Skip to content

Matthew Prior Quotes

1664–1721 England

Matthew Prior (July 21, 1664 – September 18, 1721) was an English poet and diplomat.

England
Poets

Also known as: Prior, Matthew

Random Matthew Prior quote

63 quotes

For, when with beauty we can virtue join,
We paint the semblance of a form divine.

Verses to the Lady Henrietta-Cavendish Holles Harley (1709)

Our hopes, like towering falcons, aim
At objects in an airy height;
The little pleasure of the game
Is from afar to view the flight.

To the Honorable Charles Montague (1692)

Music's force can tame the furious beast.

The end must justify the means.

Hans Carvel (1700)

Soft peace she brings; wherever she arrives
She builds our quiet as she forms our lives;
Lays the rough paths of peevish Nature even,
And opens in each heart a little heaven.

Charity (1703)

What is a king? a man condemn'd to bear
The public burthen of the nation's care.

In vain I trusted that the flowing bowl
Would banish sorrow, and enlarge the soul.
To the late revel, and protracted feast,
Wild dreams succeeded, and disorder'd rest.

Timely advis'd, the coming evil shun:
Better not do the deed, than weep it done.

And oft the pangs of absence to remove
By letters, soft interpreters of love.

A Rechabite poor Will must live,
And drink of Adam's ale.

The gray mare will prove the better horse.

Now fitted the halter, now traversed the cart,
And often took leave, but was loth to depart.

The Thief and the Cordelier (1718)

Amid two seas, on one small point of land,
Wearied, uncertain, and amazed we stand.

The winds grow high;
Impending tempests charge the sky;
The lightning flies, the thunder roars;
And big waves lash the frightened shores.

No, traytress, angry Love replies,
She’s hid somewhere about thy breast,
A place nor God nor man denies,
For Venus’ dove the proper nest.

When people once are in the wrong,
Each line they add is much too long;
Who fastest walks, but walks astray,
Is only furthest from his way.

Alma (1718)

No man's defects sought they to know;
So never made themselves a foe.
No man's good deeds did they commend;
So never rais'd themselves a friend.

So much his courage and his mercy strive,
He wounds to cure, and conquers to forgive.

I never strove to rule the roast,
She ne'er refus'd to pledge my toast.

Our hopes, like tow'ring falcons, aim
At objects in an airy height;
The little pleasure of the game
Is from afar to view the flight.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Matthew Prior (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.