Oh Ignorance Thou art fall'n man's best friend!
WILLIAM WATSON 1 And sanguine hope through every storm of life, Shoots her bright beams, and calms the internal str...
WILLIAM WATSON 1 Mix with your grave designs a little pleasure; Each day of business has its hour of leisure.
WILLIAM WATSON 1 The rills of pleasure never run sincere, (Earth has no unpolluted spring) From the cursed soil...
WILLIAM WATSON 1 Satan finds some mischief still For idle hands to do.
WILLIAM WATSON 1 Let justice be done, though the heavens fall. [Lat., Fiat justitia, ruat coelum.]
WILLIAM WATSON 1 Hate and mistrust are the children of blindness.
WILLIAM WATSON We hold our hate too choice a thing, for light and careless lavishing.
WILLIAM WATSON Empires dissolve and peoples disappear, song passes not away.
WILLIAM WATSON Personally, I do not believe that we shall have greater armaments in the future than we have had in ...
WILLIAM WATSON One of the projects we're working on right now is increasing the capacity for the Bay Area's communi...
WILLIAM WATSON Yes, threadbare seem his songs, to lettered ken - they were worn threadbare next the hearts of men
WILLIAM WATSON Obviously, the town has functioned over the past year and a half, but getting this job back in will ...
WILLIAM WATSON It was a short-term solution, maybe not the best one, but a short-term solution nonetheless, ... We ...
WILLIAM WATSON Hate and mistrust are the children of blindness
WILLIAM WATSON I called him to find out where he got the pamphlet and all he said was it was missing the label, ......
WILLIAM WATSON It lifted the vehicle 2 feet in the air. I was on fire, but I was able to climb out and roll away.
WILLIAM WATSON I suspect that someone removed the labels I affixed to the literature and that he or she or their su...
WILLIAM WATSON Obviously the people feel it was too much of an increase, and we have to listen to the voters. In th...
WILLIAM WATSON Thrice happy he, who by some shady grove, Far from the clamorous world; doth live his own; Tho...
WILLIAM DRUMMOND (1) God never had a church but there, men say, The devil a chapel hath raised by some wiles, I dou...
WILLIAM DRUMMOND (1) Let Zephyr only breathe And with her tresses play.
WILLIAM DRUMMOND (1) Sweet bird, that sing'st away the early hours, Of winter's past or coming void of care, Well p...
WILLIAM DRUMMOND (1) He lives who dies to win a lasting name.
WILLIAM DRUMMOND (1) Pain with the thousand teeth.
SIR WILLIAM WATSON And must I wholly banish hence these red and golden juices, and pay my vows to Abstinence, that pall...
SIR WILLIAM WATSON His friends he loved. His direst earthly foes -- cats -- I believe he did but feign to hate. My hand...
SIR WILLIAM WATSON The thirst to know and understand, a large and liberal discontent.
SIR WILLIAM WATSON Be sober, and to doubt prepense, These are the sinews of good sense.
SIR WILLIAM HAMILTON (1) Anger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor. -Elizabeth 1.
ELIZABETH 1 April, April, Laugh thy girlish laughter, Then, the moment after, Weep thy girlish tears...
SIR WILLIAM WATSON (2) Too long, that some may rest, Tired millions toil unblest.
SIR WILLIAM WATSON (2) But when dread Sloth, the Mother of Doom, steals in, And reigns where Labour's glory was to serve,...
SIR WILLIAM WATSON (2) It doesn't matter if a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice.
SIR WILLIAM WATSON (2) Black cat or white cat, it's a good cat that catches the mice.
SIR WILLIAM WATSON (2) His friends he loved. His direst earthly foes-- Cats--I believe he did but feign to hate. My ...
SIR WILLIAM WATSON (2) Their only labour was to kill the time; And labour dire it is, and weary woe, They sit, they l...
JAMES THOMSON (1) Ah! what avail the largest gifts of Heaven, When drooping health and spirits go amiss? How ta...
