Matthew Prior

Matthew Prior (July 21, 1664 – September 18, 1721) was an English poet and diplomat.

From ignorance our comfort flows.
The only wretched are the wise.

Quotes

• 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.
  • To the Honorable Charles Montague (1692).

• From ignorance our comfort flows.
  The only wretched are the wise.
  • To the Honorable Charles Montague (1692).

• That if weak women went astray,
  Their stars were more in fault than they.
  • Hans Carvel (1700).

• The end must justify the means.
  • Hans Carvel (1700).

• Forbear to mention what thou canst not praise.
  • Carmen Seculare (1700).

• Soft peace she brings; wherever she arrives
  She builds our quiet as she forms our lives;
  Lays the rough paths of peevish Nature even,
  And opens in each heart a little heaven.
  • Charity (1703).

• 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!
  • An English Padlock (1707).

• And thought the nation ne'er would thrive
  Till all the whores were burnt alive.
  • Paulo Purganti and His Wife (1708).

• He ranged his tropes, and preached up patience;
  Backed his opinion with quotations.
  • Paulo Purganti and His Wife (1708).

• Cured yesterday of my disease,
  I died last night of my physician.
  • The Remedy Worse than the Disease (1714).

• Now fitted the halter, now traversed the cart,
  And often took leave, but was loth to depart.
  • The Thief and the Cordelier (1718).

• His noble negligences teach
  What others' toils despair to reach.
  • Alma, Canto II, l. 7 (1718).

• Till their own dreams at length decive 'em,
  And oft repeating, they believe 'em.
  • Alma, Canto III, l. 13 (1718).

• 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.
  • Epigram (1718).

• Venus, take my votive glass;
  Since I am not what I was,
  What from this day I shall be,
  Venus, let me never see.
  • The Lady Who Offers Her Looking-Glass to Venus (1718).

• 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?
  • Epitaph (1721).

• All jargon of the schools.
  • I am that I am, An Ode; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

• Odds life! must one swear to the truth of a song?
  • A Better Answer; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

• They never taste who always drink;
  They always talk who never think.
  • Upon a passage in the Scaligerana; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

• That air and harmony of shape express,
  Fine by degrees, and beautifully less.
  • Henry and Emma; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

• Abra was ready ere I called her name;
  And though I called another, Abra came.
  • Solomon on the Vanity of the World, book ii, line 364; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

• For hope is but the dream of those that wake.
  • Solomon on the Vanity of the World, book iii, line 102; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

• Who breathes must suffer, and who thinks must mourn;
  And he alone is bless'd who ne'er was born.
  • Solomon on the Vanity of the World, book iii, line 240; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

• A Rechabite poor Will must live,
  And drink of Adam's ale.
  • The Wandering Pilgrim.; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

External links

• Encyclopedic article on Matthew Prior on Wikipedia
• Media related to Matthew Prior on Wikimedia Commons
• Works related to Author:Matthew Prior on Wikisource
• The Matthew Prior Project, Prior's complete correspondence