"Awake, my St John! Leave all meaner things To low ambition, and the pride of kings. Let us, since life can little more supply Than just to look about us, and to die, Expatiate free o'er all this scene of man; A mighty maze! But not without a plan."

"Honour and shame from no condition rise; Act well your part, there all the honour lies."

"The soul's calm sunshine and the heartfelt joy."

"Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of Sense, Lie in three words, Health, Peace, and Competence. But Health consists with Temperance alone, And Peace, oh Virtue! Peace is all thy own."

"Order is Heaven's first law."

"Oh, happiness! Our being’s end and aim! Good, pleasure, ease, content! whate’er thy name: That something still which prompts the eternal sigh, For which we bear to live, or dare to die, Which still so near us, yet beyond us lies, O’erlooked, seen double, by the fool, and wise. Plant of celestial seed! if dropped below, Say, in what mortal soil thou deign’st to grow? Fair opening to some Court’s propitious shine, Or deep with diamonds in the flaming mine? Twined with the wreaths Parnassian laurels yield, Or reaped in iron harvests of the field? Where grows? — where grows it not? If vain our toil, We ought to blame the culture, not the soil: Fixed to no spot is happiness sincere, ’Tis nowhere to be found, or everywhere; ’Tis never to be bought, but always free, And fled from monarchs, St. John! dwells with thee."

"Thus God and Nature linked the general frame, And bade self-love and social be the same."

"For forms of government let fools contest; Whate'er is best administered is best: For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight; His can't be wrong whose life is in the right. In faith and hope the world will disagree, But all mankind's concern is charity."

"Force first made Conquest, and that conquest, Law."

"The enormous faith of many made for one."

"In vain thy Reason finer webs shall draw, Entangle justice in her net of law, And right, too rigid, harden into wrong, Still for the strong too weak, the weak too strong."

"Learn of the little nautilus to sail, Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale."

"While man exclaims, “See all things for my use!” “See man for mine!” replies a pamper'd goose."

"Behold the child, by Nature's kindly law, Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw: Some livelier plaything gives his youth delight, A little louder, but as empty quite: Scarfs, garters, gold, amuse his riper stage, And beads and prayer books are the toys of age! Pleased with this bauble still, as that before; Till tired he sleeps, and life's poor play is o'er."

"Hope travels thro', nor quits us when we die."

"The learned is happy Nature to explore, The fool is happy that he knows no more; The rich is happy in the plenty giv'n, The poor contents him with the care of Heav'n."

"Virtuous and vicious every man must be,— Few in the extreme, but all in the degree."

"Ask where's the North? At York 'tis on the Tweed; In Scotland at the Orcades; and there, At Greenland, Zembla, or the Lord knows where."

"Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, As to be hated needs but to be seen; Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace."

"Extremes in nature equal ends produce; In man they join to some mysterious use."

"The young disease, that must subdue at length, Grows with his growth, and strengthens with his strength."

"And hence one master passion in the breast, Like Aaron's serpent, swallows up the rest."

"On life's vast ocean diversely we sail, Reason the card, but passion is the gale."

"In lazy apathy let stoics boast Their virtue fix'd: 'tis fix'd as in a frost; Contracted all, retiring to the breast; But strength of mind is exercise, not rest."

"Fix'd like a plant on his peculiar spot, To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot."

"Trace science then, with modesty thy guide."

"Chaos of thought and passion, all confused; Still by himself abused, or disabused; Created half to rise, and half to fall; Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all; Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled; The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!"

"Placed on this isthmus of a middle state, A being darkly wise and rudely great: With too much knowledge for the skeptic side, With too much weakness for the stoic's pride, He hangs between; in doubt to act or rest; In doubt to deem himself a god, or beast; In doubt his mind or body to prefer; Born but to die, and reasn'ing but to err; Alike in ignorance, his reason such, Whether he thinks too little or too much."

"Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is man."

"All nature is but art unknown to thee, All chance, direction which thou canst not see; All discord, harmony not understood; All partial evil, universal good; And, spite of pride, in erring reason's spite, One truth is clear, Whatever is, is right."

"Our proper bliss depends on what we blame."

"As full, as perfect, in vile man that mourns As the rapt seraph that adores and burns. To Him no high, no low, no great, no small; He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all!"

"Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze, Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees."

"All are but parts of one stupendous whole, Whose body Nature is, and God the soul."

"Remembrance and reflection how allied! What thin partitions sense from thought divide!"

"The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine! Feels at each thread, and lives along the line."

"Die of a rose in aromatic pain."

"Why has not man a microscopic eye? For this plain reason,—man is not a fly."

"Seas roll to waft me, suns to light me rise; My footstool earth, my canopy the skies."