The great theatre for virtue is conscience. [ Cicero ]

In this theatre of man's life, it is reserved only for God and angels to look on. [ Pythagoras ]

Every generous action loves the public view, yet no theatre for virtue is equal to a consciousness of it. [ Cicero ]

Nature, in her most dazzling aspects or stupendous parts, is but the background and theatre of the tragedy of man. [ John Morley ]

I have no wife or children, good or bad, to provide for; a mere spectator of other men's fortunes and adventures, and how they play their parts; which, methinks, are diversely presetted unto me, as from a common theatre or scene. [ Burton ]

A newspaper, like a theatre, must mainly owe its continuance in life to the fact that it pleases many persons; and in order to please many persons it will, unconsciously perhaps, respond to their several tastes, reflect their various qualities, and reproduce their views. In a certain sense it is evolved out of the community that absorbs it, and, therefore, partaking of the character of the community, while it may retain many merits and virtues, it will display itself, as in some respects ignorant, trivial, narrow, and vulgar. [ William Winter ]