"With too much quickness ever to be taught; With too much thinking to have common thought."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Virtue she finds too painful an endeavour, Content to dwell in decencies forever."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Most women have no characters at all."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"And mistress of herself though china fall."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"One science only will one genius fit: So vast is art, so narrow human wit."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Envy will merit as its shade pursue, But like a shadow proves the substance true."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Atossa, cursed with every granted prayer, Childless with all her children, wants an heir; To heirs unknown descends the unguarded store, Or wanders heaven-directed to the poor."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"If parts allure thee, think how Bacon shin'd, The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind! Or ravish'd with the whistling of a name, See Cromwell, damn'd to everlasting fame!"

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Rise, honest muse! and sing The Man of Ross."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"While man exclaims, "See all things for my use!" "See man for mine!" replies a pamper'd goose."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"The meeting points the sacred hair dissever From the fair head, forever, and forever!"

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"What dire offence from amorous causes springs! What mighty contests rise from trivial things!"

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Yet let not each gay turn thy rapture move; For fools admire, but men of sense approve."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Fair tresses man's imperial race insnare, And beauty draws us with a single hair."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"A wit 's a feather, and a chief a rod; An honest man 's the noblest work of God."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze, Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"As yet a child, nor yet a fool to fame, I lisp'd in numbers, for the numbers came."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"'T is education forms the common mind: Just as the twig is bent the tree 's inclined."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Good sense, which only is the gift of Heaven, And though no science, fairly worth the seven."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense, Lie in three words,--health, peace, and competence."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, And without sneering teach the rest to sneer; Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike, Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Fix'd like a plant on his peculiar spot, To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"As full, as perfect, in vile man that mourns As the rapt seraph that adores and burns: To Him no high, no low, no great, no small; He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all!"

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Fired that the house rejects him, "'Sdeath! I 'll print it, And shame the fools.""

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"'T is but a part we see, and not a whole."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"True wit is Nature to advantage dress'd, What oft was thought, but ne'er so well express'd."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Like following life through creatures you dissect, You lose it in the moment you detect."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Order is Heaven's first law."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"By flatterers besieg'd, And so obliging that he ne'er oblig'd; Like Cato, give his little senate laws, And sit attentive to his own applause."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Why has not man a microscopic eye? For this plain reason,--man is not a fly."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Ask where 's the North? At York 't is on the Tweed; In Scotland at the Orcades; and there, At Greenland, Zembla, or the Lord knows where."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"At every word a reputation dies."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Form'd by thy converse, happily to steer From grave to gay, from lively to severe."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Truths would you teach, or save a sinking land? All fear, none aid you, and few understand."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Shut, shut the door, good John! fatigued, I said; Tie up the knocker! say I 'm sick, I 'm dead."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Obliged by hunger and request of friends."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Extremes in Nature equal good produce; Extremes in man concur to general use."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, As those move easiest who have learn'd to dance. 'T is not enough no harshness gives offence,-- The sound must seem an echo to the sense."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"From vulgar bounds with brave disorder part, And snatch a grace beyond the reach of art."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Means not, but blunders round about a meaning; And he whose fustian 's so sublimely bad, It is not poetry, but prose run mad."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Hills peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise!"

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"In words, as fashions, the same rule will hold, Alike fantastic if too new or old: Be not the first by whom the new are tried, Nor yet the last to lay the old aside."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"The enormous faith of many made for one."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Chaos of thought and passion, all confused; Still by himself abused or disabused; Created half to rise, and half to fall; Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all; Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled,-- The glory, jest, and riddle of the world."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"All seems infected that th' infected spy, As all looks yellow to the jaundic'd eye."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"A needless Alexandrine ends the song, That like a wounded snake drags its slow length along."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Here thou, great Anna! whom three realms obey, Dost sometimes counsel take--and sometimes tea."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Pretty! in amber to observe the forms Of hairs, or straws, or dirt, or grubs, or worms! The things, we know, are neither rich nor rare, But wonder how the devil they got there."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Words are like leaves; and where they most abound, Much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain