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Besides 'tis known he could speak Greek
As naturally as pigs squeak;
That Latin was no more difficile
That to a blackbird 'tis to whistle.
Topic: Linguists
Source: Hudibras (pt. I, canto I, l. 51)
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A Babylonish dialect
Which learned pedants much affect.
Topic: Linguists
Source: Hudibras (pt. I, canto I, l. 93)
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For though to smatter ends of Greek
Or Latin be the rhetoric
Of pedants counted, and vain-glorious,
To smatter French is meritorious.
- Samuel Butler (1),
Topic: Linguists
Source: Remains in Verse and Prose--Satire--Upon Our Ridiculous Imitation of the French (line 127), a Greek
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Quoth Hudibras, I smell a rat;
Ralpho, thou dost prevaricate.
Topic: Lying
Source: Hudibras (pt. I, canto I, l. 821)
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'Cause grace and virtue are within
Prohibited degrees of kin;
And therefore no true saint allows,
They shall be suffer'd to espouse.
Topic: Matrimony
Source: Hudibras (pt. III, canto I, l. 1,293)
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'Tis not amiss, ere ye're giv'n o'er,
To try one desp'rate med'cine more;
For where your case can be no worse,
The desp'rat'st is the wisest course.
Topic: Medicine
Source: Epistle of Hudibras to Sidrophel (l. 5)
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Learn'd he was in medic'nal lore,
For by his side a pouch he wore,
Replete with strange hermetic powder
That wounds nine miles point-blank would solder.
Topic: Medicine
Source: Hudibras (pt. I, canto II, l. 223)
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Such as take lodgings in a head
That's to be let unfurnished.
Topic: Mind
Source: Hudibras (pt. I, canto I, l. 161)
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Still amorous, and fond, and billing,
Like Philip and Mary, on a shilling.
Topic: Money
Source: Hudibras (pt. III, canto I, l. 687)
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Yes! ready money is Aladdin's lamp.
Topic: Money
Source: Hudibras (pt. III, canto I, l. 687)
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The moon pull'd off her veil of light,
That hides her face by day from sight
(Mysterious veil, of brightness made,)
That's both her lustre and her shade),
And in the lantern of the night,
With shining horns hung out her light.
Topic: Moon
Source: Hudibras (pt. II, canto I, l. 905)
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He made an instrument to know
If the moon shine at full or no;
That would, as soon as e'er she shone straight,
Whether 'twere day or night demonstrate;
Tell what her d'ameter to an inch is,
And prove that she's not made of green cheese.
Topic: Moon
Source: Hudibras (pt. II, canto III, l. 261)
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Her voice, the music of the spheres,
So loud, it deafens mortals' ears;
As wise philosophers have thought,
And that's the cause we hear it not.
Topic: Music
Source: Hudibras (pt. II, canto I, l. 617)
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For discords make the sweetest airs.
Topic: Music
Source: Hudibras (pt. III, canto I, l. 919)
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For blocks are better cleft with wedges,
Tan tools of sharp or subtle edges,
And dullest nonsense has been found
By some to be the most profound.
Topic: Nonsense
Source: Pindaric Ode (IV, l. 82)
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Sure 'tis an orthodox opinion,
That grace is founded in dominion.
Topic: Opinion
Source: Hudibras (pt. III, canto III, l. 1,173)
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With books and money placed, for show
Like nest eggs, to make clients lay,
And for his false opinion pay.
Topic: Opinion
Source: Hudibras (pt. III, canto III, l. 624)
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For rhetoric, he could not ope
His mouth, but out there flew a trope.
Topic: Oratory
Source: Hudibras (pt. I, canto I, l. 81)
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The Roman senate, when within
The city walls an owl was seen,
Did cause their clergy, with lustrations
. . . .
The round-fac'd prodigy t' avert,
From doing town or country hurt.
Topic: Owls
Source: Hudibras (pt. II, canto III, l. 709)
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The trenchant blade Toledo trusty.
For want of fighting was grown rusty,
And ate into itself for lack
Of somebody to hew and hack.
Topic: Peace
Source: Hudibras (pt. I, canto, l. 359)
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As men of inward light are wont
To turn their optics in upon't.
Topic: Perception
Source: Hudibras (pt. III, canto I, l. 481)
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Beside, he was a shrewd philosopher,
And had read ev'ry text and gloss over
Whate'er the crabbed'st author hath,
He understood b' implicit faith.
Topic: Philosophy
Source: Hudibras (pt. I, canto I, l. 127)
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Doubtless the pleasure is as great
Of being cheated as to cheat.
Topic: Pleasure
Source: Hudibras (pt. II, canto III, l. 1)
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For rhyme the rudder is of verses,
With which, like ships, they steer their courses.
