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A mob is the scum that rises upmost when the nation boils.
Topic: Mob
Source: None
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Murder may pass unpunish'd for a time,
But tardy justice will o'ertake the crime.
Topic: Murder
Source: The Cock and the Fox (l. 285)
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Above any Greek or Roman name.
Topic: Names
Source: Upon the Death of Lord Hastings (l. 76)
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Skill'd in the globe and sphere, he gravely stands,
And, with his compass, measures seas and lands.
Topic: Navigation
Source: Sixth Satire of Juvenal (l. 760)
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Ill news is wing'd with fate, and flies apace.
Topic: News
Source: Threnodia Augustalis (l. 49)
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Ay, these look like the workmanship of heaven;
This is the porcelain clay of human kind,
And therefore cast into these noble moulds.
Topic: Nobility
Source: Don Sebastian (act I, sc. 1)
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The monarch oak, the patriarch of the trees,
Shoots rising up, and spreads by slow degrees.
Three centuries he grows, and three he stays
Supreme in state; and in three more decays.
Topic: Oak
Source: Palamon and Arcite (bk. III, l. 1.058)
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Stiff in opinion, always in the wrong.
Topic: Opinion
Source: Absalom and Achitophel (I, 545)
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Hard features every bungler can command:
To draw true beauty shows a master's hand.
Topic: Painting
Source: To Mr. Lee, on his Alexander (l. 53)
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Not heaven itself upon the past has power;
But what has been, has been, and I have had my hour.
Topic: Past
Source: Imitation of Horace (bk. III, ode XXIX, l. 71)
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Beware the fury of a patient man.
Topic: Patience
Source: None
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Such subtle covenants shall be made,
Till peace itself is war in masquerade.
Topic: Peace
Source: Absalom and Achitopel (pt. I, l. 752; pt. II, l. 268)
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At home the hateful names of parties cease,
And factious souls are wearied into peace.
Topic: Peace
Source: Astroea Redux (l. 312)
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Rich the treasure,
Sweet the pleasure,
Sweet is pleasure after pain.
Topic: Pleasure
Source: Alexander's Feast (l. 58)
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Doeg, though without knowing how or why,
Made a still a blundering kind of melody;
Spurr'd boldly on, and dash'd through thick and thin,
Through sense and nonsense, never out nor in;
Free from all meaning whether good or bad,
And in one word, heroically mad.
Topic: Poetry
Source: Absalom and Achitophel (pt. II,, l. 412), "Thick and Thin"
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The welcome news is in the letter found;
The carrier's not commission'd to expound;
It speaks itself, and what it does contain,
In all things needful to be known is plain.
Topic: Post
Source: Religio Laici (l. 366)
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And plenty makes us poor.
Topic: Poverty
Source: The Medal (l. 126)
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Content with poverty, my soul I arm;
And virtue, though in rags, will keep me warm.
Topic: Poverty
Source: Third Book of Horace (ode 29)
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For that can power give more than food and drink,
To live at ease, and not be bound to think?
Topic: Power
Source: Medal (l. 235)
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The proud he tam'd, the penitent he cheer'd:
Nor to rebuke the rich offender fear'd.
His preaching much, but more his practice wrought;
(A living sermon of the truths he taught:)
For this by rules severe his life he squar'd:
That all might see the doctrines which they heard.
Topic: Preaching
Source: Character of a Good Parson (l. 75)
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Lord of human kind.
Topic: Pride
Source: Spanish Friar (act II, sc. 1)
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Beware the fury of a patient man.
Topic: Proverbs
Source: Absalom and Achitophel (pt. I, l. 1005)
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A man so various, that he seem'd to be
Not one, but all mankind's epitome;
Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong.
Was everything by starts, and nothing long;
But in the course of one revolving moon,
Was chymist, fiddler, statesman, and buffoon.
Topic: Proverbs
Source: Absalom and Actitophel (pt. I, l. 545)
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Forgiveness to the injured does belong,
But they ne'er pardon who have done the wrong.
Topic: Proverbs
Source: Conquest of Granada (pt. II, act I, sc. 2)
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Whatever is, is in its causes just.
