Edward Young

"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."

"Mwyaf y brys, mwyaf y rhwystr."

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

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

"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."

"In records that defy the tooth of time."

"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."

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

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

"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."

"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?"

"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."

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