Date: 1727

"Old Men view best at a distance with the Eyes of their Understanding as well as with those of Nature."

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)

Date: 1727

"The common Fluency of Speech in many Men, and most Women, is owing to a Scarcity of Matter, and a Scarcity of Words; for whoever is a Master of Language, and hath a Mind full of Ideas, will be apt, in speaking, to hesitate upon the Choice of both; whereas common Speakers have only one Set of Ide...

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)

Date: 1737, 1743

"It is not so much the being exempt from Faults, as the having overcome them, that is an Advantage to us; it being with the Follies of the Mind as with the Weeds of a Field, which, if destroyed and consumed upon the place of their Birth, enrich and improve it more than if none had ever sprung the...

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1737, 1743

"The best way to prove the clearness of our mind, is by shewing its Faults; as when a Stream discovers the Dirt at the bottom, it convinceth us of the transparency and purity of the Water."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1737, 1743

"Our Passions are like Convulsion-Fits, which, although they make us stronger for the time, leave us the weaker ever after."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1737, 1743

"Superstition is the Spleen of the Soul."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1737, 1743

"It is with narrow-soul'd People as with narrow-neck'd Bottles: The less they have in them the more noise they make in pouring it out."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1737, 1743

"Wit in Conversation is only a readiness of thought and a facility of Expression, or (in the Midwives Phrase) a quick Conception and an easie Delivery."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1737, 1743

"We should manage our Thoughts in composing a Poem, as Shepherds do their Flowers in making a Garland; first select the Choicest, and then dispose them in the most proper places, where they give a Lusture to each other: Like the Feathers in Indian Crowns, which are so managed that every one refle...

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1737, 1743

"Some Men’s Wit is like a dark Lanthorn, which serves their own Turn, and guides them their own Way; but is never known (according to the Scripture Phrase) either to 'shine forth before Men', or to 'glorifie their Father who is in Heaven'."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)