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Then old age and experience, hand in hand,
Lead him to death, make him to understand,
After a search so painful and so long,
That all his life he has been in the wrong.
Huddled in dirt the reasoning engine lies,
Who was so proud, so witty, and so wise.

— John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester A Satire against Reason and Mankind (1675)

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Mind

More quotes by John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester

There's not a thing on Earth, that I can name,
So foolish, and so false, as common fame.

Poems on Several Occasions (1680)

Love a woman? You're an ass!
'Tis a most insipid passion
To choose out for your happiness
The silliest part of God's creation.

Poems on Several Occasions (1680)

Dead, we become the lumber of the world.

Poems on Several Occasions (1680)

The Elephant is never won with Anger,
Nor must that man, who would reclaim a Lion,
Take him by the teeth.

Valentinian (1685)

Natural freedoms are but just:
There's something generous in mere lust.

A Ramble in St. James' Park (1672)

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The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

George Bernard Shaw Maxims for Revolutionists (1903)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.