JAMES THOMSON (1) So 'ere the storm of war broke out, Religion spawn'd a various rout Of petulant capricious sec...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Synods are mystical Bear-gardens. Where Elders, Deputies, Church-wardens, And other Members of...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) 'Tis not antiquity, nor author, That makes truth truth, altho' time's daughter.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) For truth is precious and divine; Too rich a pearl for carnal swine.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Is not the winding up witnesses, And nicking, more than half the bus'ness? For witnesses, like...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Your pettifoggers damn their souls, To share with knaves in cheating fools.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) He knew whats'ever 's to be known, But much more than he knew would own.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Nor do I know what is become Of him, more than the Pope of Rome.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Deep sighted in intelligence, Ideas, atoms, influences.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) He knew what's what, and that's as high As metaphysic wit can fly.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) But through the heart Should Jealousy its venom once diffuse, 'Tis then delightful misery no m...
JAMES THOMSON (1) Nothing's more dull and negligent Than an old, lazy government, That knows no interest of stat...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.
ECCLESIASTES 11:1 He ne'er consider'd it as loth To look a gift-horse in the mouth, And very wisely would lay fo...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) The truest characters of ignorance Are vanity, and pride, and annoyance.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) The trenchant blade Toledo trusty. For want of fighting was grown rusty, And ate into itself f...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Men do not stumble over mountains, but over molehills.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) In mathematics he was greater Than Tycho Brahe, or Erra Pater; For he, by geometric scale, ...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) And wisely tell what hour o' th' day The clock does strike by Algebra.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) A degenerate nobleman, or one that is proud of his birth, is like a turnip. There is nothing good ...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) In ancient times, the sacred Plough employ'd The Kings and awful Fathers of mankind: And some,...
JAMES THOMSON (1) The self-same thing they will abhor One way, and long another for.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) At the throng'd levee bends the venal tribe: With fair but faithless smiles each varnish'd o'er, ...
JAMES THOMSON (1) In a cottage I live, and the cot of content, Where a few little rooms for ambition too low, Ar...
JOHN COLLINS (1) Nick Machiavel had ne'er a trick (Though he gave his name to our Old Nick).
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Even from the body's purity, the mind Receives a secret sympathetic aid.
JAMES THOMSON (1) Like feather-bed betwixt a wall And heavy brunt of cannon ball.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) And force them, though it was in spite Of Nature and their stars, to write.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Authority is never without hate.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) He who rules by moral force is like the pole star, which remains in place while all the lesser star...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Authority intoxicates, And makes mere sots of magistrates; The fumes of it invade the brain, ...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) I've heard old cunning stagers Say, fools for arguments use wagers.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) He'd undertake to prove, by force Of argument, a man's no horse. He'd prove a buzzard is no fo...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Whatever Sceptic could inquire for, For every why he had a wherefore.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Quoth Hudibras, I smell a rat; Ralpho, thou dost prevaricate.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Cheered up himself with ends of verse And sayings of philosophers.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) While I deduce, From the first note the hollow cuckoo sings, The symphony of spring.
JAMES THOMSON (1) Cruel as death, and hungry at the grave.
JAMES THOMSON (1) Where entity and quiddity, The ghosts of defunct bodies, fly.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) For zeal's a dreadful termagant, That teaches saints to tear and cant.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) For now the field is not far off Where we must give the world a proof Of deeds, not words.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) He was in Logic, a great critic, Profoundly skill'd in Analytic; He could distinguish, and div...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) The worst of rebels never arm To do their king or country harm, But draw their swords to do th...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Through thick and thin.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Why should not Conscience have vacation As well as other Courts o' th' nation? Have equal powe...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Now let us thank th' eternal power, convinc'd That Heaven but tries our virtue by affliction: ...
JOHN BROWN (1) Doubtless the pleasure is as great Of being cheated as to cheat.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) 'Tis silence all, And pleasing expectation.
JAMES THOMSON (1) H' had got a hurt O' th' inside of a deadlier sort.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) 'Tis true no lover has that pow'r T' enforce a desperate amour, As he that has two strings t' ...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Look before you ere you leap.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) This was the penn'worth of his thought.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) 'Tis virtue, wit, and worth, and all That men divine and sacred call; For what is worth, in an...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) As if Religion were intended For nothing else but to be mended.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) What makes all doctrines plain and clear?-- About two hundred pounds a year. And that which wa...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) For his religion, it was fit To match his learning and his wit; 'Twas Presbyterian true blue; ...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Have always been at daggers-drawing, And one another clapper-clawing.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Base envy withers at another's joy, And hates that excellence it cannot reach.
