Edward Young

"Das Leben lebt erst jenseits des Grabes."

"Der Aufschub ist ein Dieb der Zeit."

"Der Mensch braucht nur wenig; und auch dieses Wenige nicht lange."

"Life begins at forty."

"In records that defy the tooth of time."

"Ah! what is human life? How, like the dial's tardy-moving shade, Day after day slides from us unperceiv'd! The cunning fugitive is swift by stealth; Too subtle is the movement to be seen; Yet soon the hour is up—and we are gone."

"Great let me call him, for he conquered me."

"Life is the desert, life the solitude; Death joins us to the great majority."

"Souls made of fire, and children of the sun, With whom revenge is virtue."

"The blood will follow where the knife is driven, The flesh will quiver where the pincers tear."

"In youth, what disappointments of our own making: in age, what disappointments from the nature of things."

"The man that makes a character makes foes."

"Their feet through faithless leather met the dirt, And oftener chang'd their principles than shirt."

"As Love alone can exquisitely bless, Love only feels the marvellous of pain; Opens new veins of torture in the soul, And wakes the nerve where agonies are born."

"Too low they build who build beneath the stars."

"He weeps! the falling drop puts out the sun; He sighs! the sigh earth's deep foundation shakes. If in His love so terrible, what then His wrath inflamed?"

"Accept a miracle instead of wit,— See two dull lines with Stanhope's pencil writ."

"Time elaborately thrown away."

"There buds the promise of celestial worth."

"And friend received with thumps upon the back."

"When the Law shows her teeth, but dares not bite."

"The love of praise, howe'er concealed by art, Reigns more or less, and glows in ev'ry heart."

"Some for renown, on scraps of learning dote, And think they grow immortal as they quote."

"Titles are marks of honest men, and wise; The fool or knave that wears a title lies."

"They that on glorious ancestors enlarge, Produce their debt instead of their discharge."

"None think the great unhappy but the great."

"Unlearned men of books assume the care, As eunuchs are the guardians of the fair."

"The booby father craves a booby son, And by Heaven’s blessing thinks himself undone."

"Where Nature’s end of language is declin’d, And men talk only to conceal the mind."

"Be wise with speed; A fool at forty is a fool indeed."

"And waste their music on the savage race."

"With skill she vibrates her eternal tongue, Forever most divinely in the wrong."

"For her own breakfast she'll project a scheme, Nor take her tea without a strategem."

"Think naught a trifle, though it small appear; Small sands the mountain, moments make the year, And trifles life."

"One to destroy, is murder by the law; And gibbets keep the lifted hand in awe; To murder thousands takes a specious name, War's glorious art, and gives immortal fame."

"How commentators each dark passage shun, And hold their farthing candle to the sun."

"Tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep!"

"Night, sable goddess! from her ebon throne, In rayless majesty, now stretches forth Her leaden scepter o'er a slumbering world."

"Creation sleeps! 'Tis as the general pulse Of life stood still, and Nature made a pause; An awful pause! prophetic of her end."

"On reason build resolve, that column of true majesty in man."

"The bell strikes one. We take no note of time But from its loss."

"Poor pensioner on the bounties of an hour."

"An angel's arm can't snatch me from the grave; Legions of angels can't confine me there."

"To waft a feather or to drown a fly."

"Insatiate archer! could not one suffice? Thy shaft flew thrice, and thrice my peace was slain; And thrice, ere thrice yon moon had filled her horn."

"Be wise today; 'tis madness to defer."

"Procrastination is the thief of time."

"At thirty, man suspects himself a fool; Knows it at forty, and reforms his plan; At fifty chides his infamous delay, Pushes his prudent purpose to resolve; In all the magnanimity of thought Resolves, and re-resolves; then dies the same."

"All men think all men mortal but themselves."

"He mourns the dead who lives as they desire."

"And what its worth, ask death-beds; they can tell."

"Thy purpose firm is equal to the deed: Who does the best his circumstance allows Does well, acts nobly; angels could no more."

""I've lost a day!"—the prince who nobly cried, Had been an emperor without his crown."

"Ah, how unjust to Nature and himself Is thoughtless, thankless, inconsistent man!"

"Life's cares are comforts; such by Heav'n design'd; He that hath none must make them, or be wretched."

"The spirit walks of every day deceased."

"Time flies, death urges, knells call, Heaven invites, Hell threatens."

