A man of sovereign parts, peerless esteem'd, Well fitted in arts, glorious in arms; Nothing becomes him ill that he would well. The only soil of his fair virtue's gloss, If virtue's gloss will stain with any soil, Is a sharp wit match'd with too blunt a will, Whose edge hath power to cut, whose will still wills It should none spare that come within his power.
 William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost (1598). copy citation

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Author William Shakespeare
Source Love's Labour's Lost
Topic virtue power
Date 1598
Language English
Reference
Note Written between 1595 and 1596
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1109/pg1109-images.html

Context

“PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Know you the man? MARIA. I know him, madam; at a marriage feast, Between Lord Perigort and the beauteous heir Of Jaques Falconbridge, solemnized In Normandy, saw I this Longaville. A man of sovereign parts, peerless esteem'd, Well fitted in arts, glorious in arms; Nothing becomes him ill that he would well. The only soil of his fair virtue's gloss, If virtue's gloss will stain with any soil, Is a sharp wit match'd with too blunt a will, Whose edge hath power to cut, whose will still wills It should none spare that come within his power. PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Some merry mocking lord, belike; is't so? MARIA. They say so most that most his humours know. PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Such short-liv'd wits do wither as they grow. Who are the rest? KATHARINE.” source