JAMES THOMSON (1) His fear was greater than his haste: For fear, though fleeter than the wind, Believes 'tis alw...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Fear is an ague, that forsakes And haunts, by fits, those whom it takes; And they'll opine the...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) And as the French we conquer'd once, Now give us laws for pantaloons, The length of breeches a...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Truth's sacred fort th' exploded laugh shall win, And coxcombs vanquish Berkeley with a grin.
JOHN BROWN (1) So justice while she winks at crimes, Stumbles on innocence sometimes.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Of all the garden herbes none is of greater vertue than sage.
THOMAS COGAN (1) He that is down can fall no lower.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) So stands the statue that enchants the world, So bending tries to veil the matchless boast, Th...
JAMES THOMSON (1) Soft-buzzing Slander; silly moths that eat An honest name.
JAMES THOMSON (1) Of evening tinct, The purple-streaming Amethyst is thine.
JAMES THOMSON (1) He ceased; but still their trembling ears retained The deep vibrations of his witching song.
JAMES THOMSON (1) The oyster-women lock'd their fish up, And trudged away to cry, No Bishop.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Videlicit, That each man swore to do his best To damn and perjure all the rest.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Amid the roses, fierce Repentance rears Her snaky crest; a quick-returning pang Shoots through...
JAMES THOMSON (1) As you sow y' are like to reap.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Invite the rook who high amid the boughs, In early spring, his airy city builds, And ceaseless...
JAMES THOMSON (1) The Redbreast, sacred to the household gods, Wisely regardful of the embroiling sky, In joyles...
JAMES THOMSON (1) The Clouds consign their treasures to the fields; And, softly shaking on the dimpled pool Prel...
JAMES THOMSON (1) Among the crooked lanes, on every hedge, The glow-worm lights his gem; and through the dark, A...
JAMES THOMSON (1) Scroundrel maxim.
JAMES THOMSON (1) And pulpit, drum ecclesiastic, Was beat with fist instead of a stick.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) And poets by their sufferings grow,-- As if there were no more to do, To make a poet excellent...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) If the husband once give way To his wife's capricious sway, For his breeches he next day ...
JAMES THOMSON 1 A lucky chance, that oft decides the fate Of mighty monarchs.
JAMES THOMSON 1 Base envy withers at another's joy, And hates that excellence it cannot reach.
JAMES THOMSON 1 Distrust any enterprise that requires new clothes.
JAMES THOMSON (1) Her polish'd limbs, Veil'd in a simple robe, their best attire; Beyond the pomp of dress; for ...
JAMES THOMSON (1) O fair undress, best dress! it checks no vein, But every flowing limb in pleasure drowns, And...
JAMES THOMSON (1) He made an instrument to know If the moon shine at full or no; That would, as soon as e'er she...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) The moon pull'd off her veil of light, That hides her face by day from sight (Mysterious veil,...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) He saw her charming, but he saw not half The charms her downcast modesty conceal'd.
JAMES THOMSON (1) Such as take lodgings in a head That's to be let unfurnished.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) 'Tis not amiss, ere ye're giv'n o'er, To try one desp'rate med'cine more; For where your case ...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Among the changing months, May stands confest The sweetest, and in fairest colors dressed.
JAMES THOMSON (1) 'Cause grace and virtue are within Prohibited degrees of kin; And therefore no true saint allo...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) The Roman senate, when within The city walls an owl was seen, Did cause their clergy, with lus...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) For rhetoric, he could not ope His mouth, but out there flew a trope.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) With books and money placed, for show Like nest eggs, to make clients lay, And for his false o...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Sure 'tis an orthodox opinion, That grace is founded in dominion.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) There is nothing new under the sun.
ECCLESIASTES 1:9 For blocks are better cleft with wedges, Tan tools of sharp or subtle edges, And dullest nonse...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Linnets . . . sit On the dead tree, a dull despondent flock.
JAMES THOMSON (1) A Babylonish dialect Which learned pedants much affect.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Besides 'tis known he could speak Greek As naturally as pigs squeak; That Latin was no more di...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) For though to smatter ends of Greek Or Latin be the rhetoric Of pedants counted, and vain-glor...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Up springs the lark, Shrill-voiced, and loud, the messenger of morn; Ere yet the shadows fly, ...
JAMES THOMSON (1) Island of bliss! amid the subject Seas, That thunder round thy rocky coasts, set up, At once ...
JAMES THOMSON (1) Beautiful isle of the sea, Smile on the brow of the waters.
