Water, water, everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink. [ Coleridge ]

Existence may be borne, and the deep root
Of life and sufferance make its firm abode
In bare and desolate bosoms: mute
The camel labors with the heaviest load.
And the wolf dies in silence: Not bestowed
In vain should such examples be; if they.
Things of ignoble or of savage mood,
Endure and shrink not, we of nobler clay
May temper it to bear - it is but for a day. [ Byron ]

The wise and active conquer difficulties,
By daring to attempt them. Sloth and folly
Shiver and shrink at sight of toil and hazards,
And make the impossibility they fear. [ Rowe ]

He that swells in prosperity will shrink in adversity. [ Proverb ]

Before the revelations of the soul, Time, Space, and Nature shrink away. [ Ralph Waldo Emerson ]

We hope to grow old, yet we dread old age; that is to say, we love life and shrink from death. [ La Bruyère ]

Never shrink from doing anything which your business calls you to do. The man who is above his business may one day find his business above him. [ Drew ]

Friends should not be chosen to flatter. The quality we should prize is that rectitude which will shrink from no truth. Intimacies which increase vanity destroy friendship. [ William Ellery Channing ]

The desire of excellence is the necessary attribute of those who excel. We work little for a thing unless we wish for it. But we cannot of ourselves estimate the degree of our success in what we strive for; that task is left to others. With the desire for excellence comes, therefore, the desire for approbation. And this distinguishes intellectual excellence from moral excellence; for the latter has no necessity of human tribunal; it is more inclined to shrink from the public than to invite the public to be its judge. [ Bulwer-Lytton ]