"Choose a firm cloud before it fall, and in it Catch, ere she change, the Cynthia of this minute."

Moral Essays. Epistle ii. Line 19.

"Fine by defect, and delicately weak."

Moral Essays. Epistle ii. Line 43.

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

Moral Essays. Epistle ii. Line 97.

"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."

Moral Essays. Epistle ii. Line 147.

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

Moral Essays. Epistle ii. Line 163.

"Men, some to business, some to pleasure take; But every woman is at heart a rake."

Moral Essays. Epistle ii. Line 215.

"See how the world its veterans rewards! A youth of frolics, an old age of cards."

Moral Essays. Epistle ii. Line 243.

"Oh, blest with temper whose unclouded ray Can make to-morrow cheerful as to-day!"

Moral Essays. Epistle ii. Line 257.

"Most women have no characters at all."

Moral Essays. Epistle ii. Line 2.

"She who ne'er answers till a husband cools, Or if she rules him, never shows she rules."

Moral Essays. Epistle ii. Line 261.

"And mistress of herself though china fall."

Moral Essays. Epistle ii. Line 268.

"Woman 's at best a contradiction still."

Moral Essays. Epistle ii. Line 270.

"Who shall decide when doctors disagree, And soundest casuists doubt, like you and me?"

Moral Essays. Epistle iii. Line 1.

"Blest paper-credit! last and best supply! That lends corruption lighter wings to fly."

Moral Essays. Epistle iii. Line 39.

"P. What riches give us let us then inquire: Meat, fire, and clothes. B. What more? P. Meat, fine clothes, and fire."

Moral Essays. Epistle iii. Line 79.

"But thousands die without or this or that,-- Die, and endow a college or a cat."

Moral Essays. Epistle iii. Line 95.

"The ruling passion, be it what it will, The ruling passion conquers reason still."

Moral Essays. Epistle iii. Line 153.

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

Moral Essays. Epistle iii. Line 161.

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

Moral Essays. Epistle iii. Line 250.

"Ye little stars! hide your diminish'd rays."

Moral Essays. Epistle iii. Line 282.

"Who builds a church to God and not to fame, Will never mark the marble with his name."

Moral Essays. Epistle iii. Line 285.

"In the worst inn's worst room, with mat half hung."

Moral Essays. Epistle iii. Line 299.

"Where London's column, pointing at the skies, Like a tall bully, lifts the head and lies."

Moral Essays. Epistle iii. Line 339.

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

Moral Essays. Epistle iv. Line 43.

"To rest, the cushion and soft dean invite, Who never mentions hell to ears polite."

Moral Essays. Epistle iv. Line 149.

"Statesman, yet friend to truth! of soul sincere, In action faithful, and in honour clear; Who broke no promise, serv'd no private end, Who gain'd no title, and who lost no friend."

Epistle to Mr. Addison. Line 67.

"'T is with our judgments as our watches,--none Go just alike, yet each believes his own."

Essay on Criticism. Part i. Line 9.

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

Essay on Criticism. Part i. Line 60.

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

Essay on Criticism. Part i. Line 152.

"Those oft are stratagems which errors seem, Nor is it Homer nods, but we that dream."

Essay on Criticism. Part i. Line 177.

"Of all the causes which conspire to blind Man's erring judgment, and misguide the mind; What the weak head with strongest bias rules,-- Is pride, the never-failing vice of fools."

Essay on Criticism. Part ii. Line 1.

"A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, And drinking largely sobers us again."

Essay on Criticism. Part ii. Line 15.

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

Essay on Criticism. Part ii. Line 32.

"Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see, Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er shall be."

Essay on Criticism. Part ii. Line 53.

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

Essay on Criticism. Part ii. Line 97.

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

Essay on Criticism. Part ii. Line 109.

"Such labour'd nothings, in so strange a style, Amaze th' unlearn'd and make the learned smile."

Essay on Criticism. Part ii. Line 126.

"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."

Essay on Criticism. Part ii. Line 133.

"Some to church repair, Not for the doctrine, but the music there. These equal syllables alone require, Though oft the ear the open vowels tire; While expletives their feeble aid to join, And ten low words oft creep in one dull line."

Essay on Criticism. Part ii. Line 142.

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

Essay on Criticism. Part ii. Line 156.

"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."

Essay on Criticism. Part ii. Line 162.

"Soft is the strain when zephyr gently blows, And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows; But when loud surges lash the sounding shore, The hoarse rough verse should like the torrent roar. When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw, The line too labours, and the words move slow: Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain, Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the main."

Essay on Criticism. Part ii. Line 166.

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

Essay on Criticism. Part ii. Line 190.

"But let a lord once own the happy lines, How the wit brightens! how the style refines!"

Essay on Criticism. Part ii. Line 220.

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

Essay on Criticism. Part ii. Line 266.

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

Essay on Criticism. Part ii. Line 358.

"And make each day a critic on the last."

Essay on Criticism. Part iii. Line 12.

"Men must be taught as if you taught them not, And things unknown propos'd as things forgot."

Essay on Criticism. Part iii. Line 15.

"The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read, With loads of learned lumber in his head."

Essay on Criticism. Part iii. Line 53.

"Most authors steal their works, or buy; Garth did not write his own Dispensary."

Essay on Criticism. Part iii. Line 59.