"Ah, Chloris! could I now but sit As unconcern'd as when Your infant beauty could beget No happiness or pain! When I the dawn used to admire, And praised the coming day, I little thought the rising fire Would take my rest away."

"The Church is indeed, in its real Intent, An Assembly where Nothing but Friendship is meant; And the utter Extinction of Foeship and Wrath By the Working of Love in the Strength of its Faith. This gives it its holy and catholic Name, And truly confirms its apostolic Claim; Showing what the One Saviour's One Mission had been: "Go and teach all the World," — ev'ry Creature therein. In the Praise ever due to the Gospel of Grace Its Universality holds the first Place. When an Angel proclaim'd Its glad Tidings the Morn That the Son of the Virgin, the Saviour, was born, "Which shall be to all People," was said to complete The angelical Message, so good and so great, Full of " Glory to God," in the Regions Above, And of "Goodness to Men," is so Boundless a Love."

"This short Supplication, or Litany, read When the longer with us is not wont to be said, Tho' brief in Expression, as fully imports The Will to all Blessings, for "Men of all Sorts," — Same brotherly Love, by which Christians are taught To "pray without ceasing," or limiting Thought; That Religion may flourish upon its true Plan Of Glory to God and Salvation to Man."

"All which she entreats, for His Sake, to be done, Who suffer'd to save them, Christ Jesus, His Son,— In respect to the World, the Redeemer of All; "To the Church of the Faithful, most chiefly," saith Paul; And to them who shall suffer, whoever they be, In the Spirit of Christ, in the highest Degree. How ought such a Goodness all Minds to prepare For an hearty "Amen" to this Catholic Pray'r!"

"Of all Religions if we take a View, There is but one that ever can be true, — One God, One Christ, One Spirit, none but He. All else is Idol, whatsoe'er it be,— A Good that our Imaginations make, Unless we love it purely for His Sake."

"The One Unbounded, Undivided Good, By all His Creatures partly understood. If therefore Sense of its apparent Parts Raise not His Love or Worship in our Hearts, Our selfish Wills or Notions we may feast, And have no more Religion than a Beast."

"Religion's Meaning when I would recall, Love is to me the plainest Word of all. Plainest, — because that what I love, or hate, Shews me directly my internal State; By its own Consciousness is best defin'd Which way the Heart within me stands inclin'd. On what it lets its Inclination rest, To that its real Worship is address'd; Whatever Forms or Ceremonies spring From Custom's Force, there lies the real Thing; Jew, Turk or Christian be the Lover's Name, If same the Love, Religion is the same."

"No rest is to be found But in Thy blessèd love; O let my wish be crowned And send it from above."

"Religion, then, is Love's Celestial Force That penetrates thro' all to Its True Source; Loves all along, but with proportion'd Bent, As Creatures further the Divine Ascent, Not to the Skies or Stars, but to the part That will be always uppermost, — the Heart, There is the Seat, as Holy Writings tell, Where the Most High Himself delights to dwell; Whither attracting the desirous Will To its true Rest, He saves it from all Ill, Gives it to find in His Abyssal Love An Heav'n within, — in other Words, Above."

"God bless the King! (I mean our faith's defender!) God bless! (No harm in blessing) the Pretender. But who Pretender is, and who is King, God bless us all! That's quite another thing!"

"From the Divine, Eternal Spirit springs Order and Rule and Rectitude of Things, Thro' outward Nature, His Apparent Throne, Visibly seen, intelligibly known, — Proofs of a Boundless Pow'r, a Wisdom's Aid, By Goodness us'd, Eternal and Unmade."

"Th' Eternal Mind, ev'n Heathens understood, Was Infinitely Powerful, Wise, and Good. In their Conceptions, who conceiv'd aright, These Three Essential Attributes unite. They saw that, wanting any of the Three, Such an All-perfect Being could not be."

"Endless Perfections after all conspire, And to adore excite and to admire; But to plain Minds the Plainest Pow'r Above Is Native Goodness to attract our Love; Centre of all Its various Pow'r and Skill Is One Divine, Immutable Good Will."

"The Sabbath was made for Man; not Man for the Sabbath."

"Of true Religion Works of Mercy seem To be the plainest Proof in Christ's Esteem; Who has Himself declar'd what He will say To all the Nations at the Judgment Day: "Come," or "Depart," is the predicted Lot Of brotherly Compassion shown, or not."

