Playwrights From Ireland

"That strain once more; it bids remembrance rise."

"As aromatic plants bestow No spicy fragrance while they grow; But crush'd or trodden to the ground, Diffuse their balmy sweets around."

"The king himself has followed her When she has walk'd before."

"Good people all, with one acord, Lament for Madame Blaize, Who never wanted a good word — From those who spoke her praise."

"As writers become more numerous, it is natural for readers to become more indolent."

"The true use of speech is not so much to express our wants as to conceal them."

"One writer, for instance, excels at a plan or a title page, another works away at the body of the book, and a third is a dab at an index."

"For he who fights and runs away May live to fight another day; But he who is in battle slain Can never rise and fight again."

"You may all go to pot."

"[To Mr. Johnson] If you were to make little fishes talk, they would talk like whales."

"There is no arguing with Johnson: for if his pistol misses fire, he knocks you down with the butt end of it."

"Such dainties to them, their health it might hurt; It's like sending them ruffles, when wanting a shirt."

"The better sort here pretend to the utmost compassion for animals of every kind. To hear them speak, a stranger would be apt to imagine they could hardly hurt the gnat that stung them: they seem so tender and so full of pity, that one would take them for the harmless friends of the whole creation; the protectors of the meanest insect or reptile that was privileged with existence. And yet, would you believe it? I have seen the very men who have thus boasted of their tenderness, at the same time devouring the flesh of six different animals toasted up in a fricassee. Strange contrariety of conduct! they pity and they eat the objects of their compassion."

"Men may be very learned, and yet very miserable; it is easy to be a deep geometrician, or a sublime astronomer, but very difficult to be a good man. I esteem, therefore, the traveller who instructs the heart, but despise him who only indulges the imagination. A man who leaves home to mend himself and others, is a philosopher; but he who goes from country to country, guided by the blind impulse of curiosity, is only a vagabond."

"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."

"A nightcap decked his brows instead of bay, A cap by night — a stocking all the day!"

"In the time of the civill warres, George Withers, the poet, begged Sir John Denham's estate at Egham of the Parliament, in whose cause he was a captaine of horse. It happened that G. W. was taken prisoner, and was in danger of his life, having written severely against the king, &c. Sir John Denham went to the king, and desired his majestie not to hang him, for that whilest G. W. lived he should not be the worst poet in England."

"We're ne'er like angels till our passion dies."

"Search not to find what lies too deeply hid, Nor to know things whose knowledge is forbid; Nor climb on pyramids, which thy head turn round Standing, and whence no safe descent is found."

"Let not the pleasing many thee delight, First judge if those whom thou dost please judge right."

"Search not to find how other men offend, But by that glass thy own offences mend; Still seek to learn, yet care not much from whom, (So it be learning) or from whence it come. Of thy own actions, others' judgments learn; Often by small, great matters we discern: Youth what man's age is like to be doth show; We may our ends by our beginnings know."

"When any great design thou dost intend, Think of the means, the manner, and the end."

"Books should to one of these four ends conduce, For wisdom, piety, delight, or use."

"Wisdom of what herself approves makes choice, Nor is led captive by the common voice. Clear-sighted Reason Wisdom's judgment leads, And Sense, her vassal, in her footsteps treads. That thou to Truth the perfect way may'st know, To thee all her specific forms I'll show: He that the way to honesty will learn, First what's to be avoided must discern. Thyself from flatt'ring self-conceit defend, Nor what thou dost not know to know pretend. Some secrets deep in abstruse darkness lie: To search them thou wilt need a piercing eye. Not rashly therefore to such things assent, Which, undeceived, thou after may'st repent; Study and time in these must thee instruct, And others' old experience may conduct. Wisdom herself her ear doth often lend To counsel offer'd by a faithful friend."

"Wisdom's first progress is to take a view What's decent or indecent, false or true."

"That servile path thou nobly dost decline Of tracing word by word, and line by line; A new and nobler way thou dost pursue To make translations, and translators too; They but preserve the ashes, thou the flame, True to his sense, but truer to his fame."

"Nor ought a genius less than his that writ Attempt translation."

"Such is our pride, our folly, or our fate, That few but such as cannot write, translate."

"[U]ncertain ways unsafest are."

"Variety, which all the rest endears."

"Oh, could I flow like thee, and make thy stream My great example, as it is my theme! Though deep, yet clear; though gentle, yet not dull; Strong without rage; without o'erflowing, full."

"Though with those streams he no resemblance hold, Whose foam is amber and their gravel gold; His genuine and less guilty wealth t' explore, Search not his bottom, but survey his shore."

"But wealth is crime enough to him that's poor."

"Whatsoever Is worthy of their love, is worth their anger."

"Ambition is like love, impatient Both of delays and rivals."

"Actions o' th' last age are like almanacks o' th' last year."

"I conceive it is a vulgar error in translating poets, to affect being fidus interpres... [for] poetry is of so subtile a spirit, that in the pouring out of one language into another, it will all evaporate; and if a new spirit be not added in the transfusion, there will remain nothing but a caput mortuum, there being certain graces and happinesses peculiar to every language, which give life and energy to the words... therefore if Virgil must needs speak English, it were fit he should speak not only as a man of this nation, but as man of this age."

"But whither am I strayed? I need not raise Trophies to thee from other men's dispraise; Nor is thy fame on lesser ruins built; Nor needs thy juster title the foul guilt Of Eastern kings, who, to secure their reign, Must have their brothers, sons, and kindred slain."

"The best-humour'd man, with the worst-humour'd Muse."

"When he talked of their Raphaels, Correggios, and stuff, He shifted his trumpet and only took snuff."

"Who peppered the highest was surest to please."

"He cast off his friends as a huntsman his pack, For he knew when he pleased he could whistle them back."

"On the stage he was natural, simple, affecting; 'Twas only that when he was off he was acting."

"As a wit, if not first, in the very first line."

"Here lies David Garrick, describe me, who can, An abridgment of all that was pleasant in man."

"A flattering painter, who made it his care To draw men as they ought to be, not as they are."

"His conduct still right, with his argument wrong."

"Here lies our good Edmund, whose genius was such, We scarcely can praise it, or blame it too much; Who, born for the universe, narrow'd his mind, And to party gave up what was meant for mankind; Though fraught with all learning, yet straining his throat To persuade Tommy Townshend to lend him a vote. Who too deep for his hearers still went on refining, And thought of convincing while they thought of dining: Though equal to all things, for all things unfit; Too nice for a statesman, too proud for a wit."

"Who mix'd reason with pleasure, and wisdom with mirth: If he had any faults, he has left us in doubt."

"Our Garrick's a salad; for in him we see Oil, vinegar, sugar, and saltness agree!"