"Rather I'd choose laboriously to bear A weight of woes, and breathe the vital air, A slave to some poor hind that toils for bread, Than reign the sceptred monarch of the dead."

"And pines with thirst amidst a sea of waves."

"I turn’d my eye, and as I turn’d survey’d A mournful vision! the Sisyphian shade; With many a weary step, and many a groan, Up the high hill he heaves a huge round stone; The huge round stone, resulting with a bound, Thunders impetuous down, and smokes along the ground."

"Up the high hill he heaves a huge round stone."

"There in the bright assemblies of the skies."

"Gloomy as night he stands."

"All, soon or late, are doom'd that path to tread."

"And what so tedious as a twice-told tale."

"Better to rush at once to shades below, Than linger life away, and nourish woe!"

"He ceas'd; but left so pleasing on their ear His voice, that list'ning still they seem'd to hear."

"His native home deep imag'd in his soul."

"And bear unmov'd the wrongs of base mankind, The last and hardest conquest of the mind."

"How prone to doubt, how cautious are the wise!"

"It never was our guise To slight the poor, or aught humane despise."

"The sex is ever to a soldier kind."

"Far from gay cities and the ways of men."

"And wine can of their wits the wise beguile, Make the sage frolic, and the serious smile."

"Who love too much, hate in the like extreme, And both the golden mean alike condemn."

"True friendship's laws are by this rule expressed, Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest."

"For too much rest itself becomes a pain."

"Discourse, the sweeter banquet of the mind."

"And taste The melancholy joy of evils past: For he who much has suffer'd, much will know."

"For love deceives the best of womankind."

"And would'st thou evil for his good repay?"

"Whatever day Makes man a slave, takes half his worth away."

"In ev'ry sorrowing soul I pour'd delight, And poverty stood smiling in my sight."

"Unbless'd thy hand, if in this low disguise Wander, perhaps, some inmate of the skies."

"Know from the bounteous heaven all riches flow; And what man gives, the gods by man bestow."

"Yet taught by time, my heart has learn'd to glow For others' good, and melt at others' woe."

"A winy vapour melting in a tear."

"But he whose inborn worth his acts commend, Of gentle soul, to human race a friend."

"The fool of fate,—thy manufacture, man."

"Impatient straight to flesh his virgin sword."

"Dogs, ye have had your day!"

"For dear to gods and men is sacred song. Self-taught I sing; by Heaven, and Heaven alone, The genuine seeds of poesy are sown."

"So ends the bloody business of the day."

"And rest at last where souls unbodied dwell, In ever-flowing meads of Asphodel."

"The ruins of himself! now worn away With age, yet still majestic in decay."

"And o'er the past Oblivion stretch her wing."

"Tell me, Muse, of the man of many wiles."

"So perish all who do the like again."

"The wrath of Peleus' son, the direful spring Of all the Grecian woes, O goddess sing!"

"Bold is the task, when subjects, grown too wise, Instruct a monarch where his error lies."

"The distant Trojans never injur'd me."

"Thou dog in forehead, but in heart a deer!"

"Words sweet as honey from his lips distill'd."

"Shakes his ambrosial curls, and gives the nod,— The stamp of fate, and sanction of the god."

"And unextinguish'd laughter shakes the skies."