| C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. 1917. | | | | Lord Lyttleton |
| | | | Alas! by some degree of woe |
| We every bliss must gain: |
| The heart can ne’er a transport know, |
| That never feels a pain. |
| 1 |
| | Ev’n in the happiest choice, where fav’ring heaven |
| Has equal love and easy fortune giv’n,— |
| Think not, the husband gain’d, that all is done; |
| The prize of happiness must still be won: |
| And, oft, the careless find it to their cost, |
| The lover in the husband may be lost; |
| The graces might alone his heart allure; |
| They and the virtues, meeting, must secure. |
| 2 |
| | For his chaste Muse employed her heaven-taught lyre |
| None but the noblest passions to inspire, |
| Not one immortal, one corrupted thought, |
| One line, which dying he could wish to blot. |
| 3 |
| | Hence, wretched nation! all thy woes arise, |
| Avow’d corruption, licensed perjuries, |
| Eternal taxes, treaties for a day, |
| Servants that rule, and senates that obey. |
| 4 |
| | Me other cares in other climes engage, |
| Cares that become my birth, and suit my age: |
| In various knowledge to instruct my youth, |
| And conquer prejudice, worst foe to truth, |
| By foreign arts, domestic faults to mend, |
| Enlarge my notions, and my views extend; |
| The useful science of the world to know, |
| Which books can never teach, nor pedants show. |
| 5 |
| | What is your sex’s earliest, latest care, |
| Your heart’s supreme ambition? To be fair. |
| 6 |
| A cunning woman is a knavish fool. | 7 |
| A woman’s noblest station is retreat. | 8 |
| Alas! by some degree of woe we every bliss must gain. | 9 |
| Domestic worth, that shuns too strong a light. | 10 |
| How much the wife is dearer than the bride! | 11 |
| The lover in the husband may be lost. | 12 |
| The useful science of the world to know, which books can never teach, nor pedants show. | 13 |
| Wit is not levelled so much at the muscles as at the heart; and the latter will sometimes smile when there is not a single wrinkle on the cheek. | 14 |
| Women, like princes, find few real friends. | 15 | | |
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