Quotes from Night-Thoughts — Edward Young
1683–1765 England
67 quotes
Less base the fear of death than fear of life.
To frown at pleasure, and to smile in pain.
That life is long which answers life's great end.
Men may live fools, but fools they cannot die.
The man that blushes is not quite a brute.
And all may do what has by man been done.
A Christian is the highest style of man.
The knell, the shroud, the mattock, and the grave,
The deep damp vault, the darkness and the worm.
Much learning shows how little mortals know;
Much wealth, how little worldlings can enjoy.
Heaven’s Sovereign saves all beings but himself
That hideous sight,—a naked human heart.
Ah, how unjust to Nature and himself
Is thoughtless, thankless, inconsistent man!
Time flies, death urges, knells call, Heaven invites,
Hell threatens.
How blessings brighten as they take their flight!
He mourns the dead who lives as they desire.
And feels a thousand deaths in fearing one.
The house of laughter makes a house of woe.
Man makes a death which Nature never made.
Wishing, of all employments, is the worst.
A friend is worth all hazards we can run.
Attribution
Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Edward Young (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.