Shakespeare's Sonnets: They that have pow'r to hurt and will do none

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They that have pow'r to hurt and will do none,That do not do the thing they most do show,Who, moving others, are themselves as stone,Unmovèd, cold, and to temptation slow,They rightly do inherit heav'n's gracesAnd husband nature's riches from expense,They are the lords and own'rs of their faces,Others but stewards of their excellence.The summer's flow'r is to the summer sweet,Though to it self it only live and die,But if that flow'r with base infection meet,The basest weed out-braves his dignity, For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds: Lillies that fester smell far worse than weeds.

© William Shakespeare