Inconstancy
lack of constancy
Inconstancy is the lack of constancy, a lack of consistency in thought, emotion or action.
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edit- O Fortuna,
velut luna
statu variabilis.- O how Fortune, inopportune,
Apes the moon's inconstancy. - Carmina Burana, No. 17, "O Fortuna", line 1; translation by David Parlett. [1].
- O how Fortune, inopportune,
- I hate inconstancy—I loathe, detest,
Abhor, condemn, abjure the mortal made
Of such quicksilver clay that in his breast
No permanent foundation can be laid.- Lord Byron, Don Juan (1818-24), Canto II, Stanza 209.
- All things are inconstant except the faith in the soul, which changes all things and fills their inconstancy with light, but though I seem to be driven out of my country as a misbeliever I have found no man yet with a faith like mine.
- James Joyce, letter to Augusta Gregory (1902-11-22), from James Joyce by Richard Ellmann (1959) [Oxford University Press, 1983 edition, ISBN 0-195-03381-7] (p. 107) .
- Notre raison est toujours déçue par l'inconstance des apparences.
- Our reason is always disappointed by the inconsistency of appearances.
- Blaise Pascal, Pensées (1669), Section II The Misery of Man without God (60-183).
- They are not constant but are changing still.
- William Shakespeare, Cymbeline (1611), Act II, scene 5, line 30.
- O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon,
That monthly changes in her circled orb,
Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.- William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet (1597), Act II, scene 2, line 109.
- Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove;
O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.- William Shakespeare, Sonnet CXVI (1609).
- Or as one nail by strength drives out another,
So the remembrance of my former love
Is by a newer object quite forgotten.- William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1590s), Act II, scene 4, line 193.
- I loved a lass, a fair one,
As fair as e'er was seen;
She was indeed a rare one,
Another Sheba queen:
But, fool as then I was,
I thought she loved me too:
But now, alas! she's left me,
Falero, lero, loo!- George Wither, I Loved a Lass; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 390.