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

For he lives twice who can at once employ, The present well, and e’en the past enjoy.

What conscience dictates to be done, Or warns me not to do, This, teach me more than Hell to shun, That, more than Heaven pursue.

For when success a lover's toil attends, Few ask, if fraud or force attain'd his ends

For forms of Government let fools contest. Whate'er is best administered is best.

Next o'er his books his eyes began to roll, In pleasing memory of all he stole.

Know thyself, presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is man.

A work of art that contains theories is like an object on which the price tag has been left.

True wit is nature to advantage dressed; What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed.

Some who grow dull religious straight commence And gain in morals what they lose in sense.

Remembrance and reflection how allied! What thin partitions Sense from Thought divide!

Then most our trouble still when most admired, And still the more we give, the more required; Whose fame with pains we guard, but lose with ease, Sure some to vex, but never all to please.

The Dying Christian to His Soul (1712) -Vital spark of heav'nly flame! Quit, oh quit, this mortal frame: Trembling, hoping, ling'ring, flying, Oh the pain, the bliss of dying! Stanza 1.

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown; Thus unlamented let me die; Steal from the world, and not a stone Tell where I lie.

Men, some to business take, some to pleasure take; but every woman is at heart a rake

Yes, I am proud; I must be proud to see Men not afraid of God afraid of me.

Order is heaven's first law.

Chaos of thought and passion, all confus'd.

What dire offence from am'rous causes springs, What mighty contests rise from trivial things,...

Sir, I admit your general rule, That every poet is a fool. But you yourself may prove to show it, Every fool is not a poet.

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.

While pensive poets painful vigils keep, Sleepless themselves, to give their readers sleep.

Brevity is the soul of wit.

Our rural ancestors, with little blest, Patient of labor when the end was rest, Indulged the day that housed their annual grain, With feasts, and off'rings, and a thankful strain.

Authors are partial to their wit, 'tis true, But are not critics to their judgment, too?

All forms that perish other forms supply, (By turns we catch the vital breath and die) Like bubbles on the sea of matter borne, They rise, they break, and to that sea return.

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

Man never thinks himself happy, but when he enjoys those things which others want or desire.

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

An honest man's the noblest work of God

Music resembles poetry, in each Are nameless graces which no methods teach, And which a master hand alone can reach.

Whatever is, is right.

An excuse is worse and more terrible than a lie;for an excuse is a lie guarded

This long disease, my life.

Yet graceful ease, and sweetness void of pride, Might hide her faults, if belles had faults to hide: If to her share some female errors fall, Look on her face, and you'll forget 'em all.

The world forgetting by the world forgot.

To wake the soul by tender strokes of art, To raise the genius, and to mend the heart

Death, only death, can break the lasting chain; And here, ev'n then, shall my cold dust remain

If I am right, Thy grace impart Still in the right to stay; If I am wrong, O, teach my heart To find that better way!

No woman ever hates a man for being in love with her; but mainly a woman hates a man for being her friend.

Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night: God said, Let Newton be! and all was light.

Histories are more full of examples of the fidelity of dogs than of friends.

The world forgetting, by the world forgot. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!

And die of nothing but a rage to live

All Nature is but art, unknown to thee All chance, direction, which thou canst not see; All discord, harmony not understood; All partial evil, universal good.

I am his Highness' dog at Kew; Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?

If you want to know what God thinks about money just look at the people He gives it to.

Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll; Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.

Hope springs eternal in the human breast; Man never Is, but always To be blest. The soul, uneasy, and confin'd from home, Rests and expatiates in a life to come.

You purchase pain with all that joy can give and die of nothing but a rage to live.