Shakespeare

The idiocies people speak to themselves to prepare themselves for horrors.

Act V, Scene IV, Queen Margaret.

Why, courage, then! what cannot be avoided
‘Twere childish weakness to lament or fear.

3 Henry VI.

Remarkable lenity.

Prince Edward.

Methinks a woman of this valiant spirit
Should, if a coward heard her speak these words,
Infuse his breast with magnanimity,
And make him, naked, foil a man at arms.
I speak not this, as doubting any here;
For did I but suspect a fearful man,
He should have leave to go away betimes,
Lest in our need he might infect another,
And make him of like spirit to himself.
If any such be here, as God forbid!
Let him depart before we need his help.

What a wonderful soliloquy!

Richard III, Act I, Scene 1.

What an impossibility!

Scene 2, the turning of Lady Anne.

Queen Margaret's curses in Scene 3 are tremendous.

This play is one of my favorites.

All the same, at Act IV, Scene 4, Richard's success with Queen Elizabeth is equally incredible.