“Wouldst thou be famed? have those high acts in view, Brave men would act though scandal would ensue.”
“Sense is our helmet, wit is but the plume; The plume exposes, 'tis our helmet saves. Sense is the diamond, weighty, solid, sound; When cut by wit, it casts a brighter beam; Yet, wit apart, it is a diamond still.”
Source: The Complaint and Consolation; Or, Night Thoughts on Life, Death and Immortality: To which is Added, The Force of Religion
“I've known my lady (for she loves a tune) For fevers take an opera in June: And, though perhaps you'll think the practice bold, A midnight park is sov'reign for a cold.”
Source: The Works of the Author of The Night-thoughts
“We bleed, we tremble; we forget, we smile - The mind turns fool, before the cheek is dry”
Source: Night thoughts on life death and immortality ... to which are added the life of the author and a paraphrase on part of the Book of Job
“Britannia's shame! There took her gloomy flight, On wing impetuous, a black sullen soul . Less base the fear of death than fear of life. O Britain! infamous for suicide.”
Source: Night thoughts on life death and immortality ... to which are added the life of the author and a paraphrase on part of the Book of Job
“When men once reach their autumn, sickly joys fall off apace, as yellow leaves from trees”
Source: Imperium Pelagi, a naval lyric. Epistles to Mr. Pope, concerning the authors of the age. Sea-piece. The foreign address; or the best argument for peace. Epitaph on Lord Aubrey Beauclerk. Reflections on the public situation of the kingdom. An epistle to the right hon. Sir Robert Walpole. The old man's relapse. Resignation. Tragedies. Prose works
“Fond man! the vision of a moment made! Dream of a dream! and shadow of a shade!”
Source: Night Thoughts ... With notes ... by the Rev. C. E. de Coetlogon ... To which are added the author's poem on the Last Day, the paraphrase on part of the Book of Job [with other poems], and his life
“Man wants but little, nor that little long; How soon must he resign his very dust, Which frugal nature lent him for an hour!”
Source: The Complete Works, Poetry and Prose of the Rev. Edward Young, LL.D.: Revised and Collated with the Earliest Editions. To which is Prefixed A Life of the Author
“What most we wish, with ease we fancy near.”
Source: THE POETICAL WORKS OF THE REV. Dr. E. YOUNG WITH THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR.
“Nothing but what astonishes is true.”
Source: Night Thoughts
“We nothing know, but what is marvellous; Yet what is marvellous, we can't believe.”
Source: The Works of the Author of the Night-thoughts: In Four [i.e. Five] Volumes
“In an active life is sown the seed of wisdom... And age, if it has not esteem, has nothing.”
“Why all this toil for triumphs of an hour? What tho' we wade in Wealth, or soar in Fame? Earth's highest station ends in 'Here he lies;' and 'Dust to dust' concludes the noblest songs.”
Source: Night Thoughts on Life, Death and Immortality
“However smothered under former negligence, or scattered through the dull, dark mass of common thoughts - let thy genius rise as the sun from chaos.”
Source: The complete works, poetry and prose, of ... Edward Young. Revised [by J. Nichols]. To which is prefixed, a life of the author, by J. Doran
“Born originals, how comes it to pass that we die copies? That meddling ape imitation, as soon as we come to years of indiscretion, (so let me speak,) snatches the pen, and blots out nature's mark of separation, cancels her kind intention, destroys all mental individuality. The lettered world no longer consists of singulars: it is a medley, a mass; and a hundred books, at bottom, are but one.”
Source: The complete works, poetry and prose, of ... Edward Young. Revised [by J. Nichols]. To which is prefixed, a life of the author, by J. Doran
“Death! great proprietor of all! 'tis thine To tread out empire, and to quench the stars.”
Source: Night Thoughts on Life, Death, and Immortality
“The spider's most attenuated thread Is cord, is cable, to man's tender tie On earthly bliss; it breaks at every breeze.”
Source: Night thoughts on life death and immortality ... to which are added the life of the author and a paraphrase on part of the Book of Job
“Blest leisure is our curse; like that of Cain, It, makes us wander, wander earth around, To fly that tyrant Thought. As Atlas groan'd The world beneath, we groan beneath an hour.”
Source: Night Thoughts on Life, Death, and Immortality
“Ah! what is human life? How, like the dial's tardy-moving shade, Day after day slides from us unperceiv'd! The cunning fugitive is swift by stealth; Too subtle is the movement to be seen; Yet soon the hour is up--and we are gone.”
Source: The dramatic works of Edward Young
“But love, like wine, gives a tumultuous bliss, Heighten'd indeed beyond all mortal pleasures; But mingles pangs and madness in the bowl.”
Source: The Works of Edward Young ...: In Three Volumes. To which is Prefixed the Life of the Author
“How poor, how rich, how abject, how august, How complicate, how wonderful, is man!... Midway from nothing to the Deity!”
Source: Night Thoughts on Life, Death, and Immortality
“The bell strikes One. We take no note of time But from its loss. To give it then a tongue Is wise in man. As if an angel spoke, I feel the solemn sound. If heard aright, It is the knell of my departed hours.”
Source: Night thoughts on life, death and immortality: With a memoir of the author, a critical view of his writings, and explanatory notes
“A tardy vengeance shares the tyrant's guilt.”
Source: Busiris, King of Egypt. A tragedy, etc
“Some wits, too, like oracles, deal in ambiguities, but not with equal success; for though ambiguities are the first excellence of an imposter, they are the last of a wit.”
Source: The complete poetical works of Edward Young. With life
“Youth is not rich in time; it may be poor; Part with it as with money, sparing; pay No moment but in purchase of its worth, And what it's worth, ask death-beds; they can tell.”
