239 quotes
Conspiracies no sooner should be formed
Than executed.
Animals in their generation are wiser than the sons of men; but their wisdom is confined to a few particulars, and lies in a very narrow compass.
The Spectator (1711)
Men may change their climate, but they cannot change their nature. A man that goes out a fool cannot ride or sail himself into common sense.
The Tatler (1711)
Mere bashfulness without merit is awkward; and merit without modesty, insolent. But modest merit has a double claim to acceptance, and generally meets with as many patrons as beholders.
The Spectator (1711)
To my confusion, and eternal grief,
I must approve the sentence that destroys me.
Cato, A Tragedy (1713)
Thy steady temper, Portius,
Can look on guilt, rebellion, fraud, and Cæsar,
In the calm lights of mild philosophy.
Cato, A Tragedy (1713)
A man that has a taste of music, painting, or architecture, is like one that has another sense, when compared with such as have no relish of those arts.
The Spectator (1711)
Why, a spirit is such a little, little thing, that I have heard a man, who was a great scholar, say that he'll dance ye a hornpipe upon the point of a needle.
What means this heaviness that hangs upon me?
This lethargy that creeps through all my senses?
Nature, oppress'd and harrass'd out with care,
Sinks down to rest.
Cato, A Tragedy (1713)
If you hate your enemies, you will contract such a vicious habit of mind, as by degrees will break out upon those who are your friends, or those who are indifferent to you.
A true critic ought to dwell rather upon excellencies than imperfections, to discover the concealed beauties of a writer, and communicate to the world such things as are worth their observation.
The Spectator (1711)
The great art in writing advertisements is the finding out a proper method to catch the reader's eye; without which a good thing may pass over unobserved, or be lost among commissions of bankrupt.
The Tatler (1711)
Were you with these, my prince, you'd soon forget
The pale, unripened beauties of the north.
Cato, A Tragedy (1713)
On you, my lord, with anxious fear I wait,
And from your judgment must expect my fate.
A Poem to His Majesty (1695)
I have often thought, says Sir Roger, it happens very well that Christmas should fall out in the Middle of the Winter
The Spectator (1711)
Nature in her whole drama never drew such a part; she has sometimes made a fool, but a coxcomb is always of a man's own making…
If we hope for what we are not likely to possess, we act and think in vain, and make life a greater dream and shadow than it really is.
The Spectator (1711)
When love's well-timed 'tis not a fault of love;
The strong, the brave, the virtuous, and the wise,
Sink in the soft captivity together.
Cato, A Tragedy (1713)
Round-heads and Wooden-shoes are standing jokes.
The Drummer (1716)
The dawn is overcast, the morning lowers,
And heavily in clouds brings on the day,
The great, the important day,
Big with the fate Of Cato, and of Rome.
Cato, A Tragedy (1713)