All Quotes

"New Presbyter is but Old Priest writ Large."

"For other things mild Heav'n a time ordains, And disapproves that care, though wise in show, That with superfluous burden loads the day, And, when God sends a cheerful hour, refrains."

"For such kind of borrowing as this, if it be not bettered by the borrower, among good authors is accounted Plagiarè."

"None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license."

"No man who knows aught, can be so stupid to deny that all men naturally were born free."

"Peace hath her victories No less renowned than war."

"When I consider how my light is spent, Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide, And that one talent which is death to hide Lodged with me useless."

"Who best Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best: his state Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed, And post o'er land and ocean without rest; They also serve who only stand and wait."

"Non est miserum esse caecum, miserum est caecitatem non posse ferre."

"Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold; Ev'n them who kept thy truth so pure of old When all our fathers worshipped stocks and stones Forget not."

"Cyriack, whose Grandsire on the Royal Bench Of British Themis, with no mean applause Pronounced and in his volumes taught our Laws, Which others at their Bar so often wrench"

"Yet I argue not Against Heav'n's hand or will, nor bate one jot Of heart or hope; but still bear up, and steer Right onward."

"Of which all Europe rings from side to side."

"In mirth that after no repenting draws."

"Lawrence, of virtuous father virtuous son"

"Methought I saw my late espousèd saint Brought to me like Alcestis from the grave."

"But oh! as to embrace me she inclined, I waked, she fled, and day brought back my night."

"[Rhyme is] but the invention of a barbarous age, to set off wretched matter and lame Meter; ... Not without cause therefore some both Italian and Spanish poets of prime note have rejected rhyme, ... as have also long since our best English tragedies, as... trivial and of no true musical delight; which [truly] consists only in apt numbers, fit quantity of syllables, and the sense variously drawn out from one verse into another, not in the jingling sound of like endings, a fault avoided by the learned ancients both in poetry and all good oratory."

"Such bickerings to recount, met often in these our writers, what more worth is it than to chronicle the wars of kites or crows flocking and fighting in the air?"

"For stories teach us, that liberty sought out of season, in a corrupt and degenerate age, brought Rome itself to a farther slavery: for liberty hath a sharp and double edge, fit only to be handled by just and virtuous men; to bad and dissolute, it becomes a mischief unwieldy in their own hands: neither is it completely given, but by them who have the happy skill to know what is grievance and unjust to a people, and how to remove it wisely; what good laws are wanting, and how to frame them substantially, that good men may enjoy the freedom which they merit, and the bad the curb which they need."

"Madam, methinks I see him living yet; So well your words his noble virtues praise, That all both judge you to relate them true, And to possess them, honour'd Margaret."

"The end of learning is to know God, and out of that knowledge to love Him and imitate Him."

"Such as may make thee search the coffers round."

"O fairest flower! no sooner blown but blasted, Soft silken primrose fading timelessly."

"Thy liquid notes that close the eye of day."

"I neither oblige the belief of other person, nor overhastily subscribe mine own. Nor have I stood with others computing or collating years and chronologies, lest I should be vainly curious about the time and circumstance of things, whereof the substance is so much in doubt. By this time, like one who had set out on his way by night, and travelled through a region of smooth or idle dreams, our history now arrives on the confines, where daylight and truth meet us with a clear dawn, representing to our view, though at a far distance, true colours and shapes."

"This is the month, and this the happy morn, Wherein the Son of Heav'n's eternal King, Of wedded maid and virgin mother born, Our great redemption from above did bring; For so the holy sages once did sing, That He our deadly forfeit should release, And with His Father work us a perpetual peace."

"It was the winter wild While the Heav'n-born child All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies."

"No war, or battle's sound Was heard the world around. The idle spear and shield were high up hung."

"Time will run back and fetch the Age of Gold."

"Swinges the scaly horror of his folded tail."

"The oracles are dumb, No voice or hideous hum Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving. Apollo from his shrine Can no more divine, With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving. No nightly trance or breathed spell Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell."

"From haunted spring and dale Edged with poplar pale The parting genius is with sighing sent."

"Peor and Baälim Forsake their temples dim."

"Hence, loathèd Melancholy, Of Cerberus and blackest Midnight born, In Stygian cave forlorn, 'Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights unholy."

"Haste thee, Nymph, and bring with thee Jest, and youthful jollity, Quips and cranks and wanton wiles, Nods and becks and wreathèd smiles."

"Sport, that wrinkled Care derides, And Laughter, holding both his sides. Come, and trip it, as you go. On the light fantastic toe."

"The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty."

"Mirth, admit me of thy crew, To live with her, and live with thee, In unreprovèd pleasures free."

"While the cock with lively din Scatters the rear of darkness thin, And to the stack, or the barn door, Stoutly struts his dames before, Oft list'ning how the hounds and horn Cheerly rouse the slumb'ring morn."

"And every shepherd tells his tale Under the hawthorn in the dale."

"Meadows trim, with daisies pied, Shallow brooks, and rivers wide; Towers and balements it sees Bosomed high in tufted trees, Where perhaps some beauty lies, The cynosure of neighboring eyes."

"Herbs, and other country messes, Which the neat-handed Phillis dresses."

"And the jocund rebecks sound To many a youth, and many a maid, Dancing in the checkered shade. And young and old come forth to play On a sunshine holiday."

"Then to the spicy nut-brown ale."

"Then lies him down the lubber fiend, And stretched out all the chimney's length, Basks at the fire his hairy strength."

"Towered cities please us then, And the busy hum of men."

"Ladies, whose bright eyes Rain influence, and judge the prize."

"And pomp, and feast, and revelry, With mask, and antique pageantry, Such sights as youthful poets dream On summer eves by haunted stream. Then to the well-trod stage anon, If Jonson's learned sock be on, Or sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy's child, Warble his native wood-notes wild, And ever, against eating cares, Lap me in soft Lydian airs, Married to immortal verse Such as the meeting soul may pierce, In notes with many a winding bout Of linked sweetness long drawn out."

"Untwisting all the chains that tie The hidden soul of harmony."