25 quotes
There is, they say, (and I believe there is),
A spark within us of th’ immortal fire,
That animates and moulds the grosser frame;
And when the body sinks, escapes to heaven;
Its native seat, and mixes with the gods.
Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)
What avails it that indulgent Heaven
From mortal eyes has wrapt the woes to come,
If we, ingenious to torment ourselves,
Grow pale at hideous fictions of our own?
Enjoy the present; nor with needless cares
Of what may spring from blind misfortune’s womb,
Appal the surest hour that life bestows.
Serene, and master of yourself, prepare
For what may come; and leave the rest to Heaven.
Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)
Virtue and sense are one; and trust me still
A faithless heart betrays the head unsound.
Virtue (for mere good nature is a fool)
Is sense and spirit with humanity.
’Tis sometimes angry, and its frown confounds;
’Tis even vindictive, but in vengeance just,
Knaves fain would laugh at it; some great ones dare
But at his heart the most undaunted son
Of Fortune dreads its name and awful charms.
Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)
He knows enough, the mariner, who knows
Where lurk the shelves, and where the whirlpools boil,
What signs portend the storm: to subtler minds
He leaves to scan, from what mysterious cause
Charybdis rages in the Ionian wave;
Whence those impetuous currents in the main
Which neither oar nor sail can stem; and why
The roughening deep expects the storm, as sure
As red Orion mounts the shrouded heaven.
Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)
Riches are oft by guilt and baseness earn’d;
Or dealt by chance to shield a lucky knave,
Or throw a cruel sunshine on a fool.
But for one end, one much-neglected use,
Are riches worth your care; (for nature’s wants
Are few, and without opulence supplied;)
This noble end is, to produce the soul;
To show the virtues in their fairest light;
To make humanity the minister
Of bounteous Providence; and teach the breast
The generous luxury the gods enjoy.
Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)