All Quotes

"Bid the laborious hind, Whose harden’d hands did long in tillage toil, Neglect the promised harvest of the soil."

"The wiser madman did for virtue toil A thorny, or at least a barren, soil."

"Here the marshy grounds approach your fields, And there the soil a stony harvest yields."

"While the reaper fills his greedy hands, And binds the golden sheaves in brittle bands."

"Did we for these barbarians plant and sow, On these, on these our happy fields bestow?"

"If your care to wheat alone extend, Let Maia with her sisters first descend, Before you trust in earth your future hope, Or else expect a listless, lazy crop."

"Some through ambition, or through thirst of gold, Have slain their brothers, and their country sold."

"Those who to empire by dark paths aspire, Still plead a call to what they most desire."

"One world sufficed not Alexander’s mind; Coop’d up he seem’d, in earth and seas confined."

"Too truly Tamerlane’s successors they; Each thinks a world too little for his sway."

"O diadem, thou centre of ambition, Where all its different lines are reconciled; As if thou wert the burning glass of glory."

"No toil, no hardship can restrain Ambitious man inured to pain; The more confined, the more he tries, And at forbidden quarry flies."

"With joy th’ ambitious youth his mother heard, And, eager, for the journey soon prepared; He longs the world beneath him to survey, To guide the chariot, and to give the day."

"Why does Antony dream out his hours, And tempts not fortune for a noble day?"

"To cure their mad ambition, they were sent To rule a distant province, each alone: What could a careful father more have done?"

"Leave to fathom such high points as these, Nor be ambitious, ere the time, to please; Unseasonably wise, till age and cares Have form’d thy soul to manage great affairs."

"Dare to be great without a guilty crown; View it, and lay the bright temptation down: ’Tis base to seize on all."

"Were virtue by descent, a noble name Could never villanize his father’s fame; But, as the first, the last of all the line Would, like the sun, ev’n in descending, shine."

"Vain are their hopes who fancy to inherit, By trees of pedigree, or fame or merit; Though plodding heralds through each branch may trace Old captains and dictators of their race."

"Long galleries of ancestors Challenge nor wonder or esteem from me: "Virtue alone is true nobility.""

"Do then as your progenitors have done, And by their virtues prove yourself their son."

"Thus, born alike, from virtue first began The diffrence that distinguish’d man from man: He claim’d no title from descent of blood; But that which made him noble, made him good."

"What have I lost by my forefathers’ fault! Why was I not the twentieth by descent From a long restive race of droning kings?"

"Please thy pride, and search the herald’s roll, Where thou shalt find thy famous pedigree, Drawn from the root of some old Tuscan tree, And thou, a thousand off, a fool of long degree."

"For if the sire be faint, or out of case, He will be copied in his famish’d race."

"So bright a splendour, so divine a grace, The glorious Daphnis casts on his illustrious race."

"Auspicious chief! thy race, in times to come, Shall spread the conquests of imperial Rome."

"From a mean stock the pious Decii came; Yet such their virtues, that their loss alone For Rome and all our regions did atone."

"Obscure! why prythee what am I? I know My father, grandsire, and great grandsire too: If farther I derive my pedigree, I can but guess beyond the fourth degree. The rest of my forgotten ancestors Were sons of earth."

"When we behold an angel, not to fear, Is to be impudent."

"That we may angels seem, we paint them elves, And are but satires to set up ourselves."

"I saw th’ angelic guards from earth ascend, Grieved they must now no longer man attend; The beams about their temples dimly shone; One would have thought the crime had been their own."

"When he knew his rival freed and gone, He swells with wrath; he makes outrageous moan: He frets, he fumes, he stares, he stamps the ground, The hollow tow’r with clamours rings around."

"I beg the grace You would lay by those terrors of your face; Till calmness to your eyes you first restore, I am afraid, and I can beg no more."

"If on your head my fury does not turn, Thank that fond dotage which so much you scorn."

"He, like a patient angler, ere he strook, Would let them play awhile upon the hook."

"Casting nets were spread in shallow brooks, Drags in the deep, and baits were hung on hooks."

"Perpetual anguish fills his anxious breast, Not stopt by business, nor composed by rest; No music cheers him, nor no feast can please."

"Some on antiquated authors pore; Rummage for sense."

"Then thus a senior of the place replies, Well read, and curious of antiquities."

"Ahmed comes back a conqueror, but what hath he found? The cry of the orphan is loud on his ear, And his eye hath beheld the young bride's bitter tear, And the friend of his youth is left dead on the plain, And the flower of his nobles return not again. There are crowds that are filling the air with his name; Do ye marvel the monarch is loathing his fame?"

"I numbered years of pain and distress, And but fourteen days of happiness. Mortal, nor pleasure, nor wealth, nor power, Are more than the toys of a passing hour;"

"My heart is like the failing hearth Now by my side, One by one its bursts of flame Have burnt and died."

"Where do purple bubbles swim, But upon the goblet's brim ? Drink not deep, howe'er it glow Sparkles never lie below."

"For my spirit hath left her earthly home And found a nobler dwelling, Where the music of light is that of life, And the starry harps are swelling."

"I cannot choose but marvel at the way In which our lives pass on, from day to day Learning strange lessons in the human heart, And yet like shadows letting them depart."

"We do too little feel each others' pain; We do relax too much the social chain That binds us to each other; slight the care There is for grief in which we have no share."

"For misery, like a masquer, mocks at all In which it has no part, or one of gall,"

"Such as the lute, touch'd by no hand Save by an angel's, wakes and weeps, Such is the sound that now to land From the charmed water sweeps."

"A louder sweep the music gave : The chieftain of the charmed wave, Graceful upon his steed of snow, Rises from his blue halls below ; And rode he like a victor-knight Thrice glorious in his arms of light."