The covetous person is full of fear; and he or she who lives in fear will ever be a slave.
Those who want much, are always much in need.
What has this unfeeling age of ours left untried, what wickedness has it shunned?
Nothing is swifter than rumor.
I can never forget suffering and I will never forget sunset. I came home with all of it in my mind.
You must often make erasures if you mean to write what is worthy of being read a second time; and don’t labor for the admiration of the crowd, but be content with a few choice readers.
When you introduce a moral lesson, let it be brief.
Avoid greatness in a cottage there may be more real happiness than kings or their favourites enjoy.
While fools shun one set of faults they run into the opposite one.
Once begun, A task is easy; half the work is done.
The hour of happiness will be the more welcome, the less it was expected.
Lighten grief with hopes of a brighter morrow; Temper joy, in fear of a change of fortune.
Even virtue followed beyond reason’s rule May stamp the just man knave, the sage a fool.
It is not enough for poems to be fine; they must charm, and draw the mind of the listener at will.
Poetry is like painting: one piece takes your fancy if you stand close to it, another if you keep at some distance.
When you have well thought out your subject, words will come spontaneously.
There are as many preferences as there are men.
Dismiss the old horse in good time, lest he fail in the lists and the spectators laugh.
Let this be your wall of brass, to have nothing on your conscience, no guilt to make you turn pale.
By the favour of the heavens.