252 quotes
A man I knew who lived upon a smile,
And well it fed him; he look'd plump and fair,
While rankest venom foam'd through every vein.
On reason build resolve,
that column of true majesty in man.
Night-Thoughts (1742)
Final Ruin fiercely drives
Her ploughshare o'er creation.
Hope of all passions, most befriends us here
With fame, in just proportion, envy grows.
Epistle to Mr. Pope (1730)
A death-bed ’s a detector of the heart.
Night-Thoughts (1742)
Time wasted is existence, used is life.
The man of wisdom is the man of years.
Night-Thoughts (1742)
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.
Conjectures on Original Composition (1759)
Truth never was indebted to a lie.
Night-Thoughts (1742)
Oh, how portentous is prosperity!
How comet-like, it threatens while it shines.
This sacred shade and solitude, what is it?
'Tis the felt presence of the Deity,
Few are the faults we flatter when alone.
Ambition! powerful source of good and ill!
Night-Thoughts (1742)
Early, bright, transient, chaste as morning dew,
She sparkled, was exhal'd and went to heaven.
Night-Thoughts (1742)
We push time from us, and we wish him back;
* * * * * *
Life we think long and short; death seek and shun.
He stands for fame on his forefather's feet,
By heraldry, proved valiant or discreet!
Once I beheld a sun, a sun which gilt
That sable cloud, and turned it all to gold.
Nothing in Nature, much less conscious being,
Was e'er created solely for itself.
With skill she vibrates her eternal tongue,
Forever most divinely in the wrong.
Love of Fame (1725)
Thy purpose firm is equal to the deed:
Who does the best his circumstance allows
Does well, acts nobly; angels could no more.
Night-Thoughts (1742)