addison
Source: Cato (act V, sc. 4)
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To err is human; but contrition felt for the crime distinguishes
the virtuous from the wicked.
[It., D'uomo e il fallir, ma dal malvagio il buono
Scerne il dolor del fallo.]
Author: Vittorio Alfieri
Source: Rosmunda (III, 1)
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Whoever . . . prefers the service of princes before his duty to
his Creator, will be sure, early or late, to repent in vain.
Author: Bidpai (Pilpay)
Source: The Prince and his Minister (chap. iii, fable iii)
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To sigh, yet not recede; to grieve, yet not repent!
Author: George Crabbe
Source: Tales of the Hall (bk. III, Boys at School, last line)
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When prodigals return great things are done.
Author: A.A. Dowty
Source: The Siliad, in Beeton's "Christmas Annual"
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I do not buy repentance at so heavy a cost as a thousand
drachmae.
Author: A.A. Dowty
Source: The Siliad, in Beeton's "Christmas Annual"
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When iron scourge, and tort'ring hour
The bad affright, afflict the best.
Author: Thomas Gray
Source: Ode to Adversity
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Woman, amends may never come to late.
Author: Robert Greene and Thomas Lodge
Source: A Looking Glass for London and England
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Restore to God His due in tithe and time;
A tithe purloin'd cankers the whole estate.
Author: George Herbert
Source: The Temple--The Church Porch (st. 65)
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Who after his transgression doth repent,
Is halfe, or altogether, innocent.
Author: Robert Herrick
Source: Hesperides--Penitence
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He comes never late who comes repentant.
Author: Juan de Horozco
Source: Manasses, Rey de India (Jorn, III)
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God dropped a spark down into everyone,
And if we find and fan it to a blaze,
It'll spring up and glow, like--like the sun,
And light the wandering out of stony ways.
Author: John Masefield
Source: Widow in the Bye Street (pt. VI)
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When the scourge
Inexorable, and the torturing hour
Calls us to penance.
Author: John Milton
Source: Paradise Lost (bk. II, l. 90)
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He [Cato] used to say that in all his life he never repented but
of three things. The first was that he had trusted a woman with
a secret; the second that he had gone by sea when he might have
gone by land; and the third, that had passed one day without
having a will by him.
Author: Plutarch
Source: Life of Cato (vol. II, p. 495), (Langhorne's translation)
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The dream is short, repentance long.
[Ger., Der Wahn ist kurtz, die Reu ist lang.]
Author: Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller
Source: Lied von der Glocke
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But with the morning cool repentance came.
Author: Sir Walter Scott
Source: Rob Roy (ch. XII)
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It is never too late to turn from the errors of our ways:
He who repents of his sins is almost innocent.
[Lat., Nam sera nunquam est ad bonos mores via.
Quem peonitet peccasse, paene est innocens.]
Author: Seneca (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Source: Agamemnon (242)
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God never repents of what He has first resolved upon.
[Lat., Nec unquam primi consilii deos peonitet.]
Author: Seneca (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Source: De Beneficiis (VI, 23)
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What then? What rests?
Try what repentance can. What can it not?
Yet what can it when one cannot repent?
O wretched state? O bosom black as death!
O limed soul, that struggling to be free
Art more engaged!
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: Hamlet Prince of Denmark (Claudius, King of Denmark at III, iii)
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Well, I'll repent, and that suddenly, while I am in some liking.
I shall be out of heart shortly, and then I shall have no
strength to repent.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: King Henry the Fourth, Part I (Falstaff at III, iii)
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Under your good correction, I have seen
When, after execution, judgment hath
Repented o'er his doom.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: Measure for Measure (Provost at II, ii)
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That it may please you leave these sad designs
To him that hath most cause to be a mourner,
And presently repair to Crosby House;
Where--after I have solemnly interred
At Chertsey monast'ry with noble king--
And wet his grave with my repentant tears--
I will with all expedient duty see you.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: The Tragedy of King Richard the Third (King Richard at I, ii)
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Repentance follows hasty counsels.
[Lat., Velox consilium sequitur poenitentia.]
Author: Syrus (Publilius Syrus)
Source: Maxims
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Take care not to begin anything of which you may repent.
[Lat., Cave ne quidquam incipias, quod post poeniteat.]
Author: Syrus (Publilius Syrus)
Source: Maxims
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Amid the roses, fierce Repentance rears
Her snaky crest; a quick-returning pang
Shoots through the conscious heart.
Author: James Thomson (1)
Source: Seasons--Spring (l. 995)
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True penitence condemns to silence. What a man is ready to recall he would be willing to repeat.
Author: Francis H. Bradley
Source: None
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Forethought is easy, repentance hard.
Author: Chinese Proverb
Source: None
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The wolf was sick, he vowed a monk to be: But when he got well, a wolf once more was he.
Author: Walter Brower
Source: None
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From listening comes wisdom, and from speaking repentance.
Author: Italian Proverb
Source: None
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Repentance may be old-fashioned, but it is not outdated so long as there is sin.
Author: J. C. Macaulay
Source: None
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Repentance for silence is better than repentance for speaking.
Author: Moorish Proverb
Source: None
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REPENTANCE, n. The faithful attendant and follower of Punishment. It is usually manifest in a degree of reformation that is not inconsistent with continuity of sin.
Author: Ambrose Bierce
Source: None
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Remorse is impotence, it will sin again. Only repentance is strong, it can end everything.
Author: Henry Miller
Source: None
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True repentance is to cease from sinning.
Author: Ambrose Of Milan
Source: None
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Most people repent their sins by thanking God they ain't so wicked as their neighbors.
Author: Josh Billings
Source: None
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It is much easier to repent of sins that we have committed than to repent of those that we intend to commit.
Author: Josh Billings
Source: None
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Great is the difference betwixt a man's being frightened at, and humbled for his sins.
Author: Thomas Fuller
Source: None
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Repentance is another name for aspiration.
Author: Henry Ward Beecher
Source: None
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Of all acts of man repentance is the most divine. The greatest of all faults is to be conscious of none.
Author: Thomas Carlyle
Source: None
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It is foolish to lay out money for the purchase of repentance.
Author: Benjamin Franklin
Source: None
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Bad men are full of repentance.
Author: Aristotle
Source: None
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