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The Wit of Cheats, the Courage of a Whore,Are what ten thousand envy and adore:All, all look up, with reverential Awe,At crimes that 'scape, or triump...more

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To wake the soul by tender strokes of art,To raise the genius, and to mend the heart

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Genius creates, and taste preserves. Taste is the good sense of genius; without taste, genius is only sublime folly.

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All nature is but art unknown to thee.

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Yes, I am proud; I must be proud to seeMen not afraid of God afraid of me.

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Light quirks of music broken and uneven Make the soul dance upon a jig to Heav'n.

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Light quirks of music broken and uneven make the soul dance upon a jig of heaven.

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True wit is nature to advantage dressed;What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed.

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One science only will one genius fit; so vast is art, so narrow human wit.

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Heav'n from all creatures hides the book of Fate, All but the page prescrib'd, their present state; From brutes what men, from men what spirits know: ...more

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True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, as those move easiest who have learn'd to dance.

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Oh let me live my own! and die so too! ("To live and die is all I have to do:") Maintain a poet's dignity and ease, And see what friends, and read wha...more

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A little learning is a dangerous thing.Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian Spring;There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,and drinking largely so...more

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True Wit is Nature to advantage dress'dWhat oft was thought, but ne'er so well express'd;Something whose truth convinced at sight we find,That gives u...more

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In words, as fashions, the same rule will hold;Alike fantastic, if too new, or old:Be not the first by whom the new are tried,Nor yet the last to lay ...more