Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Who sees pale Mammom pine amidst his store, Sees but a backward steward for the poor.
Learn of the little nautilus to sail, Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale.
To observations which ourselves we make, we grow more partial for th' observer's sake.
That each from other differs, first confess; next that he varies from himself no less.
Fool, 'tis in vain from wit to wit to roam: Know, sense, like charity, begins at home.
Fear not the anger of the wise to raise; Those best can bear reproof who merit praise.
To happy convents, bosomed deep in vines, Where slumber abbots, purple as their wines.
Praise from a friend, or censure from a foe, Are lost on hearers that our merits know.
Pleasures are ever in our hands or eyes; And when in act they cease, in prospect rise.
Sleep and death, two twins of winged race, Of matchless swiftness, but of silent pace.
For I, who hold sage Homer's rule the best, Welcome the coming, speed the going guest.
There is a certain majesty in simplicity which is far above all the quaintness of wit.
The heart resolves this matter in a trice, "Men only feel the smart, but not the vice.
The hog that ploughs not, not obeys thy call, Lives on the labours of this lord of all.
And hence one master-passion in the breast, Like Aaron's serpent, swallows up the rest.
Mark what unvary'd laws preserve each state, Laws wise as Nature, and as fixed as Fate.
A brave man struggling in the storms of fate, And greatly falling with a falling state.
"With ev'ry pleasing, ev'ry prudent part, Say, what can Chloe want?"-She wants a heart.
We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow. Our wiser sons, no doubt will think us so.
Ambition first sprung from your blest abodes: the glorious fault of angels and of gods.
Taste, that eternal wanderer, which flies From head to ears, and now from ears to eyes.
The dances ended, all the fairy train For pinks and daisies search'd the flow'ry plain.
Talk what you will of taste, my friend, you'll find two of a face as soon as of a mind.
Like bubbles on the sea of matter borne, They rise, they break, and to that sea return.
Love seldom haunts the breast where learning lies, And Venus sets ere Mercury can rise.
Ah! what avails it me the flocks to keep, Who lost my heart while I preserv'd my sheep.
Lo! The poor Indian, whose untutored mind sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind.
Remembrance and reflection how allied. What thin partitions divides sense from thought.
If a man's character is to be abused there's nobody like a relative to do the business.
Interspersed in lawn and opening glades, Thin trees arise that shun each others' shades.
From vulgar bounds with brave disorder part, And snatch a grace beyond the reach of art.
Avoid Extremes; and shun the fault of such Who still are pleas'd too little or too much.
Thus God and nature linked the gen'ral frame, And bade self-love and social be the same.
There is no study that is not capable of delighting us after a little application to it.
Be thou the first true merit to befriend, his praise is lost who stays till all commend.
Like following life through creatures you dissect, You lose it in the moment you detect.
Authors are partial to their wit, 'tis true, But are not critics to their judgment, too?
Get place and wealth, if possible with grace; if not, by any means get wealth and place.
Did some more sober critics come abroad? If wrong, I smil'd; if right, I kiss'd the rod.
Cursed be the verse, how well so e'er it flow, That tends to make one worthy man my foe.
Know, Nature's children all divide her care, The fur that warms a monarch warmed a bear.
He knows to live who keeps the middle state, and neither leans on this side nor on that.
What's fame? a fancy'd life in other's breath. A thing beyond us, even before our death.
Live like yourself, was soon my lady's word, And lo! two puddings smok'd upon the board.
Heaven breathes thro' ev'ry member of the whole One common blessing, as one common soul.
Then from the Mint walks forth the man of rhyme, Happy to catch me, just at dinner-time.
Dulness! whose good old cause I yet defend, With whom my muse began, with who shall end.
Calm, thinking villains, whom no faith could fix, Of crooked counsels and dark politics.
Sole judge of Truth, in endless Error hurled: / The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!
Good-humor only teaches charms to last, Still makes new conquests and maintains the past.