Great Throughts Treasury

"Cowper declares that the Iliad and Odyssey in Pope’s hands have no more the air of antiquity than if he had himself invented them."

"Dear dying lamb, thy precious blood shall never lose its power till all the ransomed church of god be saved, to sin no more."

"Deep in unfathomable mines of never failing skill, he treasures up his bright designs, and works his sovereign will."

"Defend me, therefore, common sense, say from reveries so airy, from the toil of dropping buckets into empty wells, and growing old in drawing nothing up."

"Dejection of spirits, which may have prevented many a man from becoming an author, made me one. I find constant employment necessary, and therefore take care to be constantly employed. . . . When I can find no other occupation, I think and when I think, I am very apt to do it in rhyme."

"Detested sport, that owes its pleasures to another's pain."

"Did Charity prevail, the press would prove A vehicle of virtue, truth, and love."

"Discourse may want an animated "no" to brush the surface, and to make it flow; but still remember, if you mean to please, to press your point with modesty and ease."

"Doing good, disinterested good, is not our trade."

"Doing nothing with a deal of skill."

"Domestic happiness - thou only bliss of paradise that has survived the fall."

"Dream after dream ensues; and still they dream that they shall still succeed; and still are disappointed."

"Dress drains our cellar dry, and keeps our larder lean; puts out our fires and introduces hunger, frost, and woe, where peace and hospitality might reign."

"Elegant as simplicity, and warm as ecstasy."

"Drink, and be mad, then; 'tis your country bids! Gloriously drunk, obey th' important call!"

"Events of all sorts creep or fly exactly as god pleases."

"Eternity for bubbles proves at last a senseless bargain."

"England with all thy faults, I love thee still-- my country! And, while yet a nook is left where english minds and manners may be found, shall be constrained to love thee."

"Ever let the fancy roam, pleasure never is at home."

"E'vn in the stifling bosom of the town, a garden, in which nothing thrives, has charms that soothes the rich possessor; much consol'd, that here and there some sprigs of mournful mint, or nightshade, or valerian, grace the well he cultivates."

"Exactness is the sublimity of fools."

"Examine well his milk-white hand, the palm is hardly clean,--but here and there an ugly smutch appears. Foh! It was a bribe that left it. He has touched corruption."

"Fanaticism soberly defined, is the false fire of an over-heated mind."

"Fancy, like the finger of a clock, run the great circuit, and is still at home."

"Far happier are the dead methinks than they who look for death and fear it every day."

"Farewell! "but not for ever.""

"Fashion, leader of a chatt'ring train, whom man for his own hurt permits to reign who shifts and changes all things but his shape, and would degrade her vot'ry to an ape, the fruitful parent of abuse and wrong, holds a usurp'd dominion o'er his tongue, there sits and prompts him with his own disgrace, prescribes the theme, the tone, and the grimace, and when accomplish'd in her wayward school, calls gentleman whom she has made a fool."

"Fast-anchor'd isle."

"Fate steals along with silent tread, found oftenest in what least we dread; frowns in the storm with angry brow, but in the sunshine strikes the blow."

"Faults in the life breed errors in the brain, and these, reciprocally, those again."

"Feels himself spent and fumbles for his brains."

"Fires from beneath, and meteors from above,"

"Flavia, most tender of her own good name, is rather careless of a sister's fame."

"Folly ends where genuine hope begins."

"For loss of time, although it grieved him sore, yet loss of pence, full well he knew, would trouble him much more."

"For my own part, I found such friendships, though warm enough in their commencement, surprisingly liable to extinction; and of seven or eight whom I had selected for intimates out of about three hundred, in ten years’ time not one was left me. The truth is that there may be, and often is, an attachment of one boy to another that looks very like friendship, and, while they are in circumstances that enable them mutually to oblige and assist each other, promises well and bids fair to be lasting; but they are no sooner separated from each other, by entering into the world at large, than other connections and new employments, in which they no longer share together, efface the remembrance of what passed in earlier days, and they become strangers to each other forever. Add to this, the man frequently differs so much from the boy—his principles, manners, temper, and conduct undergo so great an alteration—that we no longer recognize in him our old playfellow, but find him utterly unworthy and unfit for the place he once held in our affections."

"For 'tis a truth well known to most, that whatsoever thing is lost, we seek it, ere it comes to light, in every cranny but the right."

"For truth is unwelcome, however divine."

"Forced from home, and all its pleasures, African coast I left forlorn to increase a stranger's treasures, o the raging billows borne. Men from England bought and sold me, paid my price in paltry gold but, though theirs they have enroll'd me, minds are never to be sold."

"Forgive the song that falls so low, beneath the gratitude I owe."

"Forgot the blush that virgin fears impart to modest cheeks, and borrowed one from art."

"Freedom has a thousand charms to show, that slaves, howe'er contented, never know."

"Friends, books, a garden, and perhaps his pen, delightful industry enjoy'd at home, and nature, in her cultivated trim dress'd to his taste, inviting him abroad - can he want occupation who has these?"

"From reveries so airy, from the toil of dropping buckets into empty wells, and growing old in drawing nothing up."

"From such apostles, oh ye mitred heads, preserve the church; and lay not careless hands on skulls that cannot teach, and will not learn."

"From thoughtless youth to ruminating age."

"Give what thou canst, without thee we are poor, and with thee rich, take what thou wilt away."

"Gloriously drunk, obey the important call."

"Go, mark the matchless working of the power that shuts within the seed the future flower; bids these in elegance of form excel. In color these, and those delight the smell; sends nature forth, the daughter of the skies, to dance on earth, and charm all human eyes."

"God made bees, and bees made honey, God made man, and man made money, Pride made the devil, and the devil made sin; So God made a cole-pit to put the devil in."