"That honourable estate of Matrimony, which was sanctified in Paradise, allowed of the Patriarches, hallowed of the olde Prophets, and commended of al persons."

"He reckoneth without his Hostesse. Love knoweth no lawes."

"The soft droppes of rain perce the hard marble; many strokes overthrow the tallest oaks."

"It seems to me (said she) that you are in some brown study."

"The finest edge is made with the blunt whetstone."

"Though the Camomill, the more it is trodden and pressed downe the more it spreadeth."

"Be valyaunt, but not too venturous. Let thy attyre bee comely, but not costly."

"As lyke as one pease is to another."

"A clere conscience is a sure carde."

"There can no great smoke arise, but there must be some fire."

"How at heaven's gates she claps her wings, The morne not waking til she sings."

"Cupid and my Campaspe play'd At cards for kisses—Cupid paid: He stakes his quiver, bow, and arrows, His mother's doves, and team of sparrows; Loses them too; then down he throws The coral of his lips, the rose Growing one's cheek (but none knows how); With these, the crystal of his brow, And then the dimple of his chin: All these did my Campaspe win. At last he set her both his eyes— She won, and Cupid blind did rise. O Love! has she done this for thee? What shall, alas! become of me?"

"Fish and guests in three days are stale."

"He laughs best who laughs last."

"When debtors once have borrowed all we have to lend, they are very apt to grow shy of their creditors' company."

"Belinda: Ay, but you know we must return good for evil. Lady Brute: That may be a mistake in the translation."

"No man worth having is true to his wife, or can be true to his wife, or ever was, or ever will be so."

"Thinking is to me the greatest fatigue in the world."

"Once a woman has given you her heart you can never get rid of the rest of her."

"As if a woman of education bought things because she wanted 'em."

"The want of a thing is perplexing enough, but the possession of it is intolerable."

"Much of a muchness."

"Dryden may be properly considered as the father of English criticism, as the writer who first taught us to determine upon principles the merit of composition."

"What is there in Dryden? Much, but above all this: he is the most masculine of our poets; his style and his rhythms lay the strongest stress of all our literature on the naked thew and sinew of the English language."

"Here let me bend, great Dryden, at thy shrine, Thou dearest name to all the tuneful nine. What if some dull lines in cold order creep, And with his theme the poet seems to sleep? Still, when his subject rises proud to view, With equal strength the poet rises too: With strong invention, noblest vigour fraught, Thought still springs up and rises out of thought; Numbers ennobling numbers in their course, In varied sweetness flow, in varied force; The powers of genius and of judgment join, And the whole Art of Poetry is thine."

"He had made the language his study; and though he wrote hastily, and often incorrectly, and his style is not free from faults, yet there is a richness in his diction, a copiousness, ease, and variety in his expression, which has not been surpassed by any who have come after him."

"He with his sword unsheathed, on pain of life, Commands both combatants to cease their strife."

"Would you the advantage of the fight delay If, striking first, you were to win the day?"

"The Grecians rally, and their powers unite; With fury charge us, and renew the fight."

"Thus fights Ulysses, thus his fame extends; A formidable man, but to his friends."

"He to the town return’d, Attended by the chiefs who fought the field, Now friendly mix’d, and in one troop compell’d."

"Their standard, planted on the battlement, Despair and death among the soldiers sent."

"Amidst whole heaps of spices lights a ball, And now their odours arm’d against them fly: Some preciously by shatter’d porcelain fall, And some by aromatic splinters die."

"A cloud of smoke envelops either host, And all at once the combatants are lost: Darkling they join adverse, and shock unseen, Coursers with coursers justing, mén with men."

"Two battles your auspicious cause has won; Thy sword can perfect what it has begun."

"They follow their undaunted king; Crowd through their gates; and, in the fields of light, The shocking squadrons meet in mortal fight."

"Why asks he what avails him not in fight, And would but cumber and retard his flight, In which his only excellence is placed? You give him death that interrupt his haste."

"Here Pallas urges on, and Lausus there; Their congress in the field great Jove withstands: Both doom’d to fall, but fall by greater hands."

"I fought and fell like one, but death deceived me: I wanted weight of feeble Moors upon me, To crush my soul out."

"Our swords so wholly did the fates employ, That they, at length, grew weary to destroy; Refused the work we brought, and out of breath, Made sorrow and despair attend for death."

"But the base miser starves amidst his store, Broods o’er his gold, and, griping still at more, Sits sadly pining, and believes he’s poor."

"From hence the greatest part of ills descend, When lust of getting more will have no end."

"As thy strutting bags with money rise, The love of gain is of an equal size."

"Like a miser ’midst his store, Who grasps and grasps till he can hold no more."

"For should you to extortion be inclined, Your cruel guilt will little booty find."

"The base wretch who hoards up all he can Is praised and call’d a careful thrifty man."

"For he who covets gain in such excess Does by dumb signs himself as much express As if in words at length he show’d his mind."

"Go, miser! go: for lucre sell thy soul; Truck wares for wares, and trudge from pole to pole, That men may say, when thou art dead and gone, See what a vast estate he left his son!"

"Nor love his peace of mind destroys, Nor wicked avarice of wealth."

"Young men to imitate all ills are prone, But are compell'd to avarice alone; For then in virtue's shape they follow vice."