Edward Young on New Year
1683–1765 England
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14 quotes
In records that defy the tooth of time.
Hope, like a cordial, innocent, though strong,
Man's heart, at once, inspirits, and serenes,
Nor makes him pay his wisdom for his joys.
Confiding, though confounded; hoping on,
Untaught by trial, unconvinced by proof,
And ever looking for the never-seen.
That awful independent on to-morrow!
Whose work is done; who triumphs in the past;
Whose yesterdays look backward with a smile
Nor, like the Parthian, wound him as they fly.
We see time's furrows on another's brow,
* * * * *
How few themselves in that just mirror see!
And can eternity belong to me,
Poor pensioner on the bounties of an hour?
In leaves, more durable than leaves of brass,
Writes our whole history.
Time is eternity;
Pregnant with all eternity can give;
Pregnant with all that makes archangels smile.
Who murders Time, he crushes in the birth
A power ethereal, only not adorn'd.
Nought treads so silent as the foot of Time;
Hence we mistake our autumn for our prime.
The bell strikes one. We take no note of time
But from its loss.
Night-Thoughts (1742)
Hope of all passions, most befriends us here
Time wasted is existence, used is life.
We push time from us, and we wish him back;
* * * * * *
Life we think long and short; death seek and shun.
Procrastination is the thief of time:
Year after year it steals, till all are fled,
And to the mercies of a moment leaves
The vast concerns of an eternal scene.