537 quotes
You know I met you,
Kist you, and prest you close within my arms,
With all the tenderness of wifely love.
Amphitryon (1690)
A man so various, that he seem’d to be
Not one, but all mankind’s epitome;
Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong,
Was everything by starts, and nothing long;
But in the course of one revolving moon
Was chemist, fiddler, statesman, and buffoon.
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
They who write ill, and they who ne'er durst write,
Turn critics out of mere revenge and spite.
But 'tis the talent of our English nation,
Still to be plotting some new reformation.
Be kind to my remains; and O defend,
Against your judgment, your departed friend.
He was exhal'd; his great Creator drew
His spirit, as the sun the morning dew.
With odorous oil thy head and hair are sleek;
And then thou kemb'st the tuzzes on thy cheek:
Of these, my barbers take a costly care.
By education most have been misled.
Not aw'd to duty by superior sway.
I well believe, thou wouldst be great as he;
For every man's a fool to that degree:
All wish the dire prerogative to kill;
Ev'n they would have the power who want the will.
The Satires of Juvenal and Persius (1693)
The welcome news is in the letter found;
The carrier's not commission'd to expound;
It speaks itself, and what it does contain,
In all things needful to be known, is plain.
We lov'd, and we lov'd, as long as we could,
Till our love was lov'd out in us both:
But our marriage is dead, when the pleasure is fled:
'Twas pleasure first made it an oath.
Marriage à la mode (1673)
Give, you gods,
Give to your boy, your Caesar,
The rattle of a globe to play withal,
This gewgaw world, and put him cheaply off;
I'll not be pleased with less than Cleopatra.
All for Love (1678)
All, all of a piece throughout:
Thy chase had a beast in view;
Thy wars brought nothing about;
Thy lovers were all untrue.
'Tis well an old age is out,
And time to begin a new.
The Secular Masque (1700)
Mouths without hands; maintained at vast expense,
In peace a charge, in war a weak defense:
Stout once a month they march, a blustering band,
And ever, but in times of need, at hand.
Cymon and Iphigenia (1700)
Sound the trumpets; beat the drums...
Now give the hautboys breath; he comes, he comes.
Alexander's Feast (1697)
Ambition, Interest, Pride without control,
And Jealousy, the jaundice of the soul;
Revenge, the bloody minister of ill,
With all the lean tormentors of the will.
The Hind and the Panther (1687)
Let those find fault whose wit's so very small,
They've need to show that they can think at all;
Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow;
He who would search for pearls, must dive below.
All for Love (1678)
How happy in his low degree,
How rich in humble poverty, is he,
Who leads a quiet country life;
Discharged of business, void of strife
Imitation of Horace (1685)
The wretched have no friends.
All for Love (1678)