GEORGE COOPER (1) Think, oh, grateful think! How good the God of Harvest is to you; Who pours abundance o'er you...
JAMES THOMSON (1) And though it be a two-foot trout, 'Tis with a single hair pulled out.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Hail! Independence, hail! Heaven's next best gift, To that of life and an immortal soul!
JAMES THOMSON (1) Unconscious humor.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) If he that in the field is slain Be in the bed of honour lain, He that is beaten may be said ...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) As quick as lightning, in the breach Just in the place where honour's lodged, As wise philosop...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Beside, he was a shrewd philosopher, And had read ev'ry text and gloss over Whate'er the crabb...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) As men of inward light are wont To turn their optics in upon't.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) To swallow gudgeons ere they're catch'd. And count their chickens ere they're hatch'd.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) 'Tis mean for empty praise of wit to write, As fopplings grin to show their teeth are white.
JOHN BROWN (1) Ay me! what perils do environ The man that meddles with cold iron!
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) The stately-sailing swan Gives out his snowy plumage to the gale; And, arching proud his neck,...
JAMES THOMSON (1) When autumn scatters his departing gleams, Warn'd of approaching winter, gather'd, play The sw...
JAMES THOMSON (1) The swallow sweeps The slimy pool, to build his hanging house.
JAMES THOMSON (1) Quoth Sidrophel, If you suppose, Sir Knight, that I am one of those, I might suspect, and take...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) True as the dial to the sun, Although it be not shin'd upon.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) At first, heard solemn o'er the verge of Heaven, The Tempest growls; but as it nearer comes, A...
JAMES THOMSON (1) Cry out upon the stars for doing Ill offices, to cross their wooing.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) This hairy meteor did announce The fall of sceptres and of crowns.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) A grisly meteor on his face.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Slow let us trace the matchless vale of Thames; Fair winding up to where the Muses haunt In Tw...
JAMES THOMSON (1) With vollies of eternal babble.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) But still his tongue ran on, the less Of weight it bore, with greater ease.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) You have a wrong sow by the ear.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Shear swine, all cry and no wool.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) He that will win his dame must do As love does when he draws his bow; With one hand thrust the...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) She that with poetry is won, Is but a desk to write upon; And what men say of her they mean ...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Great wits and valours, like great states, Do sometimes sink with their own weights.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) We grant, although he had much wit, H' was very shy of using it, As being loth to wear it out,...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) So Noah, when he anchor'd safe on The mountain's top, his lofty haven, And all the passengers ...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) For trouts are tickled best in muddy water.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) He that complies against his will, Is of his own opinion still, Which he may adhere to, yet di...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Falsely luxurious, will not man awake?
JAMES THOMSON (1) Like men condemned to thunderbolts, Who, ere the blow, become mere dolts.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) For nothing human foreign was to him.
JAMES THOMSON (1) Honor is like a widow, won With brisk attempt and putting on.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Now, while the honour thou hast got Is spick and span new.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) And still be doing, never done.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) And he that makes his soul his surety, I think, does give the best security.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) I loved no King since Forty One When Prelacy went down, A Cloak and Band I then put on, ...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Whatever I can say or do. I'm sure not much avails; I shall still Vicar be of Bray, Whic...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) I dare be bold, you're one of those Have took the covenant, With cavaliers are cavaliers ...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Some force whole regions, in despite O' geography, to change their site; Make former times sha...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) For rhyme the rudder is of verses, With which, like ships, they steer their courses.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Whoe'er amidst the sons Of reason, valor, liberty and virtue, Displays distinguished merit, is...
JAMES THOMSON (1) For discords make the sweetest airs.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Her voice, the music of the spheres, So loud, it deafens mortals' ears; As wise philosophers h...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) The glad circle round them yield their souls To festive mirth, and wit that knows no gall.
JAMES THOMSON (1) Learn'd he was in medic'nal lore, For by his side a pouch he wore, Replete with strange hermet...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) With mortal crisis doth portend, My days to appropinque an end.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Success, the mark no mortal wit, Or surest hand, can always hit: For whatsoe'er we perpetrate,...
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) And bid the devil take the hin'most.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Yes! ready money is Aladdin's lamp.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Still amorous, and fond, and billing, Like Philip and Mary, on a shilling.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Compound for sins they are inclin'd to, By damning those they have no mind to.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1)