“Truth! why shall every wretch of letters Dare to speak truth against his betters! Let ragged virtue stand aloof, Nor mutter accents of reproof; Let ragged wit a mute become, When wealth and power would have her dumb.”
Source: The poetical works of Charles Churchill, with notes by W. Tooke. with a memoir by J.L. Hannay
“A servile race Who, in mere want of fault, all merit place; Who blind obedience pay to ancient schools, Bigots to Greece, and slaves to musty rules.”
Source: Poems
“Who shall dispute what the Reviewers say? Their word's sufficient; and to ask a reason, In such a state as theirs, is downright treason.”
Source: Poetical Works: With a Memoir by James L. Hannay and Copious Notes by W. Tooke
“With that malignant envy which turns pale, And sickens, even if a friend prevail.”
Source: The poetical works of Charles Churcill: With memoir, critical dissertation, and explanatory notes
“Those who raise envy will easily incur censure.”
“Fashion--a word which knaves and fools may use, Their knavery and folly to excuse.”
“Fool beckons fool, and dunce awakens dunce.”
Source: Poetical Works: With a Memoir by James L. Hannay and Copious Notes by W. Tooke
“The more haste, ever the worst speed.”
Source: The Poetical Works of Charles Churchill: With Copious Notes and a Life of the Author
“Amongst the sons of men how few are known Who dare be just to merit not their own.”
Source: The Poems of Charles Churchill
“Knaves starve not in the land of fools.”
Source: The Poetical Works of Charles Churchill: With Memoir, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes
“Constant attention wears the active mind, Blots out our pow'rs, and leaves a blank behind.”
“The oak, when living, monarch of the wood; The English oak, which, dead, commands the flood.”
Source: The Poetical Works of Charles Churchill: With Copious Notes and a Life of the Author
“Who all in raptures their own works rehearse, And drawl out measur'd prose, which they call verse.”
Source: Works
“The rigid saint, by whom no mercy's shown To saints whose lives are better than his own.”
Source: The Poetical Works of Cha. Churchill in Three Volumes: With the Life of the Author
“And reputation bleeds in ev'ry word.”
Source: The Rosciad. The apology. The prophecy of famine, a Scots pastoral. An epistle to William Hogarth. The ghost. book 1-2
“Though folly, robed in purple, shines, Though vice exhausts Peruvian mines, Yet shall they tremble and turn pale When satire wields her mighty flail.”
Source: The Poems of Charles Churchill ...
“When satire flies abroad on falsehood's wing, Short is her life, and impotent her sting; But when to truth allied, the wound she gives Sinks deep, and to remotest ages lives.”
Source: The Poetical Works of Charles Churchill: With Copious Notes and a Life of the Author
“The Scots are poor, cries surly English pride; True is the charge, nor by themselves denied. Are they not then in strictest reason clear, Who wisely come to mend their fortunes here?”
Source: The poetical works of Charles Churchill: with memoir, critical dissertation, and explanatory notes / by the Rev. George Gilfillan
“Most of those evils we poor mortals know From doctors and imagination flow.”
“Fame is nothing but an empty name.”
Source: The Poetical Works of Charles Churchill
“Wherever waves can roll, and winds can blow.”
Source: The poetical works of Charles Churchill, with notes by W. Tooke. with a memoir by J.L. Hannay
“Wit, who never once Forgave a brother, shall forgive a dunce.”
Source: Poetical Works: With a Memoir by James L. Hannay and Copious Notes by W. Tooke
“On the four aces doom'd to roll.”
Source: The poetical works of Charles Churchill: with memoir, critical dissertation, and explanatory notes / by the Rev. George Gilfillan
“Childhood, who like an April morn appears,
Sunshine and rain, hopes clouded o'er with fears.”
Source: The poetical works of Charles Churchill: with memoir, critical dissertation, and explanatory notes / by the Rev. George Gilfillan
“Drawn by conceit from reason's plan
How vain is that poor creature man;
How pleas'd in ev'ry paltry elf
To grate about that thing himself.”
“If you mean to profit, learn to praise.”
“Gipsies, who every ill can cure,
Except the ill of being poor
Who charms 'gainst love and agues sell,
Who can in hen-roost set a spell,
Prepar'd by arts, to them best known
To catch all feet except their own,
Who, as to fortune, can unlock it,
As easily as pick a pocket.”
“Old Age, a second child, by nature curst
With more and greater evils than the first,
Weak, sickly, full of pains: in ev'ry breath
Railing at life, and yet afraid of death.”
“Within the brain's most secret cells,
A certain lord chief justice dwells,
Of sov'reign power, whom one and all,
With common voice we reason call.”
“Even in a hero's heart
Discretion is the better part.”
Source: The poetical works of Charles Churcill: With memoir, critical dissertation, and explanatory notes
“England, a happy land we know,
Where follies naturally grow,
Where without culture they arise,
And tow'r above the common size.”
Source: Poems: By Charles Churchill. In Three Volumes. With Large Corrections and Additions. To which is Added, the Life of the Author. Adorned with Cuts
“If honor calls, where'er she points the way
The sons of honor follow, and obey.”
“Ourselves are to ourselves the cause of ill.”
Source: The Poetical Works of Charles Churchill: With Copious Notes and a Life of the Author
“Whom drink made wits, though nature made them fools.”
