"Better to hunt in fields, for health unbought, Than fee the doctor for a nauseous draught. The wise, for cure, on exercise depend; God never made his work for man to mend."

"Lord of yourself, uncumbered with a wife."

"Words, once my stock, are wanting to commend So great a poet and so good a friend."

"How easie is it to call Rogue and Villain, and that wittily! But how hard to make a Man appear a Fool, a Blockhead, or a Knave, without using any of those opprobrious terms! To spare the grossness of the Names, and to do the thing yet more severely, is to draw a full Face, and to make the Nose and Cheeks stand out, and yet not to employ any depth of Shadowing. This is the Mystery of that Noble Trade, which yet no Master can teach to his Apprentice: He may give the Rules, but the Scholar is never the nearer in his practice. Neither is it true, that this fineness of Raillery is offensive. A witty Man is tickl'd while he is hurt in this manner, and a Fool feels it not. The occasion of an Offence may possibly be given, but he cannot take it. If it be granted that in effect this way does more Mischief; that a Man is secretly wounded, and though he be not sensible himself, yet the malicious World will find it for him: yet there is still a vast difference betwixt the slovenly Butchering of a Man, and the fineness of a stroke that separates the Head from the Body, and leaves it standing in its place."

"Be kind to my remains; and oh defend, Against your judgment, your departed friend!"

"Genius must be born, and never can be taught."

"Thus all below is strength, and all above is grace."

"So softly death succeeded life in her, She did but dream of heaven, and she was there."

"Truth is the foundation of all knowledge, and the cement of all societies."

"Fairest Isle, all isles excelling, Seat of pleasures, and of loves; Venus here will choose her dwelling, And forsake her Cyprian groves."

"Three poets, in three distant ages born, Greece, Italy, and England did adorn. The first in loftiness of thought surpassed; The next, in majesty; in both the last. The force of Nature could no further go. To make a third, she joined the former two."

"And torture one poor word ten thousand ways."

"Our vows are heard betimes! and Heaven takes care To grant, before we can conclude the prayer: Preventing angels met it half the way, And sent us back to praise, who came to pray."

"Her wit was more than man, her innocence a child."

"O gracious God! how far have we Profaned thy heavenly gift of poesy!"

"Since heaven's eternal year is thine."

"Men met each other with erected look, The steps were higher that they took; Friends to congratulate their friends made haste, And long inveterate foes saluted as they passed."

"Above any Greek or Roman name."

"Wit will shine Through the harsh cadence of a rugged line."

"Bold knaves thrive without one grain of sense, But good men starve for want of impudence."

"Happy who in his verse can gently steer From grave to light, from pleasant to severe."

"Thespis, the first professor of our art, At country wakes sung ballads from a cart."

"Their heavenly harps a lower strain began, And in soft music mourn the fall of man."

"But Shakespeare's magic could not copied be; Within that circle none durst walk but he."

"All things are hush'd, as Nature's self lay dead, The Mountains seem to nod their drowsy head; The little Birds in dreams their Songs repeat, And sleeping Flowers, beneath the night-dew sweat; Even Lust and Envy sleep."

"An horrid stillness first invades the ear, And in that silence we the tempest fear."

"Oft the drudging ass is driven with toil; Returning late and loaden home with gain Of barter’d pitch, and handmills for the grain."

"The low’ring spring, with lavish rain, Beats down the slender stem and bearded grain."

"Mark well the flow’ring almonds in the wood: If od’rous blooms the bearing branches load, The glebe will answer to the sylvan reign: Great heats will follow, and large crops of grain."

"Some steep their seeds, and some in cauldrons boil O’er gentle fires; the exuberant juice to drain, And swell the flatt’ring husks with fruitful grain."

"The vineyard must employ thy sturdy steer To turn the glebe; besides thy daily pain To break the clods, and make the surface plain."

"In shallow furrows vines securely grow."

"She in pens his flocks will fold."

"On a short pruning-hook his head reclines, And studiously surveys his gen’rous vines."

"If a wood of leaves o’ershade the tree, In vain the hind shall vex the threshing floor, For empty chaff and straw will be thy store."

"In vain the hinds the threshing floor prepare, And exercise their flails in empty air."

"Delve of convenient depth your threshing floor; With temper’d clay then fill and face it o’er."

"Moist earth produces corn and grass, but both Too rank and too luxuriant in their growth. Let not my land so large a promise boast, Lest the lank ears in length of stem be lost."

"Your hay it is mow’d, and your corn it is reap’d; Your barns will be full, and your hovels heap’d; Come, my boys, come, Come, my boys, come, And merrily roar out harvest-home."

"The bearded corn ensued From earth unask’d; nor was that earth renew’d."

"Tough thistles choked the fields, and kill’d the corn, And an unthrifty crop of weeds was born."

"No fruitful crop the sickly fields return; But oats and darnel choke the rising corn."

"Thou king of horned floods, whose plenteous urn Suffices fatness to the fruitful corn, Shalt share my morning song and evening vows."

"He burns the leaves, the scorching blast invades The tender corn, and shrivels up the blades,"

"His corn and cattle were his only care, And his supreme delight a country fair."

"The lab’ring swain Scratch’d with a rake a furrow for his grain, And cover’d with his hand the shallow seed again."