Edward Young Quotes

#1. Who knows if Shakespeare might not have thought less if he had read more?

Edward Young

#2. Virtue alone has majesty in death.

Edward Young

#3. Nothing but what astonishes is true.

Edward Young

#4. By night an atheist half believes in God.

Edward Young

#5. What is a miracle?
'Tis a reproach, 'Tis an implicit satire on mankind; And while it satisfies, it censures too.

Edward Young

#6. All men think all men mortal, but themselves.

Edward Young

#7. 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.

Edward Young

#8. Truth never was indebted to a lie.

Edward Young

#9. Man wants little, nor that little long.

Edward Young

#10. At thirty a man suspects himself a fool;
Knows it at forty, and reforms his plan;
At fifty chides his infamous delay,
Pushes his prudent purpose to resolve;
In all the magnanimity of thought
Resolves; and re-resolves; then dies the same.

Edward Young

#11. Be wise with speed; a fool at forty is a fool indeed.

Edward Young

#12. Thoughts shut up want air, And spoil, like bales unopen'd to the sun.

Edward Young

#13. 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.

Edward Young

#14. Ocean into tempest wrought, To waft a feather, or to drown a fly.

Edward Young

#15. When men once reach their autumn, sickly joys fall off apace, as yellow leaves from trees

Edward Young

#16. The man of wisdom is the man of years.

Edward Young

#17. been lowered slightly because

Edward Young

#18. Man makes a death which Nature never made. And feels a thousand deaths in fearing one.

Edward Young

#19. Unlearned men of books assume the care,
As eunuchs are the guardians of the fair.

Edward Young

#20. Inhumanity is caught from man, From smiling man.

Edward Young

#21. Heaven's Sovereign saves all beings but himselfThat hideous sight,-a naked human heart.

Edward Young

#22. The course of Nature is the art of God.

Edward Young

#23. All men think that all men are mortal but themselves.

Edward Young

#24. Heaven wills our happiness, allows our doom.

Edward Young

#25. Life is the desert, life the solitude, death joins us to the great majority.

Edward Young

#26. Joys season'd high, and tasting strong of guilt.

Edward Young

#27. For her own breakfast she'll project a scheme,
Nor take her tea without a strategem.

Edward Young

#28. Midway from Nothing to the Deity!

Edward Young

#29. Time elaborately thrown away.

Edward Young

#30. At thirty, man suspects himself a fool; Knows it at forty, and reforms his plan.

Edward Young

#31. Souls made of fire, and children of the sun, With whom revenge is virtue.

Edward Young

#32. None think the great unhappy, but the great.

Edward Young

#33. Friendship is the wine of life.

Edward Young

#34. The man that blushes is not quite a brute.

Edward Young

#35. We are not all great because we are inspired, but we feel great because we are.

Edward Young

#36. Tomorrow is the day when idlers work, and fools reform.

Edward Young

#37. A dearth of words a woman need not fear; But 'tis a task indeed to learn to hear: In that the skill of conversation lies; That shows and makes you both polite and wise.

Edward Young

#38. Who combats with a brother, wounds himself.

Edward Young

#39. 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.

Edward Young

#40. Life's cares are comforts; such by Heav'n design'd; He that hath none must make them, or be wretched.

Edward Young

#41. Less base the fear of death than fear of life.

Edward Young

#42. Early, bright, transient, chaste as morning dew, She sparkled, was exhaled, and went to heaven.

Edward Young

#43. 'T is impious in a good man to be sad.

Edward Young

#44. There is something about poetry beyond prose logic, there is mystery in it, not to be explained but admired.

Edward Young

#45. One to destroy, is murder by the law; and gibbets keep the lifted hand in awe; to murder thousands, takes a specious name, 'War's glorious art', and gives immortal fame.

Edward Young

#46. The spider's most attenuated thread Is cord, is cable, to man's tender tie On earthly bliss; it breaks at every breeze.

Edward Young

#47. Oh, how portentous is prosperity! How comet-like, it threatens while it shines.

Edward Young

#48. Be wise to-day; 't is madness to defer.

Edward Young

#49. How poor, how rich, how abject, how august, How complicate, how wonderful, is man! ... Midway from nothing to the Deity!

Edward Young

#50. I had looked for happiness in fast living, but it was not there. I tried to find it in money, but it was not there either.

Edward Young

#51. Wonder is involuntary praise.

Edward Young

#52. A Deity believed, is joy begun; A Deity adored, is joy advanced; A Deity beloved, is joy matured. Each branch of piety delight inspires.

Edward Young

#53. Night, sable goddess! from her ebon throne, In rayless majesty, now stretches forth Her leaden sceptre o'er a slumbering world.

