“Their feet through faithless leather met the dirt,
And oftener chang'd their principles than shirt.”
To Mr. Pope, epistle I, l. 277.
“A God all mercy is a God unjust.”
Source: Night-Thoughts (1742–1745), Night IV, Line 233.
“When the Law shows her teeth, but dares not bite.”
Satire I, l. 17.
Love of Fame (1725-1728)
“Procrastination is the thief of time.”
Source: Night-Thoughts (1742–1745), Night I, Line 393.
Source: Night-Thoughts (1742–1745), Night I, Line 417.
“And friend received with thumps upon the back.”
Universal Passion; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“To waft a feather or to drown a fly.”
Source: Night-Thoughts (1742–1745), Night I, Line 154.
“A man of pleasure is a man of pains.”
Source: Night-Thoughts (1742–1745), Night VIII, Line 793.
“Too low they build who build beneath the stars.”
Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 206.
Night-Thoughts (1742–1745), Night VIII
“Like our shadows,
Our wishes lengthen as our sun declines.”
Source: Night-Thoughts (1742–1745), Night V, Line 661.
“They that on glorious ancestors enlarge,
Produce their debt instead of their discharge.”
Satire I, l. 147.
Love of Fame (1725-1728)
A Vindication of Providence; or, A True Estimate of Human Life (1728).
Source: Night-Thoughts (1742–1745), Night II, Line 160.
Satire VI, l. 208.
Love of Fame (1725-1728)
“How blessings brighten as they take their flight!”
Source: Night-Thoughts (1742–1745), Night II, Line 602.
“Accept a miracle instead of wit,—
See two dull lines with Stanhope's pencil writ.”
Lines written with the Diamond Pencil of Lord Chesterfield; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“They only babble who practise not reflection.”
From Richard Brinsley Sheridan's Pizarro, Act I, sc. i.
Misattributed