She dallies with the wind, and scorns the sun

 

 She her airie buildeth in the cedar's top,

And dallies with the wind, and scorns the sun.

 

-- William Shakespeare, Richard III, Act I, Scene 3 (the reading is Samuel Johnson's)

Late stage civilization

 

Odysseus gets Polyphemus drunk, mosaic, Villa Romana del Casale, Piazza Armerina, Italy

 

 Prosperity begins to mellow,

And drops into the rotten mouth of death.

-- William Shakespeare, Richard III, Act 4, Scene 4

Swear no oaths to others or to yourself, on New Year's Day or on any other day

When I have most need to employ a friend, 

Deep, hollow, treacherous, and full of guile, 

Be he to me! This do I beg of heav'n, 

When I am cold in zeal to you or yours.

-- Buckingham in William Shakespeare's Richard III (as known to Samuel Johnson)

How to seem a saint

Then thus I cloath my naked villany

With old odd ends, stol'n forth of holy writ,

And seem a saint when most I play the devil.

-- William Shakespeare, Richard III, Act 1, Scene 3