'Tis better to be vile than vile esteemed, <br />When not to be receives reproach of being; <br />And the just pleasure lost, which is so deemed <br />Not by our feeling, but by others' seeing: <br />For why should others' false adulterate eyes <br />Give salutation to my sportive blood? <br />Or on my frailties why are frailer spies, <br />Which in their wills count bad what I think good? <br />No, I am that I am, and they that level <br />At my abuses reckon up their own: <br />I may be straight though they themselves be bevel; <br />By their rank thoughts, my deeds must not be shown; <br />Unless this general evil they maintain, <br />All men are bad and in their badness reign.<br /><br />William Shakespeare<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/sonnet-121-tis-better-to-be-vile-than-vile-esteemed/
