He that is presently denied is least deceived. [ Proverb ]
It is better to take half in hand and the rest presently. [ Proverb ]
Where fraud and falsehood invade society, the band presently breaks. [ South ]
When a pig is given you, run presently for a string to lead it home. [ Proverb ]
Wise men never sit and wail their woes, but presently prevent the ways to wail. [ William Shakespeare ]
How wayward is this foolish love, that, like a testy babe, will scratch the nurse and presently, all humble, kiss the rod. [ William Shakespeare ]
To divert at any time a troublesome fancy, run to thy books; they presently fix thee to them, and drive the other out of thy thoughts. They always receive thee with the same kindness. [ Fuller ]
There are three wicks you know to the lamp of a man's life: brain, blood, and breath. Press the brain a little, its light goes out, followed by both the others. Stop the heart a minute, and out go all three of the wicks. Choke the air out of the lungs, and presently the fluid ceases to supply the other centers of flame, and all is soon stagnation, cold, and darkness. [ O. W. Holmes ]
Mutability is the badge of infirmity; it is seldom that a man continues to wish and design the same thing two days alike; now he is for marrying, and now a mistress is preferred to a wife; now he is ambitious and aspiring, presently the meanest servant is not more humble than he; this hour he squanders his money away, the next he turns miser; sometimes he is frugal and serious, at other times profuse, airy, and gay. [ Charron ]
We have no permanent habits until we are forty. Then they begin to harden, presently they petrify, then business begins. Since forty I have been regular about going to bed and getting up - and that is one of the main things. I have made it a rule to go to bed when there wasn't anybody left to sit up with; and I have made it a rule to get up when I had to. This has resulted in an unswerving regularity of irregularity. It has saved me sound, but it would injure another person. [ Mark Twain, Seventieth Birthday speech ]