Procrastination is the thief of time.

Night Thoughts. Night i. Line 393.

At thirty, man suspects himself a fool;
Knows it at forty, and reforms his plan.
All men think all men mortal but themselves.
He mourns the dead who lives as they desire.

Line 417.

Line 424.

Night ü. Line 24.

And what its worth, ask death-beds; they can tell.

Line 51.

Thy purpose firm is equal to the deed:

Who does the best his circumstance allows

Does well, acts nobly; angels could no more.

Line 90.

"I've lost a day!"- the prince who nobly cried,

Time flies, death urges, knells call, Heaven invites,
Hell threatens.

Line 292.

Whose yesterdays look backwards with a smile.
'T is greatly wise to talk with our past hours,
And ask them what report they bore to heaven.
Thoughts shut up want air,

Line 334.

Line 376.

And spoil, like bales unopen'd to the sun.

Line 466.

How blessings brighten as they take their flight!

Line 602.

The chamber where the good man meets his fate
Is privileg'd beyond the common walk
Of virtuous life, quite in the verge of heaven.
A death-bed 's a detector of the heart.

Line 633.

Line 641.

1 Suetonius says of the Emperor Titus: "Once at supper, reflecting that he had done nothing for any that day, he broke out into that memorable and justly admired saying, 'My friends, I have lost a day!'"'—SUETONIUS: Lives of the Twelve Caesars. (Translation by Alexander Thomson.)

Woes cluster. Rare are solitary woes;

They love a train, they tread each other's heel.1
Night Thoughts. Night iii. Line 63.

Beautiful as sweet,

And young as beautiful, and soft as young,
And gay as soft, and innocent as gay!

Lovely in death the beauteous ruin lay;
And if in death still lovely, lovelier there;
Far lovelier! pity swells the tide of love.2

Heaven's Sovereign saves all beings but himself
That hideous sight, a naked human heart.

The knell, the shroud, the mattock, and the grave,
The deep damp vault, the darkness and the worm.

Line 81.

Line 104.

Line 226.

Night iv. Line 10.

Man makes a death which Nature never made.
And feels a thousand deaths in fearing one.
Wishing, of all employments, is the worst.
Man wants but little, nor that little long.3
A God all mercy is a God unjust.
'Tis impious in a good man to be sad.

A Christian is the highest style of man.1

Men may live fools, but fools they cannot die.
By night an atheist half believes a God.

Line 15.

Line 17.

Line 71.

Line 118.

Line 233.

Line 676.

Line 788.

Line 843.

Night v. Line 177.

Early, bright, transient, chaste as morning dew,
She sparkled, was exhal'd and went to heaven."

1 See Shakespeare, page 143.

2 See Beaumont and Fletcher, page 198. Dryden, page 272. 8 Man wants but little here below,

Nor wants that little long.

Line 600.

4 See Dryden, page 268.

See Dryden, page 270.

GOLDSMITH: The Hermit, stanza 8.

We see time's furrows on another's brow,
And death intrench'd, preparing his assault;
How few themselves in that just mirror see!

Night Thoughts. Night v. Line 627. Like our shadows,

Our wishes lengthen as our sun declines.1

While man is growing, life is in decrease;
And cradles rock us nearer to the tomb.
Our birth is nothing but our death begun.2

Line 661.

Line 717.

That life is long which answers life's great end. Line 773.

The man of wisdom is the man of years.

Line 775.

Death loves a shining mark, a signal blow.3

Line 1011.

Pygmies are pygmies still, though percht on Alps;
And pyramids are pyramids in vales.

Each man makes his own stature, builds himself.
Virtue alone outbuilds the Pyramids;

Her monuments shall last when Egypt's fall.

Night vi. Line 309.

And all may do what has by man been done.
The man that blushes is not quite a brute.

Line 606.

Night vii. Line 496.

Too low they build, who build beneath the stars.

