John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby Quotes

John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby: 3 quotes0 likes

Famous John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby Quotes

“Read Homer once, and you can read no more;
For all books else appear so mean, so poor,
Verse will seem prose; but still persist to read,
And Homer will be all the books you need.”

John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby

Essay on Poetry (published 1723).

“There's no such thing in Nature; and you'll draw
A faultless monster which the world ne’er saw.”

John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby

Essay on Poetry (published 1723).
Compare:
"'High characters,' cries one, and he would see/ Things that ne’er were, nor are, nor e’er will be", John Suckling, The Goblins, Epilogue.
"Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see,/ Thinks what ne’er was, nor is, nor e’er shall be", Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism (1711), Part II, line 53.

“Of all those arts in which the wise excel,
Nature’s chief masterpiece is writing well.”

John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby

Essay on Poetry (published 1723).