All Quotes

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

"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."

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

"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."

"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."

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

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

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

"The feeble old, indulgent of their ease."

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

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

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

"All have not the gift of martyrdom."

"I am resolved to grow fat, and look young till forty."

"All human things are subject to decay, And, when fate summons, monarchs must obey."

"For those whom God to ruin has design'd, He fits for fate, and first destroys their mind."

"I am reading Jonson's verses to the memory of Shakespeare; an insolent, sparing, and invidious panegyric."

"Look round the habitable world: how few Know their own good, or knowing it, pursue."

"I well believe, thou wouldst be great as he; For every man's a fool to that degree: All wish the dire prerogative to kill; Ev'n they would have the power who want the will."

"What flocks of critics hover here to-day, As vultures wait on armies for their prey, All gaping for the carcase of a play! With croaking notes they bode some dire event, And follow dying poets by the scent."

"He's somewhat lewd; but a well-meaning mind; Weeps much; fights little; but is wond'rous kind."

"A brave man scorns to quarrel once a day; Like Hectors in at every petty fray."

"When beauty fires the blood, how love exalts the mind!"

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

"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."

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Above any Greek or Roman name."

"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."

"And torture one poor word ten thousand ways."

"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."

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

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

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

"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."

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

"Lord of yourself, uncumbered with a wife."

"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."

"He was exhaled; his great Creator drew His spirit, as the sun the morning dew."

"Here lies my wife: here let her lie! Now she's at rest, and so am I."

"And threat'ning France, plac'd like a painted Jove, Kept idle thunder in his lifted hand."

"By viewing Nature, Nature's handmaid Art, Makes mighty things from small beginnings grow."

"So close behind some promontory lie The huge Leviathan to attend their prey, And give no chance, but swallow in the fry, Which through their gaping jaws mistake the way."

"If confidence presage a victory, Eugenius, in his own opinion, has already triumphed over the Ancients: nothing seems more easy to him than to overcome those whom it is our greatest praise to have imitated well; for we do not only build upon their foundation, but by their models."

"The Famous Rules which the French call, Des Trois Unités, or, The Three Unities, which ought to be observ'd in every Regular Play; namely, of Time, Place, and Action."

"To begin then with Shakespeare; he was the man who of all Modern, and perhaps Ancient Poets, had the largest and most comprehensive soul. All the Images of Nature were still present to him, and he drew them not laboriously, but luckily: when he describes any thing, you more than see it, you feel it too. Those who accuse him to have wanted learning, give him the greater commendation: he was naturally learn'd; he needed not the spectacles of Books to read Nature; he look'd inwards, and found her there. I cannot say he is every where alike; were he so, I should do him injury to compare him with the greatest of Mankind. He is many times flat, insipid; his Comick wit degenerating into clenches; his serious swelling into Bombast. But he is alwayes great, when some great occasion is presented to him: no man can say he ever had a fit subject for his wit, and did not then raise himself as high above the rest of the Poets,"