Matthew Prior Quotes
-
That air and harmony of shape express,Fine by degrees, and beautifully less.
-
Cured yesterday of my disease, I died last night of my physician.
-
Abra was ready ere I called her name;And though I called another, Abra came.
-
Venus, take my votive glass;Since I am not what I was,What from this day I shall be,Venus, let me never see.
-
A Rechabite poor Will must live,And drink of Adam's ale.
-
Who walks the fastest, but walks astray, is only furthest from his way.
-
For, when with beauty we can virtue join, We paint the semblance of a form divine.
-
Fantastic tyrant of the amorous heart. How hard thy yoke, how cruel thy dart. Those escape your anger who refuse your sway, and those are punished most, who most obey.
-
Hope is but the dream of those who wake.
-
Who breathes must suffer, and who thinks must mourn;And he alone is bless'd who ne'er was born.
-
And 'tis remarkable that they talk most who have the least to say.
-
It takes two to quarrel, but only one to end it.
-
And thought the nation ne'er would thriveTill all the whores were burnt alive.
-
Soft peace she brings; wherever she arrivesShe builds our quiet as she forms our lives;Lays the rough paths of peevish Nature even,And opens in each heart a little heaven.
-
Be to their virtue very kind; be to their faults a little blind.
-
To John I owed great obligation;But John, unhappily, thought fitTo publish it to all the nation:Sure John and I are more than quit.
-
The ends must justify the means.
-
They talk most who have the least to say.
-
They never taste who always drink: They always talk, who never think.
-
Forbear to mention what thou canst not praise.
-
All jargon of the schools.
-
He ranged his tropes, and preached up patience;Backed his opinion with quotations.
-
That if weak women went astray,Their stars were more in fault than they.
-
From ignorance our comfort flows.The only wretched are the wise.