The Task (poem)

"It seems the part of wisdom."

"All learned, and all drunk!"

"Gloriously drunk, obey the important call."

"Those golden times And those Arcadian scenes that Maro sings, And Sidney, warbler of poetic prose."

"The Frenchman's darling."

"Some must be great. Great offices will have Great talents. And God gives to every man The virtue, temper, understanding, taste, That lifts him into life, and lets him fall Just in the niche he was ordain'd to fill."

"Shaggy and lean and shrewd, with pointed ears And tail cropped short, half lurcher and half cur."

"Silently as a dream the fabric rose — No sound of hammer or of saw was there."

"But war's a game, which, were their subjects wise, Kings would not play at."

"The beggarly last doit."

"As dreadful as the Manichean god, Adored through fear, strong only to destroy."

"The still small voice is wanted."

"He is the freeman whom the truth makes free."

"With filial confidence inspired, Can lift to Heaven an unpresumptuous eye, And smiling say, My Father made them all!"

"Acquaint thyself with God, if thou would'st taste His works. Admitted once to his embrace, Thou shalt perceive that thou was blind before: Thine eye shall be instructed; and thine heart Made pure shall relish with divine delight Till then unfelt, what hands divine have wrought."

"Give what Thou canst, without Thee we are poor; And with Thee rich, take what Thou wilt away."

"There is in souls a sympathy with sounds; And as the mind is pitched the ear is pleased With melting airs or martial, brisk, or grave: Some chord in unison with what we hear Is touched within us, and the heart replies. How soft the music of those village bells Falling at intervals upon the ear In cadence sweet!"

"Here the heart May give a useful lesson to the head, And Learning wiser grow without his books."

"Knowledge and Wisdom, far from being one, Have oft-times no connexion. Knowledge dwells in heads replete with thoughts of other men, Wisdom in minds attentive to their own."

"Knowledge, a rude unprofitable mass, The mere materials with which wisdom builds, Till smoothed and squared and fitted to its place, Does but encumber whom it seems to enrich. Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much; Wisdom is humble that he knows no more. Books are not seldom talismans and spells."

"Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much, Wisdom is humble that he knows no more."

"Some to the fascination of a name Surrender judgment hoodwink'd."

"Nature is but a name for an effect, Whose cause is God."

"Not a flower But shows some touch, in freckle, streak or stain, Of his unrivall'd pencil."

"A cheap but wholesome salad from the brook."

"But many a crime deem'd innocent on earth Is register'd in Heaven; and these no doubt Have each their record, with a curse annex'd. Man may dismiss compassion from his heart, But God will never."

"I would not enter on my list of friends, (Though graced with polish'd manners and fine sense, Yet wanting sensibility) the man Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm. An inadvertent step may crush the snail That crawls at evening in the public path; But he that has humanity, forewarn'd, Will tread aside, and let the reptile live."