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The ends must justify the means.
Topic: Results
Source: Rape of the Lock (canto I, l. 1)
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All Nature is but art unknown to thee;
All chance direction, which thou canst not see;
All discord, harmony not understood;
All partial evil, universal good;
And spite of pride, in erring reason's spite,
One truth is clear, Whatever is is right.
Topic: Right
Source: Essay on Man (ep. I, l. 289)
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Always do right. That will gratify some of the people and
astonish the rest.
Topic: Right
Source: Essay on Man (ep. I, l. 289)
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No question is ever settled
Until it is settled right.
Topic: Right
Source: Essay on Man (ep. I, l. 289)
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Now scantier limits the proud arch confine,
And scarce are seen the prostrate Nile or Rhine;
A small Euphrates thro' the piece is roll'd,
And little eagles wave their wings in gold.
Topic: Rivers
Source: Moral Essays--Epistle to Addison (l. 27)
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Where stray ye, Muses! in what lawn or grove,
. . . .
In those fair fields where sacred Isis glides,
Or else where Cam his winding vales divides?
Topic: Rivers
Source: Summer (l. 23)
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See the wild Waste of all-devouring years!
How Rome her own sad Sepulchre appears,
With nodding arches, broken temples spread!
The very Tombs now vanish'd like their dead!
Topic: Rome
Source: Moral Essays--Epistle to Addison
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The flying rumours gather'd as the roll'd,
Scarce any tale was sooner heard than told;
And all who told it added something new.
And all who heard it made enlargements too.
Topic: Rumor
Source: Temple of Fame (l. 468)
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When rumours increase, and when there is an abundance of noise and clamour, believe the second report.
Topic: Rumors
Source: None
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See Christians, Jews, one heavy sabbath keep,
And all the western world believe and sleep.
Topic: Sabbath
Source: The Dunciad (bk. III, l. 99)
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E'en Sunday shines no Sabbath day to me.
Topic: Sabbath
Source: Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot--Prologue to the Satires (l. 12)
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Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer,
And without sneering teach the rest to sneer;
Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike,
Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike;
Alike reserv'd to blame, or to commend,
A tim'rous foe, and a suspicious friend.
Topic: Satire
Source: Prologue to Satires (l. 201)
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Satire or sense, alas! Can Sporus feel?
Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?
Topic: Satire
Source: Prologue to Satires (l. 307), (Sporus is Lord John Hervey)
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There are, to whom my satire seems too bold;
Scarce to wise Peter complaisant enough,
And something said of Chartres much too rough.
Topic: Satire
Source: Second Book of Horace (satire I, l. 2)
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Satire's my weapon, but I'm too discreet
To run amuck and tilt at all I meet.
Topic: Satire
Source: Second Book of Horace (satire I, l. 71)
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How index-learning turns no student pale,
Yet holds the eel of science by the tale.
Topic: Science
Source: The Dunciad (bk. I, l. 279)
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One science only will one genius fit,
So vast is art, so narrow human wit.
Topic: Science
Source: Essay of Criticism (pt. I, l. 60)
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Then marble, soften'd into life, grew warm.
Topic: Sculpture
Source: Second Book of Horace (ep. I, l. 146)
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I choose a block of marble and chop off whatever I don't need.
Topic: Sculpture
Source: Second Book of Horace (ep. I, l. 146)
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All fame is foreign, but of true desert;
Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart:
One self approving hour whole years out-weighs
Of stupid starers, and of loud huzzas;
And more true joy Marcellus exil'd feels,
Than Caesar with a senate at his heels.
Topic: Self-examination
Source: Essay on Man (ep. IV, l. 253)
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Trust not yourself, but your defects to know, Make use of every friend and every foe.
Topic: Self-knowledge
Source: None
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Many men have been capable of doing a wise thing, more a cunning thing, but very few a generous thing.
Topic: Self-sacrifice
Source: None
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What thin partitions sense from thought divide.
Topic: Sense
Source: Essay on Man (ep. I, l. 226)
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'Tis use alone that sanctifies expense
And splendor borrow all her rays from sense.
Topic: Sense
Source: Moral Essays (ep. IV, l. 179)
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Good sense which only is the gift of Heaven,
And though no science, fairly worth the seven.
Topic: Sense
Source: Moral Essays (ep. IV, l. 43)
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Fool, 'tis in vain from wit to wit to roam:
Know, sense, like charity, begins at home.