Edward Young

#54. Polite diseases make some idiots vain, Which, if unfortunately well, they feign.

Edward Young

#55. 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.

Edward Young

#56. Men may live fools, but fools they cannot die.

Edward Young

#57. Narcissus is the glory of his race: For who does nothing with a better grace?.

Edward Young

#58. Creation sleeps! 'T is as the general pulse Of life stood still, and Nature made a pause,- An awful pause! prophetic of her end.

Edward Young

#59. The love of praise, howe'er conceal'd by art, Reigns more or less, and glows in ev'ry heart.

Edward Young

#60. In youth, what disappointments of our own making: in age, what disappointments from the nature of things.

Edward Young

#61. In chambers deep, Where waters sleep, What unknown treasures pave the floor.

Edward Young

#62. Fond man! the vision of a moment made! Dream of a dream! and shadow of a shade!

Edward Young

#63. Of man's miraculous mistakes, this bears The palm, "That all men are about to live."

Edward Young

#64. The man who consecrates his hours by vigorous effort, and an honest aim, at once he draws the sting of life and Death; he walks with nature; and her paths are peace.

Edward Young

#65. Live now; be damn'd hereafter.

Edward Young

#66. It calls Devotion! genuine growth of night! Devotion! Daughter of Astronomy! An undevout astronomer is mad!

Edward Young

#67. Who, for the poor renown of being smart, Would leave a sting within a brother's heart?

Edward Young

#68. Men are but men; we did not make ourselves.

Edward Young

#69. Like our shadows, our wishes lengthen as our sun declines.

Edward Young

#70. 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.

Edward Young

#71. We are all born originals - why is it so many of us die copies?

Edward Young

#72. A foe to God ne'er was true friend to man, Some sinister intent taints all he does.

Edward Young

#73. Much learning shows how little mortals know; much wealth, how little wordings enjoy.

Edward Young

#74. Insatiate archer! could not one suffice? Thy shaft flew thrice, and thrice my peace was slain; And thrice, ere thrice yon moon had filled her horn.

Edward Young

#75. Too low they build who build below the skies.

Edward Young

#76. Still seems it strange, that thou shouldst live forever? Is it less strange, that thou shouldst live at all? This is a miracle; and that no more.

Edward Young

#77. We bleed, we tremble; we forget, we smile - The mind turns fool, before the cheek is dry

Edward Young

#78. Pygmies are pygmies still, though percht on Alps; And pyramids are pyramids in vales. Each man makes his own stature, builds himself. Virtue alone outbuilds the Pyramids; Her monuments shall last when Egypt's fall.

Edward Young

#79. O! lost to virtue, lost to manly thought, Lost to the noble sallies of the soul! Who think it solitude to be alone.

Edward Young

#80. They only babble who practise not reflection.

Edward Young

#81. A Christian is the highest style of man.

Edward Young

#82. Distinguisht Link in Being's endless Chain!
Midway from Nothing to the Deity!

Edward Young

#83. How science dwindles, and how volumes swell,
How commentators each dark passage shun,
And hold their farthing candle to the sun!

Edward Young

#84. Tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep! He, like the world, his ready visit pays Where fortune smiles; the wretched he forsakes.

Edward Young

#85. Be wise today; 'tis madness to defer. Next day the fatal precedent will plead; thus on, til wisdom is pushed our of life.

Edward Young

#86. Death! great proprietor of all! 'tis thine To tread out empire, and to quench the stars.

Edward Young

#87. The clouds may drop down titles and estates, and wealth may seek us, but wisdom must be sought.

Edward Young

#88. The chamber where the good man meets his fate Is privileg'd beyond the common walk Of virtuous life, quite in the verge of heaven.

Edward Young

#89. 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.

Edward Young

#90. Man maketh a death which Nature never made.

Edward Young

#91. 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.

Edward Young

#92. Who can take Death's portrait? The tyrant never sat.

Edward Young

#93. The person of wisdom is the person of years.

Edward Young

#94. However smothered under former negligence, or scattered through the dull, dark mass of common thoughts - let thy genius rise as the sun from chaos.

Edward Young

#95. The first sure symptom of a mind in health Is rest of heart and pleasure felt at home.

Edward Young

#96. Where Nature's end of language is declin'd, And men talk only to conceal the mind.

Edward Young

#97. Age should fly concourse, cover in retreat defects of judgment, and the will subdue; walk thoughtful on the silent, solemn shore of that vast ocean it must sail so soon.

Edward Young

#98. Praise, more divine than prayer; prayer points our ready path to heaven; praise is already there.

Edward Young

#99. A dedication is a wooden leg.

Edward Young

#100. A man of pleasure is a man of pains.

Edward Young