Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Matthew Prior

English Poet and Diplomat

"Live to explain thy doctrine by thy life."

"Our outward act is promoted from within, and from the sinner's mind proceeds the sin."

"Hope is but the dream of those that wake."

"The end must justify the means."

"They always talk who never think."

"Be to their virtue very kind; be to their faults a little blind."

"It takes two to quarrel, but only one to end it."

"And 'tis remarkable that they talk most who have the least to say. "

"Be to her virtues very kind. Be to her faults a little blind."

"And hope is but a dream of those that wake."

"And they have my whimsies, but thou hast my heart."

"Circles to square and cubes to double would give a man excessive trouble. The longitude uncertain roams, in spite of Whiston and his bombs."

"Cured yesterday of my disease, I died last night of my physician."

"An author is in the condition of a culprit; the public are his judges: by allowing too much, and condescending too far, he may injure his own cause; and by pleading and asserting too boldly he may displease the court."

"By cutting off the sense at the end of every first line, which must always rhyme to the next following, is produced too frequent an identity in sound, and brings every couplet to the point of an epigram."

"He will not carry his wealth to the waters of Acheron."

"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."

"For, when with beauty we can virtue join, we paint the semblance of a form divine."

"For hope is but the dream of those that wake."

"He's half absolv'd Who has confess'd."

"I court others in verse; but I love thee in prose:"

"Human science is an uncertain guess."

"Homer?s Achilles is haughty and passionate, impatient of any restraint by laws, and arrogant in arms."

"I never strove to rule the roast, She ne'er refus'd to pledge my toast."

"In argument similes are like songs in love; they describe much, but prove nothing."

"In his Odyssey, Homer explains that the hardest difficulties may be overcome by labor, and our fortune restored after the severest afflictions."

"Let him be kept from paper, pen, and ink; So may he cease to write, and learn to think."

"Instinct and reason how can we divide? 'Tis the fool's ignorance, and the pedant's pride."

"In arms and science tis the same. Our rival's hurts create our fame."

"Odds life! must one swear to the truth of a song?"

"Now fitted the halter, now travers'd the cart, And often took leave; but was loth to part."

"Let me skim the water with one oar, and with the other touch sand. [Go not out of your depth.]"

"Of two evils I have chose the least."

"Poets are allowed the same liberty in their descriptions and comparisons as painters in their draperies and ornaments."

"The winds grow high; Impending tempests charge the sky; The lightning flies, the thunder roars; And big waves lash the frightened shores."

"The daily showers rejoice the thirsty earth, and bless the flowery buds."

"They always talk who never think, and who have the least to say."

"Similes are like songs of love: They much describe, they nothing prove."

"They talk most who have the least to say."

"To err is human."

"Though bitter, good medicine cures illness. Though it may hurt, loyal criticism will have beneficial effects."

"To each man at his birth nature has given some fault."

"Thy sum of duty let two words contain, (O may they graven in thy heart remain!) Be humble and be just."

"Variety alone gives joy; the sweetest meats the soonest cloy."

"When Croft's "Life of Dr. Young" was spoken of as a good imitation of Dr. Johnson's style, "No, no," said he, "it is not a good imitation of Johnson; it has all his pomp without his force; it has all the nodosities of the oak, without its strength; it has all the contortions of the sibyl, without the inspiration.""

"When people once are in the wrong, each line they add is much too long; who fastest walks, but walks astray, is only furthest from his way."

"What is a king? a man condemn'd to bear The public burthen of the nation's care."

"Who walks the fastest, but walks astray, is only furthest from his way."

"You tell your doctor, that y' are ill And what does he, but write a bill, Of which you need not read one letter, The worse the scrawl, the dose the better. For if you knew but what you take, though you recover, he must break."