215 quotes
Like men condemn'd to thunder-bolts,
Who, ere the blow, become mere dolts;
Or fools besotted with their crimes,
That know not how to shift betimes,
And neither have the hearts to stay,
Nor wit enough to run away.
Part III (1678)
Some force whole regions, in despite
O' geography, to change their site;
Make former times shake hands with latter,
And that which was before come after.
But those that write in rhyme still make
The one verse for the other's sake;
For one for sense, and one for rhyme,
I think 's sufficient at one time.
Part II (1664)
Quoth Sidrophel, If you suppose,
Sir Knight, that I am one of those,
I might suspect, and take th' alarm,
Your bus'ness is but to inform;
But if it be, 'tis ne'er the near,
You have a wrong sow by the ear.
Hudibras, Part II (1664)
He ne'er considered it as loth
To look a gift-horse in the mouth,
And very wisely would lay forth
No more upon it than 'twas worth;
But as he got it freely, so
He spent it frank and freely too:
For saints themselves will sometimes be,
Of gifts that cost them nothing, free.
A News-monger is a Retailer of Rumour, that takes up upon Trust, and sells as cheap as he buys. He deals in a perishable Commodity, that will not keep: for if it be not fresh it lies upon his Hands, and will yield nothing. True or false is all one to him; for Novelty being the Grace of bothe, a Truth grows stale as soon as a Lye...
For rhetoric, he could not ope
His mouth, but out there flew a trope;
And when he happen'd to break off
I' th' middle of his speech, or cough,
H' had hard words,ready to show why,
And tell what rules he did it by;
Else, when with greatest art he spoke,
You'd think he talk'd like other folk,
For all a rhetorician's rules
Teach nothing but to name his tools.
Part I (1663)
It is unseasonable and unwholesome in all months that have not an R in their names to eat an oyster.
Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)
And he that makes his soul his surety,
I think, does give the best security.
Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)
’Cause grace and virtue are within
Prohibited degrees of kin;
And therefore no true saint allows
They should be suffered to espouse.
Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)
For brevity is very good,
Where we are or are not understood.
Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)
Cry out upon the stars for doing
Ill offices, to cross their wooing.
Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)
For those that run away, and fly,
Take place at least o’ th’ enemy.
Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)
For zeal’s a dreadful termagant,
That teaches saints to tear and cant.
Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)
Great wits and valours, like great states,
Do sometimes sink with their own weights.
Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)
He that imposes an oath makes it,
Not he that for Convenience takes it.
Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)
In all the trade of war, no feat
Is nobler than a brave retreat.
Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)
Through perils both of wind and limb,
Through thick and thin she follow’d him.
Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)
Brevity is very good, when we are, or are not, understood.
Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)
As if Religion were intended
For nothing else but to be mended.
Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)
He who does not make his words rather serve to conceal than discover the sense of his heart deserves to have it pulled out like a traitor’s and shown publicly to the rabble.
Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)