"There is something in Poetry beyond Prose-reason; there are Mysteries in it not to be explained, but admired; which render mere Prose-men Infidels to their Divinity."

"Born Originals - how comes it to pass that we die Copies?"

"The course of Nature is the art of God."

"An undevout astronomer is mad."

"'T is elder Scripture, writ by God's own hand,— Scripture authentic! uncorrupt by man."

"Final Ruin fiercely drives Her plowshare o'er creation."

"To frown at pleasure, and to smile in pain."

"A man of pleasure is a man of pains."

"The house of laughter makes a house of woe."

"Prayer ardent opens heaven."

"Truth never was indebted to a lie."

"What ardently we wish we soon believe."

"The man that blushes is not quite a brute."

"And all may do what has by man been done."

"Much learning shows how little mortals know; Much wealth, how little worldlings can enjoy."

"Ambition! powerful source of good and ill!"

"Pygmies are pygmies still, though percht on Alps; And pyramids are pyramids in vales. Each man makes his own stature, builds himself. Virtue alone outbuilds the Pyramids; Her monuments shall last when Egypt’s fall."

"Revere thyself, and yet thyself despise."

"Death loves a shining mark, a signal blow."

"The man of wisdom is the man of years."

"That life is long which answers life's great end."

"While man is growing, life is in decrease; And cradles rock us nearer to the tomb. Our birth is nothing but our death begun."

"Like our shadows, Our wishes lengthen as our sun declines."

"We see time’s furrows on another’s brow, And death intrench’d, preparing his assault; How few themselves in that just mirror see!"

"Early, bright, transient, chaste as morning dew, She sparkled, was exhal'd and went to heaven."

"A soul without reflection, like a pile Without inhabitant, to ruin runs."

"Less base the fear of death than fear of life."

"By night an atheist half believes a God."

"Men may live fools, but fools they cannot die."

"A Christian is the highest style of man."

"’Tis impious in a good man to be sad"

"A God all mercy is a God unjust."

"Man wants little, nor that little long."

"Wishing, of all employments, is the worst."

"And feels a thousand deaths in fearing one."

"Man makes a death which Nature never made."

"The knell, the shroud, the mattock, and the grave, The deep damp vault, the darkness and the worm."

"... life is most enjoy'd when courted least, most worth, when disesteemed,..."

"Heaven’s Sovereign saves all beings but himself That hideous sight,—a naked human heart."

"Lovely in death the beauteous ruin lay; And if in death still lovely, lovelier there; Far lovelier! pity swells the tide of love."

"Beautiful as sweet! And young as beautiful! and soft as young! And gay as soft! and innocent as gay."

"Woes cluster. Rare are solitary woes; They love a train, they tread each other’s heel."

"Virtue alone has majesty in death."

"A death-bed ’s a detector of the heart."

"The chamber where the good man meets his fate Is privileg’d beyond the common walk Of virtuous life, quite in the verge of heaven."