Source: The Poems of Edward Young
“When men of infamy to grandeur soar, They light a torch to show their shame the more.”
Source: The complete poetical works of Edward Young. With life
“O let me be undone the common way, And have the common comfort to be pity'd, And not be ruin'd in the mask of bliss, And so be envy'd, and be wretched too!”
Source: The Revenge: A Tragedy. As it is Acted at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane. By His Majesty's Servants
“Some go to Church, proud humbly to repent, And come back much more guilty than they went: One way they look, another way they steer, Pray to the Gods; but would have Mortals hear; And when their sins they set sincerely down, They'll find that their Religion has been one.”
Source: The complete poetical works of Edward Young. With life
“Who gives an empire, by the gift defeats All end of giving; and procures contempt Instead of gratitude.”
Source: The Works of the Rev. Dr. Edward Young
“This vast and solid earth, that blazing sun, Those skies, thro' which it rolls, must all have end. What then is man? The smallest part of nothing.”
Source: THE ENGLISH THEATRE IN EIGHT VOLUMES: CONTAINING The Most Valuable PLAYS Which Have Been Acted on the LONDON STAGE.. REVENGE. By Dr. Young. RIVAL QUEENS. By Mr. Lee. THEODOSIUS, or the FORCE of LOVE. By Mr. Lee. VENICE PRESERVED. By Mr. Otway. ZARA. By A. Hill. Esq
“This is the bud of being, the dim dawn, The twilight of our day, the vestibule; Life's theatre as yet is shut, and death, Strong death, alone can heave the massy bar, This gross impediment of clay remove, And make us embryos of existence free.”
Source: Night Thoughts on Life, Death & Immortality: To which is Added a Paraphrase on Part of the Book of Job, and the Last Day, a Poem
“Polite diseases make some idiots vain, Which, if unfortunately well, they feign.”
Source: The Poetical Works of Edward Young: In Four Volumes. Collated with the Best Editions:
“Who combats with a brother, wounds himself.”
Source: The Works of the Author of The Night-thoughts
“A prince indebted is a fortune made.”
Source: The Brothers: A Tragedy
“Live now; be damn'd hereafter.”
Source: The Works of the Rev. Dr. Edward Young
“Day buries day; month, month; and year the year: Our life is but a chain of many deaths.”
Source: The Works of Edward Young ...: In Three Volumes. To which is Prefixed the Life of the Author
“Not all the pride of beauty; Those eyes, that tell us what the sun is made of; Those lips, whose touch is to be bought with life; Those hills of driven snow, which seen are felt: All these possessed are nought, but as they are The proof, the substance of an inward passion, And the rich plunder of a taken heart.”
Source: The Poetical Works of Milton, Young, Gray, Beattie, and Collins
“The blood will follow where the knife is driven, The flesh will quiver where the pincers tear.”
Source: The Complete Works, Poetry and Prose of the Rev. Edward Young, LL.D.: Revised and Collated with the Earliest Editions. To which is Prefixed A Life of the Author
“Men are but men; we did not make ourselves.”
Source: Imperium Pelagi, a naval lyric. Epistles to Mr. Pope, concerning the authors of the age. Sea-piece. The foreign address; or the best argument for peace. Epitaph on Lord Aubrey Beauclerk. Reflections on the public situation of the kingdom. An epistle to the right hon. Sir Robert Walpole. The old man's relapse. Resignation. Tragedies. Prose works
“Old men love novelties; the last arriv'd Still pleases best; the youngest steals their smiles.”
Source: The Works of the Author of The Night-thoughts
“Who can take Death's portrait? The tyrant never sat.”
“A Deity believed, is joy begun; A Deity adored, is joy advanced; A Deity beloved, is joy matured. Each branch of piety delight inspires.”
Source: The Complete Works, Poetry and Prose of the Rev. Edward Young, LL.D.: Revised and Collated with the Earliest Editions. To which is Prefixed A Life of the Author
“A God alone can comprehend a God.”
Source: Night Thoughts ... With notes ... by the Rev. C. E. de Coetlogon ... To which are added the author's poem on the Last Day, the paraphrase on part of the Book of Job [with other poems], and his life
“Tis immortality, 'tis that alone, Amid life's pains, abasements, emptiness, The soul can comfort, elevate, and fill. That only, and that amply this performs.”
Source: Night Thoughts ... With notes ... by the Rev. C. E. de Coetlogon ... To which are added the author's poem on the Last Day, the paraphrase on part of the Book of Job [with other poems], and his life
“Joys season'd high, and tasting strong of guilt.”
Source: Night thoughts on life death and immortality ... to which are added the life of the author and a paraphrase on part of the Book of Job
“Nothing in Nature, much less conscious being, Was e'er created solely for itself.”
Source: The Poetical Works of Rev. Dr. E. Young: With the Life of the Author
“Fame is the shade of immortality, And in itself a shadow. Soon as caught, Contemn'd; it shrinks to nothing in the grasp.”
Source: Night Thoughts, on Life, Death, and Immortality ... With the life of the author. [With plates, including a portrait.]
“Poor in abundance, famish'd at a feast.”
Source: Night thoughts on life death and immortality ... to which are added the life of the author and a paraphrase on part of the Book of Job
“The spirit walks of every day deceased.”
Source: The Complaint and Consolation; Or, Night Thoughts on Life, Death and Immortality: To which is Added, The Force of Religion
“With fame, in just proportion, envy grows.”
Source: The complete works, poetry and prose, of ... Edward Young. Revised [by J. Nichols]. To which is prefixed, a life of the author, by J. Doran