"Whose yesterdays look backwards with a smile."

"'Tis greatly wise to talk with our past hours, And ask them what report they bore to heaven."

"Thoughts shut up want air, And spoil, like bales unopen’d to the sun."

"A friend is worth all hazards we can run."

"Friendship's the wine of life; but friendship new (Not such was his) is neither strong nor pure."

"How blessings brighten as they take their flight!"

"The chamber where the good man meets his fate Is privileg’d beyond the common walk Of virtuous life, quite in the verge of heaven."

"A death-bed ’s a detector of the heart."

"Virtue alone has majesty in death."

"Woes cluster. Rare are solitary woes; They love a train, they tread each other’s heel."

"Beautiful as sweet! And young as beautiful! and soft as young! And gay as soft! and innocent as gay."

"Lovely in death the beauteous ruin lay; And if in death still lovely, lovelier there; Far lovelier! pity swells the tide of love."

"Heaven’s Sovereign saves all beings but himself That hideous sight,—a naked human heart."

"... life is most enjoy'd when courted least, most worth, when disesteemed,..."

"The knell, the shroud, the mattock, and the grave, The deep damp vault, the darkness and the worm."

"Man makes a death which Nature never made."

"And feels a thousand deaths in fearing one."

"Wishing, of all employments, is the worst."

"Man wants little, nor that little long."

"A God all mercy is a God unjust."

"’Tis impious in a good man to be sad"

"A Christian is the highest style of man."

"Men may live fools, but fools they cannot die."

"By night an atheist half believes a God."

"Less base the fear of death than fear of life."

"A soul without reflection, like a pile Without inhabitant, to ruin runs."

"Early, bright, transient, chaste as morning dew, She sparkled, was exhal'd and went to heaven."

"We see time’s furrows on another’s brow, And death intrench’d, preparing his assault; How few themselves in that just mirror see!"

"Like our shadows, Our wishes lengthen as our sun declines."

"While man is growing, life is in decrease; And cradles rock us nearer to the tomb. Our birth is nothing but our death begun."

"That life is long which answers life's great end."

"The man of wisdom is the man of years."

"Death loves a shining mark, a signal blow."

"Revere thyself, and yet thyself despise."

"Pygmies are pygmies still, though percht on Alps; And pyramids are pyramids in vales. Each man makes his own stature, builds himself. Virtue alone outbuilds the Pyramids; Her monuments shall last when Egypt’s fall."

"Ambition! powerful source of good and ill!"

"Much learning shows how little mortals know; Much wealth, how little worldlings can enjoy."

"And all may do what has by man been done."

"The man that blushes is not quite a brute."

"What ardently we wish we soon believe."

"Truth never was indebted to a lie."

"Prayer ardent opens heaven."

"The house of laughter makes a house of woe."

"A man of pleasure is a man of pains."

"To frown at pleasure, and to smile in pain."

"Final Ruin fiercely drives Her plowshare o'er creation."

"'T is elder Scripture, writ by God's own hand,— Scripture authentic! uncorrupt by man."

"An undevout astronomer is mad."

"The course of Nature is the art of God."

"Born Originals - how comes it to pass that we die Copies?"

"There is something in Poetry beyond Prose-reason; there are Mysteries in it not to be explained, but admired; which render mere Prose-men Infidels to their Divinity."

"For Rules, like Crutches, are a needful Aid to the Lame, tho' an impediment to the Strong."

"By all means use some time to be alone."

"The future... seems to me no unified dream but a mince pie, long in the baking, never quite done."

"They only babble who practise not reflection."

"Tomorrow is a satire on today, And shows its weakness."

"Indien gij iets doet, doe het dan goed."

"Mwyaf y brys, mwyaf y rhwystr."

"Britannia’s daughters, much more fair than nice, Too fond of admiration, lose their price; Worn in the public eye, give cheap delight To throngs, and tarnish to the sated sight: As unreserved, and beauteous, as the sun, Through every sign of vanity they run, Assemblies, parks, coarse feasts in City halls, Lectures, and trials, plays, committees, balls, Wells, bedlams, executions, Smithfield scenes, And fortune-tellers’ caves, and lions’ dens, Taverns, exchanges, bridewells, drawing-rooms, Instalments, pillories, coronations, tombs, Tumblers, and funerals, puppet-shows, reviews, Sales, races, rabbits, and (still stranger!) pews."