John Quotes

Heaven be thanked, we live in such an age, When no man dies for love, but on the stage.

Reason saw not, till Faith sprung the Light.

The greater part performed achieves the less.

Virgil, above all poets, had a stock which I may call almost inexhaustible, of figurative, elegant, and sounding words.

She, though in full-blown flower of glorious beauty, Grows cold even in the summer of her age.

I trade both with the living and the dead, for the enrichment of our native language.

Men met each other with erected look, The steps were higher that they took; Friends to congratulate their friends made haste, And long inveterate foes saluted as they pass'd.

Not Heav'n itself upon the past has pow'r; But what has been, has been, and I have had my hour.

Her wit was more than man, her innocence a child.

A thing well said will be wit in all languages.

Accurst ambition, how dearly I have bought you.

One of the greatest, most noble, and most sublime poems which either this age or nation has produced.

Music, Music for a while Shall all your cares beguile. Alexander's Feast

Moderate sorrow Fits vulgar love, and for a vulgar man: But I have lov'd with such transcendent passion, I soar'd, at first, quite out of reason's view, And now am lost above it.

Then we upon our globe's last verge shall go, And view the ocean leaning on the sky: From thence our rolling Neighbours we shall know, And on the Lunar world securely pry.

Could swell the soul to rage, or kindle soft desire.

Learn to write well, or not to write at all.

And he, who servilely creeps after sense, Is safe, but ne'er will reach an excellence.

It is sufficient to say, according to the proverb, that here is God's plenty.

I am reading Jonson's verses to the memory of Shakespeare; an insolent, sparing, and invidious panegyric.

From plots and treasons Heaven preserve my years, But save me most from my petitioners. Unsatiate as the barren womb or grave; God cannot grant so much as they can crave.

A man may be capable, as Jack Ketch's wife said of his servant, of a plain piece of work, a bare hanging; but to makea malefactordiesweetly was only belonging toher husband.

Railing in other men may be a crime, But ought to pass for mere instinct in him: Instinct he follows and no further knows, For to write verse with him is to transprose.

A satirical poet is the check of the laymen on bad priests.

My whole life Has been a golden dream of love and friendship.

My right eye itches, some good luck is near.

When beauty fires the blood, how love exalts the mind!

She feared no danger, for she knew no sin.

Secret guilt by silence is betrayed.

Love either finds equality or makes it.

Or hast thou known the world so long in vain?

From Harmony, from heav'nly Harmony. This universal Frame began.

A coward is the kindest animal; 'Tis the most forgiving creature in a fight.

Prodigious actions may as well be done, by weaver's issue, as the prince's son.

The province of the soul is large enough to fill up every cranny of your time, and leave you much to answer for if one wretch be damned by your neglect.

It's a hard world, neighbors, if a man's oath must be his master.

Humility and resignation are our prime virtues.

To breed up the son to common sense is evermore the parent's least expense.

Discover the opinion of your enemies, which is commonly the truest; for they will give you no quarter, and allow nothing to complaisance.

Be secret and discreet; the fairy favors are lost when not concealed.

The purpose of the first draft is not to get it right, but to get it written.

I was reading for understanding. I wanted to do to a reader what Salinger did for me.

Every person in therapy has a love disorder.

The facts, however, are unimportant in fiction. It's not the events of my life that I mine, but the emotional experiences I've had.

Place is character. And all writing is regional.

Pleasure is, after all, a luxury. It's love that's essential.

The regional tags are often pejorative and dismissive. Don't think of place-bound stories, in other words, but of stories with a strong sense of place.

We all sleep with the corpses of our dead lovers.

Fiction begins with the senses, and the senses go to work in a place.

It's easier to write about a place sometimes when you've left it, when you can apply your imagination to your memory and let your emotions guide the writing about a place.