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Gay, sprightly, land of mirth and social ease
Pleased with thyself, whom all the world can please.
Topic: France
Source: The Traveller (l. 241), said of France
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Friendship is a disinterested commerce between equals; love, an abject intercourse between tyrants and slaves.'
Topic: Friendship
Source: None
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Here lies our good Edmund, whose genius was such
We scarcely can praise it or blame it too much;
Who, born for the universe, narrow'd his mind,
And to party gave up what was meant for mankind.
Topic: Genius
Source: Retaliation (l. 29)
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In all the silent manliness of grief.
Topic: Grief
Source: The Deserted Village (l. 384)
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Man seems the only growth that dwindles here.
Topic: Growth
Source: The Traveller (l. 126)
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I'll be with you in the squeezing of a lemon.
Topic: Haste
Source: She Stoops to Conquer (act I, sc. 2)
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While resignation gently slopes the way;
And, all his prospects brightening to the last,
His heaven commences ere the world be past.
Topic: Heaven
Source: The Deserted Village (l. 110)
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Turn, gentle Hermit of the Dale,
And guide my lonely way
To where you taper cheers the vale
With hospitable ray.
Topic: Help
Source: Vicar of Wakefield--The Hermit (ch. VIII)
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The whitewash'd wall, the nicely sanded floor,
The varnish'd clock that click'd behind the door;
The chest contriv'd a double debt to pay,
A bed by night, a chest of drawers by day.
Topic: Home
Source: The Deserted Village (l. 227)
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At night returning, every labour sped,
He sits him down, the monarch of a shed;
Smiles by his cheerful fire, and round surveys
His children's looks, that brighten at the blaze;
While his lov'd partner, boastful of her hoard,
Displays her cleanly platter on the board.
Topic: Home
Source: The Traveller (l. 191)
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How small of all that human hearts endure,
That part which laws or kings can cause or cure!
Still to ourselves in every place consigned,
Our own felicity we make or find.
With secret course, which no loud storms annoy,
Glides the smooth current of domestic joy.
Topic: Home
Source: The Traveller (l. 429)
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What if in Scotland's wilds we viel'd our head,
Where tempests whistle round the sordid bed;
Where the rug's two-fold use we might display,
By night a blanket, and a plaid by day.
Topic: Home
Source: The Traveller (l. 429)
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Thus 'tis with all; their chief and constant care
Is to seem everything but what they are.
Topic: Hypocrisy
Source: Epilogue to The Sisters (l. 25)
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Thus idly busy rolls their world away.
Topic: Idleness
Source: The Traveller (l. 256)
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And his best riches, ignorance of wealth.
Topic: Ignorance
Source: The Deserted Village (l. 61)
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Like the bee, we should make our industry our amusement.
Topic: Inspirational
Source: None
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And, e'en while fashion's brightest arts decoy,
The heart, distrusting, asks if this be joy.
Topic: Joy
Source: The Deserted Village (l. 263)
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How blest is he who crowns in shades like these,
A youth of labour with an age of ease.
Topic: Labor
Source: The Deserted Village (l. 99)
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I have spent my life laboriously doing nothing.
[Lat., Vitam perdidi laboricose agendo.]
Topic: Labor
Source: The Deserted Village (l. 99)
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Amid thy desert-walks the lapwing flies,
And tires their echoes with unvaried cries.
Topic: Lapwings
Source: The Deserted Village (l. 44)
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Man wants but little here below Nor wants that little long.
Topic: Life
Source: None
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Let schoolmasters puzzle their brain,
With grammar, and nonsense, and learning;
Good liquor, I stoutly maintain,
Gives genius a better discerning.
Topic: Liquor
Source: She Stoops to Conquer (act I, sc. 1, song)
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The dancing pair that simply sought renown,By holding out to tire each other down;The swain mistrustless of his smutted face,While secret laughter titter'd round the place;The bashful virgin's side-long looks of love,The matrons glance that would those looks reprove:These were thy charms, sweet village; sports like these,With sweet succession, taught e'en toil to please;These were thy bowers their cheerful influence shed,These were thy charms -- but all these charms are fled. - Deserted Village, The.
