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Wit is the lowest form of humor.
Topic: History
Source: None
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An honest man's the noblest work of God.
Topic: Honesty
Source: None
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For I, who hold sage Homer's rule the best,
Welcome the coming, speed the going guest.
Topic: Hospitality
Source: Satire II (bk. II, l. 159)
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I was not born for Courts or great affairs;
I pay my debts, believe, and say my pray'rs.
Topic: Humility
Source: Prologue to Satires (l. 268)
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The longer I live the more I see that I am never wrong about
anything, and that all the pains that I have so humbly taken to
verify my notions have only wasted my time.
Topic: Humility
Source: Prologue to Satires (l. 268)
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We are ashamed of everything that is real about us; ashamed of
ourselves, of our relatives, of our incomes, of our accents, of
our opinions, of our experience, just as we are ashamed of our
naked skins.
Topic: Humility
Source: Prologue to Satires (l. 268)
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Obliged by hunger and request of friends.
Topic: Hunger
Source: Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot--Prologue to the Satires (l. 44)
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Constant at Church and 'Change; his gains were sure;
His givings rare, save farthings to the poor.
Topic: Hypocrisy
Source: Moral Essays (ep. III, l. 347)
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Thee too, my Paridel! she mark'd thee there,
Stretch'd on the rack of a too easy chair,
And heard thy everlasting yarn confess
The Pains and Penalties of Idleness.
Topic: Idleness
Source: The Dunciad (bk. IV, l. 341)
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He's armed without that's innocent within.
Topic: Innocence
Source: Epistles of Horace (ep. I, bk. I, l. 93)
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In the worst inn's worst room, with mat half hung.
Topic: Inns
Source: Moral Essays (ep. 3, l. 299)
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How instinct varies in the grov'lling swine,
Compar'd, half-reasoning elephant, with thine!
'Twixt that and reason what a nice barrier!
Forever sep'rate, yet forever near!
Topic: Instinct
Source: Essay on Man (ep. I, l. 221)
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But honest instinct comes a volunteer;
Sure never to o'er-shoot, but just to hit,
While still too wide or short in human wit.
Topic: Instinct
Source: Essay on Man (ep. III, l. 85)
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But honest instinct comes a volunteer; Sure never to o'er-shoot, but just to hit, While still too wide or short in human wit.
Topic: Instinct
Source: None
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Bring, bring the madding Bay, the drunken wine;
The creeping, dirty, courtly Ivy join.
Topic: Ivy
Source: The Dunciad (bk. I, l. 303)
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Where round some mould'ring tow'r pale ivy creeps,
And low-brow'd rocks hang nodding o'er the deeps.
Topic: Ivy
Source: Eloisa to Abelard (l. 243)
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Round broken columns clasping ivy twin'd.
Topic: Ivy
Source: Windsor Forest (l. 69)
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Bear, like the Turk, no brother near the throne.
Topic: Jealousy
Source: Prologue to the Satires (l. 197)
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Oh her white breast a sparkling cross she wore,
Which Jews might kiss and Infidels adore.
Topic: Jewels
Source: Rape of the Lock (canto II, l. 7)
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The hungry judges soon the sentence sign,
And wretches hang that jurymen may dine.
Topic: Judges
Source: Rape of the Lock (canto III, l. 21)
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'Tis with our judgments as our watches, none
Go just alike, yet each believes his own.
Topic: Judgment
Source: Essay on Criticism (l. 9)
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Know then thyself; presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is man.
Topic: Knowledge
Source: None
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No more the mounting larks, while Daphne sings,
Shall, list'ning, in mid-air suspend their wings.
Topic: Larks
Source: Pastorals--Winter (l. 53)
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Wretches hang that jurymen may dine.
Topic: Law
Source: None
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A little learning is a dangerous thing.
Topic: Learning
Source: None
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Some people will never learn anything, for this reason, because they understand everything too soon.
Topic: Learning
Source: None
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For her, the lilies hang their heads and die.
Topic: Lilies
Source: Pastorals--Autumn (l. 26)
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Is it for thee the linnet pours his throat?
Loves of his own, and raptures swell the note.
Topic: Linnets
Source: Essay on Man (ep. III, l. 33)
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Love, free as air at sight of human ties, Spreads his light wings, and in a moment flies.
Topic: Love
Source: None
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Who dare to love their country, and be poor.
Topic: Love of Country
Source: On his Grotto at Twickenham
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The infant, on opening his eyes, ought to see his country, and to
the hour of his death never lose sight of it.
[Fr., Un enfant en ouvrant ses yeux doit voir la patrie, et
jusqu'a la mort ne voir qu'elle.]
Topic: Love of Country
Source: On his Grotto at Twickenham
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He who tells a lie is not sensible of how great a task he undertakes; for he must be forced to invent twenty more to maintain that one.
Topic: Lying
Source: None
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Who sees pale Mammom pine amidst his store,
Sees but a backward steward for the poor.
Topic: Mammon
Source: Moral Essays (ep. III, l. 171)
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So modern 'pothecaries, taught the art
By doctor's bills to play the doctor's part,
Bold in the practice of mistaken rules,
Prescribe, apply, and call their masters fools.
Topic: Medicine
Source: Essay on Criticism (l. 108)
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Learn from the beasts the physic of the field.
Topic: Medicine
Source: Essay on Man (ep. III, l. 174)
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Who shall decide when doctors disagree,
And soundest casuists doubt, like you and me?
Topic: Medicine
Source: Moral Essays (ep. III)
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Banished the doctor, and expell'd the friend.
Topic: Medicine
Source: Moral Essays (ep. III, l. 330)
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Lulled in the countless chambers of the brain, our thoughts are linked by many a hidden chain; awake but one, and in, what myriads rise!
Topic: Memory
Source: None
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To hide the fault I see:
That mercy I to others show,
That mercy show to me.
Topic: Mercy
Source: Universal Prayer
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Teach me to feel another's woe, To hide the fault I see: That mercy I to others show, That mercy show to me.
Topic: Mercy
Source: None
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Charm strikes the sight, but merit wins the soul.
Topic: Merit
Source: None
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Accept a miracle; instead of wit,--
See two dull lines by Stanhope's pencil writ.
Topic: Miracles
Source: to Lord Chesterfield on using his pencil, according to John Taylor in "Records of My Life"
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'Tis strange the miser should his cares employ
To gain those riches he can ne'er enjoy;
Is it less strange the prodigal should waste
His wealth to purchase what he ne'er can taste?
Topic: Misers
Source: Moral Essays (ep. IV, l. 1)
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And bear about the mockery of woe
To midnight dances and the public show.
Topic: Misery
Source: To the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady (l. 57)
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Where London's column, pointing at the skies,
Like a tall bully, lifts the head and lies.
Topic: Monuments
Source: Moral Essays (ep. III, l. 339)
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Hills peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise.
Topic: Mountains
Source: Essay on Criticism (pt. II, l. 32)
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How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Topic: Obscurity
Source: Eloisa to Abelard (l. 207)
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Thus let me live, unseen, unknown,
Thus unlamented let me die;
Steal from the world, and not a stone
Tell where I lie.
Topic: Obscurity
Source: Ode on Solitude
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One who is too wise an observer of the business of others, like one who is too curious in observing the labor of bees, will often be stung for his curiosity.
Topic: Observation
Source: None
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Fire in each eye, and papers in each hand,
They rave, recite, and madden round the land.
Topic: Oratory
Source: Prologue to Satires (l. 5)
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