For, when with beauty we can virtue join, We paint the semblance of a form divine.
—Matthew Prior
To John I owed great obligation; but John, unhappily, thought fit to publish it to all the nation: Sure John and I are more than quit.
—Matthew Prior
Topics: Debt
Be to her virtues very kind,
Be to her faults a little blind.
—Matthew Prior
Topics: Women, Marriage
And ’tis remarkable that they talk most who have the least to say.
—Matthew Prior
Topics: Speakers, Speaking, Bores, Talking, Boredom
Odds life! must one swear to the truth of a song?
—Matthew Prior
Topics: Singing
Human science is an uncertain guess.
—Matthew Prior
Topics: Science
Hopes are but the dreams of those that wake.
—Matthew Prior
Topics: Hope, Dreams
For hope is but the dream of those that wake.
—Matthew Prior
Topics: Hope, Dreams
Variety alone gives joy; the sweetest meats the soonest cloy.
—Matthew Prior
The daily showers rejoice the thirsty earth, and bless the flowery buds.
—Matthew Prior
Topics: Rain
The end must justify the means.
—Matthew Prior
Forbear to mention what thou canst not praise.
—Matthew Prior
Topics: Tact
The ends must justify the means.
—Matthew Prior
Fantastic tyrant of the amorous heart. How hard thy yoke, how cruel thy dart. Those escape your anger who refuse your sway, and those are punished most, who most obey.
—Matthew Prior
Topics: Love
Who walks the fastest, but walks astray, is only furthest from his way.
—Matthew Prior
Topics: Goals
Cured yesterday of my disease, I died last night of my physician.
—Matthew Prior
Topics: Doctors
They never taste who always drink; they always talk who never think.
—Matthew Prior
Topics: Conversation
In argument similes are like songs in love; they describe much, but prove nothing.
—Matthew Prior
Topics: Arguments, Argument
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford English Poet, Courtier
- John Herschel English Mathematician
- Philip James Bailey English Poet
- Ford Madox Ford English Novelist, Poet, Critic
- Walter Savage Landor English Writer
- Francis Quarles English Religious Poet
- John Keats English Poet
- Matthew Arnold English Poet, Critic
- Arthur Henry Hallam English Essayist, Poet
- Dante Gabriel Rossetti British Poet, Artist
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