Source: The poetical works of Charles Churchill, with notes by W. Tooke. with a memoir by J.L. Hannay
“Enough of satire; in less harden'd times
Great was her force, and mighty were her rhymes.
I've read of men, beyond man's daring brave,
Who yet have trembled at the strokes she gave;
Whose souls have felt more terrible alarms
From her one line, than from a world in arms.”
Source: The Poems of Charles Churchill
“Satire, whilst envy and ill-humor sway
The mind of man, must always make her way;
Nor to a bosom, with discretion fraught,
Is all her malice worth a single thought.
The wise have not the will, nor fools the power,
To stop her headstrong course; within the hour
Left to herself, she dies; opposing strife
Gives her fresh vigor, and prolongs her life.”
“Enough of self, that darling luscious theme,
O'er which philosophers in raptures dream;
Of which with seeming disregard they write
Then prizing most when most they seem to slight.”
Source: The Poems of Charles Churchill
“In the first seat, in robe of various dyes,
A noble wildness flashing from his eyes,
Sat Shakespeare: in one hand a wand he bore,
For mighty wonders fam'd in days of yore:
The other held a globe, which to his will
Obedient turn'd, and own'd the master's skill:
Things of the noblest kind his genius drew,
And look'd through nature at a single view:
A loose he gave to his unbounded soul,
And taught new lands to rise, new seas to roll;
Call'd into being scenes unknown before,
And passing nature's bounds, was something more.”
Source: Poems
“Nature listening stood, whilst Shakespeare play'd
And wonder'd at the work herself had made.”
Source: The Poetical Works of Charles, Churchill
“No two on earth in all things can agree;
All have some darling singularity;
Women and men, as well as girls and boys,
In gewgaws take delight, and sigh for toys,
Your sceptres and your crowns, and such like things,
Are but a better kind of toys for kings.
In things indifferent reason bids us choose,
Whether the whim's a monkey or a muse.”
Source: The Poems of Charles Churchill
“This a sacred rule we find
Among the nicest of mankind,
(Which never might exception brook
From Hobbes even down to Bolingbroke,)
To doubt of facts, however true,
Unless they know the causes too.”
Source: The poetical works of Charles Churcill: With memoir, critical dissertation, and explanatory notes
“Quick-circulating slanders mirth afford; and reputation bleeds in every word.”
Source: The poetical works of Charles Churchill: with memoir, critical dissertation, and explanatory notes / by the Rev. George Gilfillan
“The stage I chose--a subject fair and free--
'Tis yours--'tis mine--'tis public property.
All common exhibitions open lie,
For praise or censure, to the common eye.
Hence are a thousand hackney writers fed;
Hence monthly critics earn their daily bread.
This is a general tax which all must pay,
From those who scribble, down to those who play.”
Source: The poetical works of Charles Churchill: with memoir, critical dissertation, and explanatory notes / by the Rev. George Gilfillan
“What it 't to us, if taxes rise or fall,
Thanks to our fortune, we pay none at all.
Let muckworms who in dirty acres deal,
Lament those hardships which we cannot feel,
His grace who smarts, may bellow if he please,
But must I bellow too, who sit at ease?
By custom safe, the poets' numbers flow,
Free as the light and air some years ago.
No statesman e'er will find it worth his pains
To tax our labours, and excise our brains.
Burthens like these with earthly buildings bear,
No tributes laid on castles in the air.”
Source: Poetical Works: With a Memoir by James L. Hannay and Copious Notes by W. Tooke
“Tis mighty easy o'er a glass of wine
On vain refinements vainly to refine,
To laugh at poverty in plenty's reign,
To boast of apathy when out of pain,
And in each sentence, worthy of the schools,
Varnish'd with sophistry, to deal out rules
Most fit for practice, but for one poor fault
That into practice they can ne'er be brought.”
Source: The Poetical Works of Charles Churchill: With Memoir, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes
“Who, with tame cowardice familiar grown, would hear my thoughts, but fear to speak their own.”
Source: The Works of C. Churchill
“Nature, through all her works, in great degree,
Borrows a blessing from variety.
Music itself her needful aid requires
To rouse the soul, and wake our dying fires.”
Source: The Poetical Works of Charles Churchill
“The villager, born humbly and bred hard,
Content his wealth, and poverty his guard,
In action simply just, in conscience clear,
By guilt untainted, undisturb'd by fear,
His means but scanty, and his wants but few,
Labor his business, and his pleasure too,
Enjoys more comforts in a single hour
Than ages give the wretch condemn'd to power.”
Source: The Poetical Works of C. Churchill: In Three Volumes. with the Life of the Author
“The virtuous to those mansions go
Where pleasures unembitter'd flow,
Where, leading up a jocund band,
Vigor and Youth dance hand in hand,
Whilst Zephyr, with harmonious gales,
Pipes softest music through the vales,
And Spring and Flora, gaily crown'd,
With velvet carpet spread the ground;
With livelier blush where roses bloom,
And every shrub expires perfume.”
Source: The Ghost
“Weak is that throne, and in itself unsound,
Which takes not solid virtue for its ground.”
Source: Poems: By Charles Churchill. In Three Volumes. With Large Corrections and Additions. To which is Added, the Life of the Author. Adorned with Cuts
