"Sunday itself—that unfortunate failure of a holyday as it too often proved, what with my sense of its fugitiveness, and over-care to get the greatest quantity of pleasure out of it ..."

"Each day used to be individually felt by me in its reference to the foreign post days; in its distance from, or propinquity to, the next Sunday. I had my Wednesday feelings, my Saturday nights' sensations."

"I have indeed lived nominally fifty years, but deduct out of them the hours which I have lived to other people, and not to myself, and you will find me still a young fellow. For that is the only true time, which a man can properly call his own, that which he has all to himself; the rest, though in some sense he may be said to live it, is other people's time, not his. The remnant of my poor days, long or short, is at least multiplied for me three-fold. My ten next years, if I stretch so far, will be as long as any preceding thirty."

"From a poor man, poor in Time, I was suddenly lifted up into a vast revenue; I could see no end of my possessions; I wanted some steward, or judicious bailiff, to manage my estates in Time for me."

"If peradventure, Reader, it has been thy lot to waste the golden years of thy life—thy shining youth—in the irksome confinement of an office; to have thy prison days prolonged through middle age down to decrepitude and silver hairs, without hope of release or respite; to have lived to forget that there are such things as holidays, or to remember them but as the prerogatives of childhood; then, and then only, will you be able to appreciate my deliverance."

"The good things of life are not to be had singly, but come to us with a mixture."

"A presentation copy...is a copy of a book whoch does not sell, sent you by the author, with his foolish autograph at the beginning of it; for which, if a stranger, he only demands your friendship; if a brother author, he expects from you a book of yours, which does not sell, in return."

"A pun is a pistol let off at the ear; not a feather to tickle the intellect."

"Your absence of mind we have borne, till your presence of body came to be called in question by it."

"How sickness enlarges the dimensions of a man's self to himself! he is his own exclusive object. Supreme selfishness is inculcated upon him as his only duty."

"Books which are no books."

"Things in books' clothing."

"When did his muse from Fletcher scenes purloin, As thou whose Eth’ ridge dost transfuse to thine? But so transfused as oil and waters flow: His always floats above, thine sinks below."

"In easy dialogues is Fletcher’s praise: He moved the mind, but had not pow’r to raise."

"Great Fletcher never treads in buskins here, Nor greater Jonson dares in socks appear."

"Noble Boyle, not less in nature seen Than his great brother read in states and men."

"And much more honest to be hired, and stand With auctionary hammer in thy hand; Provoking to give more, and knocking thrice For the old household stuff, or picture’s price."

"If but a mile she travel out of town, The planetary hour must first be known, And lucky moment, if her eye but akes, Or itches, its decumbiture she takes."

"Would I had been disposer of thy stars, Thou shouldst have had thy wish, and died in wars."

"Sorceries to raise th’ infernal pow’rs, And sigils framed in planetary hours."

"Such sullen planets at my birth did shine, They threaten every fortune mixt with mine."

"The spiteful stars have shed their venom down, And now the peaceful planets take their turn."

"Unskill’d in schemes by planets to foreshow, I neither will nor can prognosticate To the young gaping heir his father’s fate."

"Live then, thou great encourager of arts! Live ever in our thankful hearts."

"He, full of fraudful arts, This well-invented tale for truth imparts."

"All arts and artists Theseus could command, Who sold for hire, or wrought for better fame."

"What wonder if the kindly beams he shed, Revived the drooping arts again; If science raised her head, And soft humanity, that from rebellion fled."

"The soldier then in Grecian arts unskill’d, Returning rich with plunder from the field, If cups of silver or of gold he brought With jewels set, and exquisitely wrought, To glorious trappings strait the plate he turn’d, And with the glitt’ring spoil his horse adorn’d."

"Their wildness lose, and, quitting nature’s part, Obey the rules and discipline of art."

"The whole division that to Mars pertains, All trades of death that deal in steel for gains, Were there; the butcher, armorer, and smith, Who forges sharpen’d fauchions, or the scythe."

"Grant her, besides, of noble blood that ran In ancient veins, ere heraldry began."

"His son builds on, and never is content Till the last farthing is in structure spent."

"Firm Doric pillars found the solid base, The fair Corinthian crown the higher space, And all below is strength, and all above is grace."

"Let this and every other anxious thought At th’ entrance of my threshold be forgot."

"His pensive cheek upon his hand reclined, And anxious thoughts revolving in his mind."

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

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

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

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

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

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

"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."

"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 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."

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

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

"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."

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

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

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