Polonius's Advice to Live By

How was your weekend? I know some of my friends had it rough at the theater. Sorry. Like a nerd, I watched four hour Hamlet with Kenneth Branagh. NERD! It was fabulous, though.

One of the character's, Polonius gives this speech to his son. I liked it and thought I'd share. (You might recognize a line or two.)

"....And these few precepts in thy memory
Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no
tongue,
Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption
tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd courage. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in,
Bear't that th' opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy
judgment.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man;
And they in France of the best rank and station
Are of a most select and generous choice in that.
Neither a borrower or a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all - to thine own self be true..."

ISN'T IT BEAUTIFUL!?!?! Man, I wish I spoke like that! I hope you caught some of his pointers.