Topic: Providence
Source: Oedipus (act III, sc. 1)
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According to her cloth she cut her coat.
Topic: Prudence
Source: Fables--Cock and Fox (l. 20)
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For who can be secure of private right,
If sovereign sway may be dissolved by might?
Nor is the people's judgment always true:
The most may err as grossly as the few.
Topic: Public
Source: Absalom and Achitophel (pt. I, l. 779)
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And kind as kings upon their coronation day.
Topic: Royalty
Source: Fables--The Hind and the Panther (pt. I, l. 271)
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And that the Scriptures, though not everywhere
Free from corruption, or entire, or clear,
Are uncorrupt, sufficient, clear, entire
In all things which our needful faith require.
Topic: Scripture
Source: Religio Laici (l. 297)
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He who trusts secrets to a servant makes him his master.
Topic: Secrecy
Source: None
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Him of the western dome, whose weighty sense
Flows in fit words and heavenly eloquence.
Topic: Sense
Source: Absalom and Achitophel (pt. I, l. 868)
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But Shakespeare's magic could not copied be;
Within that circle none durst walk but he.
Topic: Shakespeare
Source: The Tempest--Prologue
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Love taught him shame; and shame, with love at strife,
Soon taught the sweet civilities of life.
Topic: Shame
Source: Cymon and Iphigenia (l. 133)
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A horrid stillness first invades the ear,
And in that silence we the tempest fear.
Topic: Silence
Source: Astroea Redux (l. 7)
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If A equals success, then the formula is: A = X + Y + Z, X is
work. Y is play. Z is keep your mouth shut.
Topic: Silence
Source: Astroea Redux (l. 7)
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At every close she made, th' attending throng
Replied, and bore the burden of the song:
So just, so small, yet in so sweet a note,
It seemed the music melted in the throat.
Topic: Singing
Source: Flower and the Leaf (l. 197)
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And heaven had wanted one immortal song.
Topic: Songs
Source: Absalom and Achitophel (pt. I, l. 197)
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A fiery soul, which, working out its way,
Fretted the pygmy-body to decay,
And o'er-informed the tenement of clay.
Topic: Soul
Source: Absalom and Achitophel (pt. I, l. 156)
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Lord of oneself, uncumbered with a name.
Topic: Soul
Source: Epistle to John Dryden
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The fool of nature stood with stupid eyes
And gaping mouth, that testified surprise.
Topic: Stupidity
Source: Cymon and Iphigenia (l. 107)
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Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity,
and I'm not sure about the former.
Topic: Stupidity
Source: Cymon and Iphigenia (l. 107)
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There are only two truly infinite things, the universe and
stupidity. And I am unsure about the universe.
Topic: Stupidity
Source: Cymon and Iphigenia (l. 107)
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Behold him setting in his western skies,
The shadows lengthening as the vapours rise.
Topic: Sun
Source: Absalom and Achitophel (st. 1, l. 268)
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The glorious lamp of heaven, the radiant sun,
Is Nature's eye.
Topic: Sun
Source: The Story of Acis, Polyphemus, and Galatea (l. 165), from Ovid "Metamorphoses", bk. xiii
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Out of the solar walk and Heaven's highway.
Topic: Sun
Source: Threnodia Augustalis
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Our souls sit close and silently within,
And their own web from their own entrails spin;
And when eyes meet far off, our sense is such,
That, spider like, we feel the tenderest touch.
Topic: Sympathy
Source: Mariage a la Mode (act II, sc. 1)
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But far more numerous was the herd of such,
Who think too little, and who talk too much.
Topic: Talk
Source: Absalom and Achitophel (pt. I, l. 533)
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What precious drops are those,
Which silently each other's track pursue,
Bright as young diamonds in their faint dew?
Topic: Tears
Source: The Conquest of Grenada (pt. II, act III, sc. 1)
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Better shun the bait than struggle in the snare.
Topic: Temptation
Source: None
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Trust on and think To-morrow will repay;
To-morrow's falser than the former day;
Lies worse; and while it says, we shall be blest
With some new Joys, cuts off what we possest.
Topic: Tomorrow
Source: Aureng-zebe (act IV, sc. 1)
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