Topic: Literature
Source: None
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Every absurdity has a champion to defend it, for error is always talkative.
Topic: Loquacity
Source: None
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So the loud torrent, and the whirlwind's roar,
But bind him to his native mountains more.
Topic: Love of Country
Source: The Traveller (l. 207)
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O Luxury! thou curst by Heaven's decree.
Topic: Luxury
Source: The Deserted Village (l. 385)
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Such dainties to them, their health it might hurt:
It's like sending them ruffles, when wanting a shirt.
Topic: Luxury
Source: Haunch of Venison
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As ten millions of circles can never make a square, so the united
voice of myriads cannot lend the smallest foundation to
falsehood.
Topic: Lying
Source: Vicar of Wakefield (vol. II, ch. VIII)
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Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies.
Topic: Lying
Source: None
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But winter lingering chills the lap of May.
Topic: May
Source: The Traveller (l. 172)
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By every remove I only drag a greater length of chain.
Topic: Memory
Source: The Citizen of the World (no. 3)
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Remembrance wakes with all her busy train,
Swells at my breast, and turns the past to pain.
Topic: Memory
Source: The Deserted Village (l. 81)
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Where'er I roam, whatever realms to see,
My heart untravelled, fondly turns to thee;
Still to my brother turns, with ceaseless pain,
And drags at each remove a lengthening chain.
Topic: Memory
Source: The Traveller (l. 7)
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Hoards after hoards his rising raptures fill;
Yet still he sighs, for hoards are wanting still.
Topic: Misers
Source: The Traveller
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Her modest looks the cottage might adorn,
Sweet as the primrose peeps beneath the thorn.
Topic: Modesty
Source: The Deserted Village (l. 329)
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Round its breast the rolling clouds are spread,
Eternal sunshine settles on its head.
Topic: Mountains
Source: The Deserted Village (l. 192)
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There is no arguing with him, for if his pistol misses fire, he knocks you down with the butt end of it.
Topic: Negativity
Source: None
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Where village statesmen talk'd with looks profound.
And news much older than their ale went round.
Topic: News
Source: The Deserted Village (l. 223)
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The watch-dog's voice that bay'd the whispering wind,
And the loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind:
There all in sweet confusion sought the shade,
And fill'd each pause the nightingale had made.
Topic: Night
Source: The Deserted Village (l. 121)
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A flattering painter, who made it his care
To draw men as they ought to be, not as they are.
Topic: Painting
Source: Retaliation (l. 63)
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Such is the patriot's boast, where'er we roam,
His first best country ever is at home.
Topic: Patriotism
Source: The Traveller (l. 73)
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A traveler of taste will notice that the wise are polite all over the world, but the fool only at home.
Topic: Perspective
Source: None
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His house was known to all the vagrant train,
He chid their wanderings but reliev'd their pain;
The long remembered beggar was his guest,
Whose beard descending swept his aged breast.
Topic: Philanthropy
Source: The Deserted Village (l. 149)
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Careless their merits or their faults to scan,
His pity gave ere charity began.
Topic: Philanthropy
Source: The Deserted Village (l. 161)
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A kind and gentle heart he had,
To comfort friends and foes;
The naked every day he clad
When he put on his clothes.
Topic: Philanthropy
Source: Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog
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This same philosophy is a good horse in the stable, but an arrant
jade on a journey.
Topic: Philosophy
Source: The Good-Natured Man (act I)
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The man recover'd of the bite,
The dog it was that died.
Topic: Poison
Source: Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog
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Thou source of all my bliss and all my woe,
That found'st me poor at first, and keep'st me so.
Topic: Poverty
Source: The Deserted Village (l. 413)
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The nakedness of the indigent world may be clothed from the
trimmings of the vain.
Topic: Poverty
Source: Vicar of Wakefield (ch. IV)
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Good people all, with one accord,
Lament for Madame Blaize,
Who never wanted a good word--
From those who spoke her praise.
Topic: Praise
Source: Elegy on Mrs. Mary Blaize
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