“To err is human; to forgive, divine.”
“Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.”
“Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.”
“A little learning is a dangerous thing.”
“Hope springs eternal in the human breast.”
“The proper study of mankind is man.”
“An honest man’s the noblest work of God.”
“Act well your part; there all the honor lies.”
“Who shall decide when doctors disagree?”
“Words are like leaves; and where they most abound, much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found.”
“To be angry is to revenge the faults of others on ourselves.”
“What some call health, if purchased by perpetual anxiety about diet, isn’t much better than tedious disease.”
“Order is Heaven’s first law.”
“True wit is nature to advantage dressed; what oft was thought, but ne’er so well expressed.”
“Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.”
“Be not the first by whom the new are tried, nor yet the last to lay the old aside.”
“Honor and shame from no condition rise; act well your part, there all the honor lies.”
“One science only will one genius fit; so vast is art, so narrow human wit.”
“With every pleasing, every prudent part, say, what can Chloe want?—She wants a heart.”
“Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.”
“A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying… he is wiser today than he was yesterday.”
“Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions soar.”
“The world forgetting, by the world forgot.”
“Heaven from all creatures hides the book of fate.”
“Remembrance and reflection how allied! What thin partitions sense from thought divide!”
“Virtue she finds too painful an endeavor, content to dwell in decencies forever.”
“Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; the proper study of mankind is man.”
“Trust not yourself; but your defects to know, make use of every friend—and every foe.”
“Teach me to feel another’s woe, to hide the fault I see; that mercy I to others show, that mercy show to me.”
“And all who told it added something new, and all who heard it made enlargements too.”
“Good nature and good sense must ever join; to err is human, to forgive, divine.”
“At every word a reputation dies.”
“Party-spirit and faction make reason a slave.”
“People are never so near playing the fool as when they think themselves wise.”
“Nature and nature’s laws lay hid in night; God said, ‘Let Newton be!’ and all was light.”
“How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot! The world forgetting, by the world forgot.”
“Soft is the strain when Zephyr gently blows, and the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows.”
“Say, what strange motive, Goddess! could compel a well-bred lord t’assault a gentle belle?”
“A wit’s a feather, and a chief a rod; an honest man’s the noblest work of God.”
“Men must be taught as if you taught them not, and things unknown proposed as things forgot.”
“Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow; the rest is all but leather or prunello.”
“She moves a goddess and she looks a queen.”
“No creature smarts so little as a fool.”
“All nature is but art, unknown to thee; all chance, direction, which thou canst not see.”
“To love and be loved is the greatest happiness of existence.”
“Blessed with each talent and each art to please, and born to write, converse, and live with ease.”
“Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?”
“Histories are more full of examples of the fidelity of dogs than of friends.”
“Men would be angels, angels would be gods.”
“The learned is happy, nature to explore; the fool is happy, that he knows no more.”
“Fondly we think we honor merit then, when we but praise ourselves in other men.”
“Honor’s a sacred tie, the law of kings, the noble mind’s distinguishing perfection.”
“How vast a memory has Love!”
“Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart.”
“Charm strikes the sight, but merit wins the soul.”
“Good sense, which only is the gift of Heaven, and though no science, fairly worth the seven.”
“Happy the man, whose wish and care a few paternal acres bound, content to breathe his native air, in his own ground.”
“All are but parts of one stupendous whole, whose body nature is, and God the soul.”
“Learn to write well, or not to write at all.”
“Our passions are the whirlwinds in life’s storm.”