Topic: Poetry
Source: Hudibras (pt. I, canto I, l. 463)
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Some force whole regions, in despite
O' geography, to change their site;
Make former times shake hands with latter,
And that which was before come after;
But those that write in rhyme still make
The one verse for the other's sake;
For one for sense, and one for rhyme,
I think's sufficient at one time.
Topic: Poetry
Source: Hudibras (pt. II, canto I, l. 23)
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And poets by their sufferings grow,--
As if there were no more to do,
To make a poet excellent,
But only want and discontent.
Topic: Poets
Source: Miscellaneous Thoughts
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And pulpit, drum ecclesiastic,
Was beat with fist instead of a stick.
Topic: Preaching
Source: Hudibras (pt. I, canto I, l. 11)
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Through thick and thin.
Topic: Proverbial Phrases
Source: Hudibras (pt. I, canto II, p. 370)
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To swallow gudgeons ere they're catch'd.
And count their chickens ere they're hatch'd.
Topic: Proverbial Phrases
Source: Hudibras (pt. II, canto III, l. 923)
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Look before you ere you leap.
Topic: Prudence
Source: Hudibras (pt. II, canto I)
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'Tis true no lover has that pow'r
T' enforce a desperate amour,
As he that has two strings t' his bow,
And burns for love and money too.
Topic: Prudence
Source: Hudibras (pt. III, canto I, l. 1)
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Some have been beaten till they know
What wood a cudgel's of by th' blow:
Some kick'd until they can feel whether
A shoe be Spanish or neat's leather.
Topic: Punishment
Source: Hudibras (pt. II, canto I, l. 121)
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The worst of rebels never arm
To do their king or country harm,
But draw their swords to do them good,
As doctors cure by letting blood.
Topic: Rebellion
Source: Miscellaneous Thoughts (l. 181)
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The oyster-women lock'd their fish up,
And trudged away to cry, No Bishop.
Topic: Reform
Source: Hudibras (pt. I, canto II, l. 537)
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As if Religion were intended
For nothing else but to be mended.
Topic: Religion
Source: Hudibras (pt. I, canto I, l. 205)
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Synods are mystical Bear-gardens.
Where Elders, Deputies, Church-wardens,
And other Members of the Court,
Manage the Babylonish sport.
Topic: Religion
Source: Hudibras (pt. III, canto II, l. 1095)
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So 'ere the storm of war broke out,
Religion spawn'd a various rout
Of petulant capricious sects,
That maggots of corrupted texts,
That first run all religion down,
And after every swarm its own.
Topic: Religion
Source: Hudibras (pt. III, canto II, l. 7)
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Videlicit,
That each man swore to do his best
To damn and perjure all the rest.
Topic: Resolution
Source: Hudibras (pt. I, canto II, l. 630)
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As you sow y' are like to reap.
Topic: Results
Source: Hudibras (pt. II, canto II, l. 504)
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I dare be bold, you're one of those
Have took the covenant,
With cavaliers are cavaliers
And with the saints, a saint.
Topic: Royalty
Source: The Tale of the Cobbler and the Vicar of Bray
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Whatever I can say or do.
I'm sure not much avails;
I shall still Vicar be of Bray,
Whichever side prevails.
Topic: Royalty
Source: Tale of the Cobbler and the Vicar of Bray, in posthumous works
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I loved no King since Forty One
When Prelacy went down,
A Cloak and Band I then put on,
And preached against the Crown.
Topic: Royalty
Source: The Turn-Coat, in posthumous works
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Compound for sins they are inclin'd to,
By damning those they have no mind to.
Topic: Sin
Source: Hudibras (pt. I, canto !, l. 215)
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Ay me! what perils do environ
The man that meddles with cold iron!
Topic: Soldiers
Source: Hudibras (pt. I, canto III, l. 1)
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And he that makes his soul his surety,
I think, does give the best security.
Topic: Soul
Source: Hudibras (pt. III, canto I, l. 203)
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For brevity is very good,
Where we are, or are not understood.
Topic: Speech
Source: Hudibras (pt. I, canto I, l. 669)
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He who does not make his words rather serve to conceal than
discover the sense of his heart deserves to have it pulled out
like a traitor's and shown publicly to the rabble.
Topic: Speech
Source: The Modern Politician
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A grisly meteor on his face.
Topic: Stars
Source: Cobbler and Vicar of Bray
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This hairy meteor did announce
The fall of sceptres and of crowns.
Topic: Stars
Source: Hudibras (pt. I, canto I, 247)
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Cry out upon the stars for doing
Ill offices, to cross their wooing.
Topic: Stars
Source: Hudibras (pt. III, canto I, l. 17)
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