Topic: Sense
Source: Umbra
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How shall I lose the sin yet keep the sense,
And love th' offender, yet detest the offence?
Topic: Sin
Source: Eloise to Abelard (l. 191)
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But would you sing, and rival Orpheus' strain.
The wond'ring forests soon should dance again;
The moving mountains hear the powerful call.
And headlong streams hand listening in their fall!
Topic: Singing
Source: Summer (l. 81)
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From hyperborean skies
Embodied dark, what clouds of vandals rise.
Topic: Sky
Source: The Dunciad (III, l. 85)
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Eternal smiles his emptiness betray,
As shallow streams run dimpling all the way.
Topic: Smiles
Source: Prologue to Satires (l. 315)
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The sound must seem an echo to the sense.
Topic: Sound
Source: Essay on Criticism (l. 365)
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The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine!
Feels at each thread, and lives along the line.
Topic: Spiders
Source: Essay on Man (ep. I, l. 217)
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Know then, unnumber'd Spirits round thee fly,
The light Militia of the lower sky.
Topic: Spirits
Source: Rape of the Lock (I, 41)
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Who would not praise Patrico's high desert,
His hand unstain'd, his uncorrupted heart,
His comprehensive head? all interests weigh'd,
All Europe sav'd, yet Britain not betray'd.
Topic: Statesmanship
Source: Moral Essays (ep. I, l. 82)
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Statesman, yet friend to truth! of soul sincere,
In action faithful, and in honour clear;
Who broke no promise, served no private end,
Who gained no title, and who lost no friend,
Ennobled by himself, by all approved,
And praised, unenvied, by the Muse he loved.
Topic: Statesmanship
Source: Moral Essays--To Hamilton (epistle V, l. 67)
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The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read,
With loads of learned lumber in his head.
Topic: Stupidity
Source: Essay on Criticism (l. 612)
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If Stupidity got us into this mess, then why can't it get us
out?"
Topic: Stupidity
Source: Essay on Criticism (l. 612)
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Such labour'd nothings, in so strange a style.
Amaze th' learn'd, and make the learned smile.
Topic: Style
Source: Essay of Criticism (pt. II, l. 126)
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Expression is the dress of thought, and still
Appears more decent as more suitable;
A vile conceit in pompous words express'd,
Is like a clown in regal purple dress'd.
Topic: Style
Source: Essay on Criticism (l. 318)
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But see, the shepherds shun the noonday heat,
The lowing herds to murmuring brooks retreat,
To closer shades the panting flocks remove;
Ye gods! and is there no relief for love?
Topic: Summer
Source: Pastorals--Summer
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Where'er you walk cool gales shall fan the glade,
Trees where you sit shall crowd into a shade.
Where'er you tread the blushing flowers shall rise,
And all things flourish where you turn your eyes.
Topic: Summer
Source: Pastorals--Summer
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All seems infected that the infected spy,
As all looks yellow to the jaundiced eye.
Topic: Suspicion
Source: Essay on Criticism (l. 568)
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And each blasphemer quite escape the rod,
Because the insult's not on man, but God?
Topic: Swearing
Source: Epilogue to Satires (dialogue II, l. 199)
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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: Swine
Source: Essay on Man (ep. I, l. 221)
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The hog that ploughs not, not obeys thy call,
Lives on the labours of this lord of all.
Topic: Swine
Source: Essay on Man (ep. III, l. 41)
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Never elated while one man's oppress'd;
Never dejected while another's blessed.
Topic: Sympathy
Source: Essay on Man (ep. IV, l. 323)
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Th' embroider'd suit at least he deem'd his prey;
That suit an unpaid tailor snatched away.
Topic: Tailors
Source: The Dunciad (bk. II, l. 117)
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Here, thou, great Anna! whom three realms obey,
Dost sometimes counsel take--and sometimes tea.
Topic: Tea
Source: Rape of the Lock (canto III, l. 7)
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But Satan now is wiser than of yore,
And tempts by making rich, not making poor.
Topic: Temptation
Source: Moral Essays (ep. III, l. 351)
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. . . th' approach of night
The skies yet blushing with departing light,
When falling dews with spangles deck'd the glade,
And the low sun had lengthen'd ev'ry shade.
Topic: Twilight
Source: Pastorals--Autumn (l. 98)
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