"My spirit longs for Thee, Within my troubled breast, Though I unworthy be Of so divine a Guest."

"Here, all ye learned, full of all Dispute, Of true and false Religion lies the Root. The Mind of Christ, when He became a Man, With all Its Tempers, forms its real Plan, The Sheep from Goats distinguishing full well; — His Love is Heav'n, and Want of It is Hell."

"Christians, awake! salute the happy morn, Whereon the Saviour of mankind was born."

"No thyng ys to man so dere As wommanys love yn gode manere. A gode womman is mannys blys."

"Some say, that Signor Bononcini, Compared to Handel's a mere ninny; Others aver, to him, that Handel Is scarcely fit to hold a candle. Strange! that such high dispute should be 'Twixt Tweedledum and Tweedledee."

"Take time enough: all other graces Will soon fill up their proper places."

"Sir, you must be all caution and no fear, and you'll find true what our old friend Archimedes said some while ago."

"There ys no solas undyr hevene Of al that a man may nevene That shuld a man so mochë glew As a gode womman that loveth trew."

"As clear as a whistle."

"The point is plain as a pike-staff."

"Bone and Skin, two millers thin, Would starve us all, or near it; But be it known to Skin and Bone That Flesh and Blood can't bear it."

"And thy traveyle shalt thou sone ende, For to thy long home sone shalt thou wende."

"The range of his sympathies and interests makes Handlyng Synne the best picture of English life before Langland and Chaucer."

"Thus adorned, the two heroes, 'twixt shoulder and elbow, Shook hands and went to 't; and the word it was bilbow."

"Als thai haf wryten and sayd Haf I alle in myn Inglis layd, In symple speche as I couthe, That is lightest in mannes mouthe. I mad noght for no disours, Ne for no seggers, no harpours, Bot for the luf of symple men That strange Inglis can not ken."

"He felle dede doun colde as ony stone."

"In reading authors, when you find Bright passages that strike your mind, And which perhaps you may have reason To think on at another season, Be not contented with the sight, But take them down in black and white; Such a respect is wisely shown That makes another's sense one's own."

"Were I a king (God bless me) I should hate My chaplains meddling with affairs of state; Nor would my subjects, I should think, be fond, Whenever theirs the Bible went beyond."

"The tomb of him who would have made The world too glad and free."

"He stood beside a cottage lone And listened to a lute, One summer’s eve, when the breeze was gone, And the nightingale was mute."

"Gayly we glide in the gaze of the world With streamers afloat and with canvas unfurled, All gladness and glory to wandering eyes, Yet chartered by sorrow and freighted with sighs."

"A love that took an early root, And had an early doom."

"Like ships, that sailed for sunny isles, But never came to shore."

"Wake, soldier, wake, thy war-horse waits To bear thee to the battle back; Thou slumberest at a foeman’s gates,— Thy dog would break thy bivouac; Thy plume is trailing in the dust And thy red falchion gathering rust."

"A Hebrew knelt in the dying light, His eye was dim and cold, The hairs on his brow were silver-white, And his blood was thin and old."

"He was out of tune with what a younger generation of poets were writing, and railed against the shallowness and commercialisation of the modern world, from his fastness: a farmhouse surrounded by orchards in Middleton, Suffolk."

"I suppose that I am a very serious poet – except for satirical verse, which I have also been compelled to write, though much of it may be inferior to my more serious poems – perhaps because I am not playful enough by nature, and even my satirical or polemical verse is not entertaining."

"It is impossible for a poet to characterize his own work. From other people I gather that I am a gloomy poet, if not a tragic one."

"I was invited to Romania at least once, but was warned that I should not be free to travel where I pleased in the country, but should be more or less confined to the Writers' Union. Because I ceased long ago to be an urban poet and feel claustrophobic in literary conferences, I could not accept such an invitation."

"Translation came naturally to me because as a child I was translated from Germany to Britain."

"Being pre-eminently a moralist, he needed a medium that enabled him to illustrate a moral insight as briefly and vividly as possible. Being an artist and sensualist, he needed a medium that was epigrammatic or aphoristic, but allowed him scope for fantasy and for that element of suggestiveness which he considered essential to beauty."