"Epitaph on Mrs. Corbet" (1730).
“Heav'n, as its purest gold, by tortures try'd;
The saint sustain'd it, but the woman died.”
Alexander Pope (1688–1744) eighteenth century English poet
"Epitaph on Mrs. Corbet" (1730).
Context: So unaffected, so compos'd a mind;
So firm, yet soft; so strong, yet so retin'd;
Heav'n, as its purest gold, by tortures try'd;
The saint sustain'd it, but the woman died.
“There's a woman like a dewdrop, she's so purer than the purest.”
Robert Browning A Blot in the 'Scutcheon
Bells and Pomegranates No. V: A Blot in the 'Scutcheon (1843), Act i, scene iii.
“So weak thou art, that fools thy power despise;
And yet so strong, thou triumph'st o'er the wise.”
Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, and poet
To Love, found in Miss Vanhomrigh's desk after her death, in Swift's handwriting
William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878) American romantic poet and journalist
The Third of November, 1861. Thirty Poems. Appleton, New York. pp. 112-115. (1864)
Natalie Merchant (1963) American singer-songwriter
Song lyrics, Our Time In Eden (1992), Candy Everybody Wants
Francis Bacon book Novum Organum
Aphorism 97
Novum Organum (1620), Book I
Context: No one has yet been found so firm of mind and purpose as resolutely to compel himself to sweep away all theories and common notions, and to apply the understanding, thus made fair and even, to a fresh examination of particulars. Thus it happens that human knowledge, as we have it, is a mere medley and ill-digested mass, made up of much credulity and much accident, and also of the childish notions which we at first imbibed.
Pierre Choderlos de Laclos book Les Liaisons dangereuses
L’homme jouit du bonheur qu’il ressent, et la femme de celui qu’elle procure. Cette différence, si essentielle et si peu remarquée, influe pourtant, d'une manière bien sensible, sur la totalité de leur conduite respective. Le plaisir de l’un est de satisfaire des désirs, celui de l’autre est surtout de les faire naître. <br class="br">Letter 130: Madame de Rosemonde to Madame la Présidente Tourvel. Trans. Richard Aldington (1924). http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Les_Liaisons_dangereuses_-_Lettre_130 <br class="br">Les liaisons dangereuses (1782)
