I do not believe that any writer has ever exposed this bovaryisme, the human will to see things as they are not, more clearly than Shakespeare.

• To judge wisely, we must know how things appear to the unwise.
• Falsehood is easy, truth so difficult.
• The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men.
• Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.
• The scornful nostril and the high head gather not the odors that lie on the track of truth.
• There is no feeling, except the extremes of fear and grief, that does not find relief in music.
• Nothing is so good as it seems beforehand.
• Can any man or woman choose duties? No more that they can choose their birthplace, or their father or mother.
• It is easy to say how we love new friends and what we think of them but words can never trace out all the fibers that knit us to the old.
• The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice.