Skip to content
quotesby

13 Matthew Prior Quotes

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

Matthew Prior 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.

    #1

  2. The end must justify the means.

    #2

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

    #3

  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!

    #4

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

    #5

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

    #6

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

    #7

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

    #8

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

    #9

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

    #10

  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.

    #11

  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.

    #12

  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?

    #13