Patches, set upon a little breach,

Discredit more, in hiding of the fault,
Than did the fault before it was so patched.

Past, and to come, seem best; things present, worst.

Pirates may make cheap pennyworths of their pillage.

Pleasure and revenge

Have ears more deaf than adders to the voice Of any true decision.

Pride hath no other glass

To shew itself, but pride.

Perseverance

Keeps honour bright; to have done, is to hang

Quite out of fashion, like a rusty mail

In monumental mockery.

Pity is the virtue of the law,

And none but tyrants use it cruelly.

Pitchers have ears.

Plenty, and peace, breeds cowards; hardness ever Of hardiness is mother.

Proper deformity seems not in the fiend

So horrid as in woman.

Plate sin with gold,

And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks : Arm it in rags, a pigmy's straw doth pierce it.

Pleasure and action make the hours seem short.

Poor, and content, is rich, and rich enough;
But riches, fineless, is as poor as winter
To him that ever fears he shall be poor.

Repent what's past; avoid what is to come;
And do not spread the compost on the weeds,
To make them ranker.

Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving.