Nothing is to come, and nothing past: But an eternal now, does always last. |
Of all ills that one endures,/ hope is a cheap and universal cure. |
Poverty wants some, luxury many, and avarice all things. |
Solitude can be used well by very few people. They who do must have a knowledge of the world to see the foolishness of it, and enough virtue to despise all the vanity. |
Th' adorning thee with so much art
Is but a barb'rous skill; 'Tis like the poisoning of a dart, Too apt before to kill |
The thirsty earth soaks up the rain, And drinks, and gapes for drink again; The plants suck in the earth, and are With constant drinking fresh and fair |
The world's a scene of changes, and to be Constant, in Nature were inconstancy |
This only grant me, that my means may lie too low for envy, for contempt too high |
Though you be absent here, I needs must say / The trees as beauteous are, and flowers as gay, / As ever they were wont to be. |
Though you be absent here, I needs must say / The trees as beauteous are, and flowers as gay, / As ever they were wont to be. |
Thus each extreme to equal danger tends, Plenty, as well as Want, can sep'rate friends |
Thus each extreme to equal danger tends, Plenty, as well as Want, can sep'rate friends |
We may talk as we please of lilies, and lions rampant, and spread eagles in fields of d'or or d'argent, but if heraldry were guided by reason, a plough in the field arable would be the most noble and ancient arms |
We may talk as we please of lilies, and lions rampant, and spread eagles in fields of d'or or d'argent, but if heraldry were guided by reason, a plough in the field arable would be the most noble and ancient arms |
Well then; I now do plainly see, / This busy world and I shall ne'er agree. |