Occupation: Poet Birth: 1630 Death: January 18, 1685
Invention is not so much the result of labor as of judgment..
Whatsoever contradicts my sense, I hate to see, and never can believe..
Words once spoken can never be recalled..
The press, the pulpit, and the stage, Conspire to censure and expose our age..
Truth shines brightest thro' the plainest dress..
Abstruse and mystic thoughts you must express With painful care, but seeming easiness; For truth shines brightest thro' the plainest dress..
Pride (of all others the most dang'rous fault) Proceeds from want of sense, or want of thought..
The last loud trumpet's wondrous sound, Shall thro' the rending tombs rebound, And wake the nations under ground..
Beware what spirit rages in your breast; for one inspired, ten thousand are possessed..
The men, who labour and digest things most, Will be much apter to despond than boast; For if your author be profoundly good, 'Twill cost you dear bef….
The first great work (a task performed by few) Is that yourself may to yourself be true..
Choose an author as you would a friend..
The multitude is always wrong..
What you keep by you, you may change and mend but words, once spoken, can never be recalled..
Truth and fiction are so aptly mixed that all seems uniform and of a piece..
You must not think that a satiric style allows of scandalous and brutish words; the better sort abhor scurrility..
I will not quarrel with a slight mistake, Such as our nature's frailty may excuse..
Tis I that call, remember Milo's end, Wedged in that timber which he strove to rend..
Immodest words admit of no defence, For want of decency is want of sense..
Our heroes of the former days deserved and gained their never-fading bays..
Grief dejects and wrings the tortured soul..