"Certainly, I must confess my own barbarousness, I never heard the old song of Percy and Douglas that I found not my heart moved more than with a trumpet."

"Ah, Love! could you and I with Him conspire To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire, Would not we shatter it to bits — and then Re-mould it nearer to the Heart's Desire!"

"My true love hath my heart, and I have his, By just exchange, one for the other given."

"The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it."

"As in geometry, the oblique must be known, as well as the right; and in arithmetic, the odd as well as the even; so in actions of life, who seeth not the filthiness of evil, wanteth a great foil to perceive the beauty of virtue."

"And thou my minde aspire to higher things; Grow rich in that which never taketh rust."

"High-erected thoughts seated in the heart of courtesy."

"Poetry, a speaking picture... to teach and delight"

"'Tis all a Chequer-board of Nights and Days Where Destiny with Men for Pieces plays: Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays, And one by one back in the Closet lays."

"Each Morn a thousand Roses brings, you say; Yes, but where leaves the Rose of Yesterday?"

"Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough, A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse — and Thou Beside me singing in the Wilderness — And Wilderness is Paradise enow."

"The King in a carriage may ride, And the Beggar may crawl at his side; But in the general race, They are traveling all the same pace."

"A Book of Verses underneath the Bough, A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread — and Thou Beside me singing in the Wilderness — Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!"

"Leave well — even 'pretty well' — alone: that is what I learn as I get old."

"I am all for the short and merry life."

"Whether we wake or we sleep, Whether we carol or weep, The Sun with his Planets in chime, Marketh the going of Time."

"Some for the Glories of This World; and some Sigh for the Prophet's Paradise to come; Ah, take the Cash, and let the Credit go, Nor heed the rumble of a distant Drum!"

"Having seen how many follow and have followed false religions, and having our reason utterly against many of the principal points of the Bible, we require the most perfect evidence of facts, before we can believe. If you can prove to me that one miracle took place, I will believe that he is a just God who damned us all because a woman ate an apple; and you can't expect greater complaisance than that to be sure."

"The poet...nothing affirmeth, and therefore never lieth."

"They are never alone that are accompanied with noble thoughts."

"Science unrolls a greater epic than the Iliad. The present day teems with new discoveries in Fact, which are greater, as regards the soul and prospect of men, than all the disquisitions and quiddities of the Schoolmen. A few fossil bones in clay and limestone have opened a greater vista back into time than the Indian imagination ventured upon for its Gods: and every day turns up something new. This vision of Time must not only wither the poet's hope of immortality, it is in itself more wonderful than all the conceptions of Dante and Milton."

"Oh, come with old Khayyám, and leave the Wise To talk; one thing is certain, that Life flies; One thing is certain, and the Rest is Lies; The Flower that once has blown for ever dies."

"Open suspecting others comes of secret condemning themselves."

"This is that Sidney, whom, as Gods will was he should be therefore home into the world, even to shew unto our age a sample of ancient vertues: so his good pleasure was before any man looked for it to call for him againe, and take him out of the world as beeing more worthy of heaven then earth."

"Hard-hearted minds relent and rigor's tears abound, And envy strangely rues his end, in whom no fault was found. Knowledge her light hath lost, valor hath slain her knight, Sidney is dead, dead is my friend, dead is the world's delight."

"Many-headed multitude."

"Nearer, my God, to Thee! Nearer to Thee! E’en though it be a cross That raiseth me, Still all my song shall be, Nearer, my God, to Thee! Nearer to Thee!"

"If all be true that I do think, There are five reasons we should drink: Good wine, a friend, or being dry, Or lest we should be by and by, Or any other reason why."

"Though like the wanderer, The sun gone down, Darkness be over me, My rest a stone; Yet in my dreams I'd be Nearer, my God, to Thee."

"He sendeth sun, he sendeth shower,- Alike they’re needful to the flower; And joys and tears alike are sent To give the soul fit nourishment. As comes to me or cloud or sun, Father! thy will, not mine, be done."

"Once have a priest for enemy, good bye To peace."

"I kan noght parfitly my Paternoster as the preest it syngeth, But I kan rymes of Robyn Hood and Randolf Erl of Chestre."

"For if hevene be on this erthe, and ese to any soule, It is in cloistre or in scole."

"Whan Costantyn of curteisie Holy Kirke dowed With londes and ledes, lordshipes and rentes, An aungel men herden an heigh at Rome crye, "Dos ecclesie this day hath ydronke venym, And tho that han Petres power arn apoisoned alle!""

"Brewesters and baksters, bochiers and cokes – For thise are men on this molde that moost harm wercheth To the povere peple"

"A fair feeld ful of folk fond I ther bitwene – Of alle manere of men, the meene and the riche, Werchynge and wandrynge as the world asketh."

"In preieres and penaunce putten hem manye, Al for the love of Oure Lord lyveden ful streyte In hope to have heveneriche blisse"

"First impressions of mediaeval life are usually coloured by the courtly romances of Malory and his later refiners. Chaucer brings us down to reality, but his people belong to a prosperous middle-class world, on holiday and in holiday mood. Piers Plowman stands alone as a revelation of the ignorance and misery of the lower classes, whose multiplied grievances came to a head in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381."

"For hevene myghte nat holden it, so was it hevy of hymself, Til it hadde of the erthe eten his fille. And whan it hadde of this fold flessh and blood taken, Was nevere leef upon lynde lighter therafter, And portatif and persaunt as the point of a nedle, That myghte noon armure it lette ne none heighe walles. Forthi is love ledere of the Lordes folk of hevene, And a meene, as the mair is, [inmiddes] the kyng and the commune."

"In a somer seson, whan softe was the sonne, I shoop me into shroudes as I a sheep were, In habite as an heremite unholy of werkes, Wente wide in this world wondres to here. Ac on a May morwenynge on Malverne hilles Me bifel a ferly, of Fairye me thoghte."

"Less than the dust beneath thy chariot wheel, Less than the rust that never stained thy sword,"

"Less than the weed that grows beside thy door"

"Pale hands I loved beside the Shalimar. Where are you now? Who lies beneath your spell? Whom do you lead on Rapture's roadway, far, Before you agonise them in farewell?"

"I would have rather felt you round my throat Crushing out life, than waving me farewell!"

"In the light of absolute values (religious or ethical) man himself is judged to be limited or imperfect, while he can occasionally accomplish acts which partake of perfection, he, himself can never be perfect."