Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Innocence
To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower:
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
William Blake—Auguries of Innocence.
E’en drunken Andrew felt the blow
That innocence can give,
When its resistless accents flow
To bid affection live.
Bloomfield—The Drunken Father. St. 18.
O mon Dieu, conserve-moi innocente, donne la grandeur aux autres!
O God, keep me innocent; make others great!
Caroline Matilda—Scratched on a window of the Castle Fredericksburg, Denmark.
As innocent as a new-laid egg.
W. S. Gilbert—Engaged. Act I.
An age that melts with unperceiv’d decay,
And glides in modest innocence away.
Samuel Johnson—Vanity of Human Wishes. L. 293.
On devient innocent quand on est malheureux.
We become innocent when we are unfortunate.
La Fontaine—Nymphes de Vaux.
What can innocence hope for,
When such as sit her judges are corrupted!
Massinger—Maid of Honor. Act V. Sc. 2.
He’s armed without that’s innocent within.
Pope—Epistles of Horace. Ep. I. Bk. I. L. 93.
Mais l’innocence enfin n’a rien à redouter.
But innocence has nothing to dread.
Racine—Phèdre. III. 6.
Quam angusta innocentia est, ad legem bonum esse.
What narrow innocence it is for one to be good only according to the law.
Seneca—De Ira. II. 27.
O, take the sense, sweet, of my innocence,
Love takes the meaning in love’s conference.
Midsummer Night’s Dream. Act II. Sc. 2. L. 45.
Hence, bashful cunning!
And prompt me, plain and holy innocence!
Tempest. Act III. Sc. 1. L. 81.
We were as twinn’d lambs that did frisk i’ the sun,
And bleat the one at the other; what we chang’d
Was innocence for innocence; we knew not
The doctrine of ill-doing, nor dream’d
That any did.
Winter’s Tale. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 67.
I doubt not then but innocence shall make
False accusation blush, and tyranny
Tremble at patience.
Winter’s Tale. Act III. Sc. 2. L. 31.
O, white innocence,
That thou shouldst wear the mask of guilt to hide
Thine awful and serenest countenance
From those who know thee not!
Shelley—The Cenci. Act V. Sc. 3. L. 24.