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Quotes from Hudibras, Part II — Samuel Butler

1612–1680 England

← All quotes by Samuel Butler

16 quotes

'Tis not antiquity, nor author,
That makes truth truth, altho' time's daughter.

Hudibras, Part II (1664)

Your pettifoggers damn their souls,
To share with knaves in cheating fools.

Hudibras, Part II (1664)

I've heard old cunning stagers
Say, fools for arguments use wagers.

Hudibras, Part II (1664)

Honour is like a widow, won
With brisk attempt and putting on.

Hudibras, Part II (1664)

And fire a mine in China, here
With sympathetic gunpowder.

Hudibras, Part II (1664)

'Tis virtue, wit, and worth, and all
That men divine and sacred call;
For what is worth, in anything,
But so much money as 't will bring?

Hudibras, Part II (1664)

He knew whats'ever 's to be known,
But much more than he knew would own.

Hudibras, Part II (1664)

You have a wrong sow by the ear.

Hudibras, Part II (1664)

If not, resolve, before we go,
That you and I must pull a crow.
Y' 'ad best (quoth Ralpho), as the Ancients
Say wisely, have a care o' the main chance.

Hudibras, Part II (1664)

Her voice, the music of the spheres,
So loud, it deafens mortals' ears;
As wise philosophers have thought,
And that's the cause we hear it not.

Hudibras, Part II (1664)

This was the penn'worth of his thought.

Hudibras, Part II (1664)

Oaths were not purpos'd, more than law,
To keep the Good and Just in awe,
But to confine the Bad and Sinful,
Like mortal cattle in a penfold.

Hudibras, Part II (1664)

As quick as lightning, in the breach
Just in the place where honour's lodged,
As wise philosophers have judged,
Because a kick in that place more
Hurts Honour than deep wounds before.

Hudibras, Part II (1664)

Is not the winding up witnesses,
And nicking, more than half the bus'ness?
For witnesses, like watches, go
Just as they're set, too fast or slow;
And where in Conscience they're strait-lac'd,
'Tis ten to one that side is cast.

Hudibras, Part II (1664)

The moon pull'd off her veil of light,
That hides her face by day from sight
(Mysterious veil, of brightness made,
That's both her lustre and her shade),
And in the lantern of the night,
With shining horns hung out her light.

Hudibras, 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)

Attribution

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