VALENTINE 
 Cease to persuade, my loving Proteus. 
 Home-keeping youth have ever homely wits. 
 Were ’t not affection chains thy tender days
 To the sweet glances of thy honored love,
 I rather would entreat thy company
 To see the wonders of the world abroad
 Than, living dully sluggardized at home,
 Wear out thy youth with shapeless idleness.
 But since thou lov’st, love still and thrive therein, 
 Even as I would when I to love begin.
 PROTEUS
 Wilt thou be gone? Sweet Valentine, adieu.
 Think on thy Proteus when thou haply seest
 Some rare noteworthy object in thy travel.
 Wish me partaker in thy happiness
 When thou dost meet good hap; and in thy danger, 
 If ever danger do environ thee,
 Commend thy grievance to my holy prayers,
 For I will be thy beadsman, Valentine. 

From “The Two Gentlemen of Verona” by William Shakespeare

“The Two Gentlemen of Verona” tells the story of two devoted friends, Valentine and Proteus. Valentine leaves their home city of Verona for Milan, but Proteus, in love with Julia, stays behind. We might sometimes wonder whether we pick the right path in life. We have our answer in our friends who stayed put or followed a different route. Shakespeare writes about this disjunction with masterful elegance:

  “I rather would entreat thy company
 To see the wonders of the world abroad
 Than, living dully sluggardized at home,
 Wear out thy youth with shapeless idleness.” 

As if mirroring happy people’s blessed lives, all ends well for all the characters in this little-known play.