Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Service
If I had always served God as I have served you, Madam, I should not have a great account to render at my death.
Bacon—Life and Times of Francis the First. Vol. I. P. 46, of ed. 2.
And Master Kingston, this I will say—had I but served God as diligently as I have served the king, he would not have given me over in my grey hairs.
Pierre de Bourdeille (Brantome), quoting Thomas Cromwell to his keeper.
We are his,
To serve him nobly in the common cause,
True to the death, but not to be his slaves.
Cowper—Task. Bk. V. L. 340.
When I have attempted to join myself to others by services, it proved an intellectual trick,—no more. They eat your service like apples, and leave you out. But love them, and they feel you, and delight in you all the time.
Emerson—Essays. Of Gifts.
Had I but written as many odes in praise of Muhammad and Ali as I have composed for King Mahmud, they would have showered a hundred blessings on me.
Firdusi.
Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing?
II Kings. VIII. 13.
“Sidney Godolphin,” said Charles (II), “is never in the way and never out of the way.”
Macaulay—History of England. Vol. I. P. 265. Cabinet Ed. Phrase used later to describe a good valet
Who seeks for aid
Must show how service sought can be repaid.
Owen Meredith (Lord Lytton)—Siege of Constantinople.
Servant of God, well done.
Milton—Paradise Lost. Bk. VI. L. 29.
They also serve who only stand and wait.
Milton—Sonnet. On his Blindness.
They serve God well,
Who serve his creatures.
Mrs. Norton—The Lady of La Garaye. Conclusion. L. 9.
God curse Moawiyah. If I had served God so well as I have served him, he would never have damned me to all eternity.
Found in Ockley’s History of the Saracens. An. Hegira 54,
Domini pudet non servitutis.
I am ashamed of my master and not of my servitude.
Seneca—Troades. 989.
Master, go on, and I will follow thee,
To the last gasp, with truth and loyalty.
As You Like It. Act II. Sc. 3. L. 69.
I am an ass, indeed, you may prove it by my long ears. I have served him from the hour of my nativity to this instant, and have nothing at his hands for my service but blows. When I am cold, he heats me with beating.
Comedy of Errors. Act IV. Sc. 4. L. 29.
Had I but serv’d my God with half the zeal
I serv’d my king, he would not in mine age
Have left me naked to mine enemies.
Henry VIII. Act III. Sc. 2. L. 455.
We cannot all be masters, nor all masters cannot be truly followed.
Othello. Act I. Sc. 1. L. 43.
My heart is ever at your service.
Timon of Athens. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 76.
The swallow follows not summer more willing than we your lordship.
Timon of Athens. Act III. Sc. 6. L. 31.
You know that love
Will creep in service where it cannot go.
Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act IV. Sc. 2. L. 19.
Small service is true service while it lasts:
Of humblest friends, bright Creature! scorn not one;
The Daisy, by the shadow that it casts,
Protects the lingering dew drop from the Sun.
Wordsworth—To a Child: Written in Her Album.