What win I, if I gain the thing I seek?
A dream, a breath, a froth of fleeting joy.
Who buys a minute's mirth to wail a week?
Or sells eternity to get a toy?
I thought these lines most poignant. And I reflected on many occurrences in Shakespeare's plays in which characters would sell their very soul to fulfill their hunger for power--Iago sold his respect and friendship in order bring down his friend and master Othello; Macbeth likewise sought the rulership of the kingdom so badly that he murdered in order to achieve it; Claudius killed his brother King Hamlet in order to marry the queen and become Denmark's new king; to name a few.
This quote stands as an excellent question we can pose to ourselves in moments of introspection-- what part of ourselves do we sell out in order to get what we want? Once we know these weaknesses of character, we can set out to correct them.
When I got home and searched out the quote in order to post it, I discovered this gem of a line following right after the quote above:
For one sweet grape who will the vine destroy?
I could not help but think that a modern example of this would be the Bush Administration's invasion of Iraq.
