537 quotes
Take not away the life you cannot give:
For all things have an equal right to live.
How happy the lover,
How easy his chain,
How pleasing his pain,
How sweet to discover
He sighs not in vain.
A horrid stillness first invades the ear,
And in that silence we the tempest fear.
For women with a mischief to their kind,
Pervert with bad advice our better mind.
He who servilely creeps after sense
Is safe, but ne'er will reach an excellence.
Tyrannick Love (1669)
Thus in a pageant-show a plot is made;
And peace itself is war in masquerade.
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
Rich the treasure,
Sweet the pleasure,
Sweet is pleasure after pain.
Alexander's Feast (1697)
The glorious lamp of heaven, the radiant sun,
Is Nature's eye.
The sword within the scabbard keep,
And let mankind agree.
The Secular Masque (1700)
Fairest Isle, all isles excelling,
Seat of pleasures, and of loves;
Venus here will choose her dwelling,
And forsake her Cyprian groves.
King Arthur (1691)
The trumpet's loud clangor
Excites us to arms.
A Song for St. Cecilia's Day (1687)
And, like another Helen, fir'd another Troy.
Alexander's Feast (1697)
Lord of yourself, uncumbered with a wife.
Epistle to John Driden of Chesterton (1700)
His tribe were God Almighty's gentlemen.
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
For Art may err, but Nature cannot miss.
Jealousy, the jaundice of the soul.
The Hind and the Panther (1687)
My next desire is, void of care and strife,
To lead a soft, secure, inglorious life:
A country cottage near a crystal flood,
A winding valley, and a lofty wood.
The Works of Virgil (1697)
Possess your soul with patience.
The Hind and the Panther (1687)
When I consider life, 'tis all a cheat;
Yet, fooled with hope, men favour the deceit;
Trust on, and think tomorrow will repay.
Tomorrow's falser than the former day.
The clouds dispell'd, the sky resum'd her light,
And Nature stood recover'd of her fright.
But fear, the last of ills, remain'd behind,
And horror heavy sat on every mind.