Prayer ardent opens heaven.

A man of pleasure is a man of pains.

Night viii. Line 215.

Line 721.

Line 793.

Line 1015.

To frown at pleasure, and to smile in pain.

Final Ruin fiercely drives

"T is elder Scripture, writ by God's own hand, – Scripture authentic! uncorrupt by man.

Night Thoughts. Night ix. Line 644.

An undevout astronomer is mad.
The course of Nature is the art of God.1
The love of praise, howe'er conceal'd by art,
Reigns more or less, and glows in ev'ry heart.

Line 771.

Line 1267.

Love of Fame. Satire i. Line 51.

Some for renown, on scraps of learning dote,
And think they grow immortal as they quote.
Titles are marks of honest men, and wise;
The fool or knave that wears a title lies.
They that on glorious ancestors enlarge,
Produce their debt instead of their discharge.
None think the great unhappy but the great.2
Unlearned men of books assume the care,
As eunuchs are the guardians of the fair.
The booby father craves a booby son,

Line 89.

Line 145.

Line 147.

Line 238.

Satire ii. Line 83.

And by Heaven's blessing thinks himself undone.

Where Nature's end of language is declin'd,
And men talk only to conceal the mind.3

1 See Sir Thomas Browne, page 218.

Line 165.

Line 207.

2 See Nicholas Rowe, page 301.

3 Speech was made to open man to man, and not to hide him; to promote commerce, and not betray it. LLOYD: State Worthies (1665; edited by Whitworth), vol. i. p. 503.

Speech was given to the ordinary sort of men whereby to communicate their mind; but to wise men, whereby to conceal it. - ROBERT SOUTH : Sermon, April 30, 1676.

The true use of speech is not so much to express our wants as to conceal them. GOLDSMITH: The Bee, No. 3. (Oct. 20, 1759.)

Ils ne se servent de la pensée que pour autoriser leurs injustices, et emploient les paroles que pour déguiser leurs pensées (Men use thought only to justify their wrong doings, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts). VOLTAIRE: Dialogue xiv. Le Chapon et la Poularde (1766). When Harel wished to put a joke or witticism into circulation, he was in the habit of connecting it with some celebrated name, on the chance of reclaiming it if it took. Thus he assigned to Talleyrand, in the "Nain Jaune," the phrase, "Speech was given to man to disguise his thoughts."— FOURNIER L'Esprit dans l'Histoire.

Be wise with speed;

A fool at forty is a fool indeed.

Love of Fame. Satire ii. Line 282.

And waste their music on the savage race.1

Satire v. Line 228.

For her own breakfast she 'll project a scheme,
Nor take her tea without a stratagem.

Satire vi. Line 190.

Think naught a trifle, though it small appear;
Small sands the mountain, moments make the year,
And trifles life.

One to destroy is murder by the law,
And gibbets keep the lifted hand in awe;
To murder thousands takes a specious name,
War's glorious art, and gives immortal fame.

Line 208.

Satire vii. Line 55.

How commentators each dark passage shun,
And hold their farthing candle to the sun.
The man that makes a character makes foes.

Line 97.

To Mr. Pope. Epistle i. Line 28.

Their feet through faithless leather met the dirt,
And oftener chang'd their principles than shirt.
Accept a miracle instead of wit, -
See two dull lines with Stanhope's pencil writ.

Line 277.

Lines written with the Diamond Pencil of Lord Chesterfield.

Time elaborately thrown away.

The Last Day. Book i.

Book iii.

There buds the promise of celestial worth.
In records that defy the tooth of time.

The Statesman's Creed.

Great let me call him, for he conquered me.

The Revenge. Act i. Sc. 1.

Souls made of fire, and children of the sun,
With whom revenge is virtue.

Act v. Sc. 2.

1 And waste their sweetness on the desert air. - GRAY: Elegy, stanza 14. CHURCHILL: Gotham, book ii. line 20.