EDWARD YOUNG QUOTES

English poet (1683-1765)

He who, superior to the checks of nature,
Dares make his life the victim of his reason,
Does in some sort that reason deify,
And take a flight at heav'n.

EDWARD YOUNG

The Revenge

Tags: reason


The house of laughter makes a house of woe.

EDWARD YOUNG

Night Thoughts

Tags: laughter


By night an atheist half believes in God.

EDWARD YOUNG

The Complaint, or Night-Thoughts on Life, Death & Immortality

Tags: night


When human glory rises high
As human glory can;
When though the king is truly great,
Still greater is the man.

EDWARD YOUNG

"Resignation"

Tags: glory


A God all mercy is a God unjust.

EDWARD YOUNG

The Complaint, or Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, & Immortality

Tags: God


A man I knew who lived upon a smile,
And well it fed him; he look'd plump and fair

EDWARD YOUNG

Night Thoughts

Tags: smiling


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

Busiris, King of Egypt: A Tragedy

Tags: life


Look into those they call unfortunate,
And closer view'd, you'll find they are unwise.

EDWARD YOUNG

The Revenge


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

EDWARD YOUNG

Night Thoughts

Tags: thought


If, my lord, the dead alone
Are all your care, life is no more a blessing.

EDWARD YOUNG

Busiris, King of Egypt: A Tragedy


Live now; be damn'd hereafter.

EDWARD YOUNG

The Revenge


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

EDWARD YOUNG

Night Thoughts

Tags: ocean


Some go to Church, proud humbly to repent,
And come back much more guilty than they went:
One way they look, another way they steer,
Pray to the Gods; but would have Mortals hear;
And when their sins they set sincerely down,
They'll find that their Religion has been one.

EDWARD YOUNG

Love of Fame: The Universal Passion in Seven Characteristical Satires

Tags: church


O sacred solitude! divine retreat!
Choice of the prudent! envy of the great,
By thy pure stream, or in thy waving shade,
We court fair wisdom, that celestial maid.

EDWARD YOUNG

Love of Fame

Tags: solitude


But love, like wine, gives a tumultuous bliss,
Heighten'd indeed beyond all mortal pleasures;
But mingles pangs and madness in the bowl.

EDWARD YOUNG

The Revenge

Tags: love


Rising glory occasions the greatest envy, as kindling fires the greatest smoke.

EDWARD YOUNG

A Vindication of Providence; Or, a True Estimate of Human Life

Tags: glory


He that's ungrateful, has no guilt but one;
All other crimes may pass for virtues in him.

EDWARD YOUNG

Busiris

Tags: ingratitude


Men are but men; we did not make ourselves.

EDWARD YOUNG

The Revenge


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

EDWARD YOUNG

The Complaint; Or Night Thoughts on Life, Death, and Immortality


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

EDWARD YOUNG

Love of Fame: The Universal Passion in Seven Characteristical Satires