Matthew Prior Quotes

Matthew Prior writes lofty, hopeful verses that lift you toward big dreams and the ache of loss.

26 quotes

1. Our hopes, like towering falcons, aim At objects in an airy height; The little pleasure of the game Is from afar to view the flight.

2. The end must justify the means.

3. Lays the rough paths of peevish Nature even, And opens in each heart a little heaven.

4. Be to her virtues very kind; Be to her faults a little blind; Let all her ways be unconfined; And clap your padlock - on her mind!

5. And thought the nation ne'er would thrive Till all the whores were burnt alive.

6. He ranged his tropes, and preached up patience; Backed his opinion with quotations.

7. Cured yesterday of my disease, I died last night of my physician.

8. And often took leave, but was loth to depart.

9. His noble negligences teach What others' toils despair to reach.

10. Till their own dreams at length decive 'em, And oft repeating, they believe 'em.

11. To John I owed great obligation; But John, unhappily, thought fit To publish it to all the nation: Sure John and I are more than quit.

12. Venus, take my votive glass; Since I am not what I was, What from this day I shall be, Venus, let me never see.

13. Nobles and heralds, by your leave, Here lies what once was Matthew Prior; The son of Adam and of Eve: Can Bourbon or Nassau claim higher?

14. And 'tis remarkable that they talk most who have the least to say.

15. They talk most who have the least to say.

16. Who walks the fastest, but walks astray, is only furthest from his way.

17. For hope is but a dream for those that wake.

18. For, when with beauty we can virtue join, We paint the semblance of a form divine.

19. Who fastest walks, but walks astray, Is only furthest from his way.

20. Hope is but the dream of those who wake.

21. Be to their virtue very kind; be to their faults a little blind.

22. The ends must justify the means.

23. It takes two to quarrel, but only one to end it.

24. Fantastic tyrant of the amorous heart. How hard thy yoke, how cruel thy dart. Those escape your anger who refuse your sway, and those are punished most, who most obey.

25. “They talk most who have least to say.”

26. “And hope is but a dream of those that wake.”