“For he lives twice who can at once employ,The present well, and e’en the past enjoy.”
“Man never thinks himself happy, but when he enjoys those things which others want or desire. ”
“Let Sporus tremble — "What? that thing of silk, Sporus, that mere white curd of ass's milk?Satire or sense, alas! can Sporus feel?Who breaks a Butterfly upon a Wheel?"Yet let me flap this Bug with gilded wings,This painted Child of Dirt that stinks and stings; Whose Buzz the Witty and the Fair annoys,Yet Wit ne'er tastes, and Beauty ne'er enjoys,”
“Heav'n from all creatures hides the book of Fate, All but the page prescrib'd, their present state; From brutes what men, from men what spirits know: Or who could suffer Being here below? The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day, Had he thy Reason, would he skip and play? Pleas'd to the last, he crops the flow'ry food, And licks the hand just rais'd to shed his blood. Oh blindness to the future! kindly giv'n, That each may fill the circle mark'd by Heav'n; Who sees with equal eye, as God of all, A hero perish, or a sparrow fall.”
“You purchase pain with all that joy can give and die of nothing but a rage to live.”
“Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.”
“Out with it, Dunciad: let the secret pass -That secret to each fool - that he's an ass.The truth once told (and whereby should we lie?),The queen of Midas slept, and so may I.You think this cruel? Take it for a rule,No creature smarts so little as a fool.”