Edward Young

Poet, 1683-1765

Cited as Young. — 102 quotations

Admission

What numbers groan for sad admission there!

Advent

Death's dreadful advent.

Astronomer

An undevout astronomer is mad.

Balmy

Tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep!

Boasting

When boasting ends, then dignity begins.

Carouse

Egypt's wanton queen, Carousing gems, herself dissolved in love.

Colbertine

Difference rose between Mechlin, the queen of lace, and colbertine.

Collective

Local is his throne . . . to fix a point, A central point, collective of his sons.

Complaisance

They strive with their own hearts and keep them down, In complaisance to all the fools in town.

Complicate

How poor, how rich, how abject, how august, How complicate, how wonderful is man!
Nor can his complicated sinews fail.

Confide

Judge before friendships, then confide till death.

Consertion

Consertion of design, how exquisite.

Cruise

'Mid sands, and rocks, and storms to cruise for pleasure.

Death

Death! great proprietor of all.

Detector

A deathbed's detector of the heart.

Disdain

'T is great, 't is manly to disdain disguise.

Disembogue

Volcanos bellow ere they disembogue.

Disengage

From a friends's grave how soon we disengage!

Displosion

The vast displosion dissipates the clouds.

Downy

Time steals on with downy feet.

Dread

A dread eternity! how surely mine.

Earth

The miser earths his treasure, and the thief, Watching the mole, half beggars him ere noon.

Ebon

Night, sable goddess! from her ebon throne.

Elaborate

They in full joy elaborate a sigh,

Eliminate

Eliminate my spirit, give it range Through provinces of thought yet unexplored.

Employment

Cares are employments, and without employ The soul is on a rack.

Engulf

It quite engulfs all human thought.

Event

Dark doubts between the promise and event.

Fastidious

Proud youth ! fastidious of the lower world.

Fix

One eye on death, and one full fix'd on heaven.

Fomentation

Dishonest fomentation of your pride.

Font

Bathing forever in the font of bliss.

Formalist

As far a formalist from wisdom sits, In judging eyes, as libertines from wits.

Fume

How vicious hearts fume frenzy to the brain!

Gentle

To gentle life's descent, We shut our eyes, and think it is a plain.

Give

For generous lords had rather give than pay.

Glory

Your sex's glory 't is to shine unknown.

Gurgle

Pure gurgling rills the lonely desert trace, And waste their music on the savage race.

Halfway

Temples proud to meet their gods halfway.

House

At length have housed me in a humble shed.

Inconsistent

Ah, how unjust to nature, and himself, Is thoughtless, thankless, inconsistent man.

Initiate

To rise in science as in bliss, Initiate in the secrets of the skies.

Knight-errantry

The rigid guardian [i. e., conscience] of a blameless heart Is weak with rank knight-erratries o'errun.

Lee

A thousand demons lurk within the lee.

Levee

He levees all the great.

Litigious

Nor brothers cite to the litigious bar.

Lubricate

Supples, lubricates, and keeps in play, The various movements of this nice machine.

Mark

Whate'er the motive, pleasure is the mark.

Necromantic

With all the necromantics of their art.

Neuter

The world's no neuter; it will wound or save.

Old

The melancholy news that we grow old.

Omber

When ombre calls, his hand and heart are free, And, joined to two, he fails not to make three.

Orbit

Roll the lucid orbit of an eye.

Outlook

Applause Which owes to man's short outlook all its charms.

Passage

How commentators each dark passage shun.

Perpetrate

What the worst perpetrate, or best endure.

Procrastination

Procrastination is the thief of time.

Pygmy

Pygmies are pygmies still, though perched on Alps. And pyramids are pyramids in vales.

Re-resolve

Resolves, and re-resolves, then dies the same.

Really

Why, really, sixty-five is somewhat old.

Reflect

Nature is the glass reflecting God, As by the sea reflected is the sun.

Reprune

Yet soon reprunes her wing to soar anew.

Resorb

Now lifted by the tide, and now resorbed.

Rove

In thy nocturnal rove one moment halt.

Sable

Night, sable goddess! from her ebon throne, In rayless majesty, now stretches forth Her leaden scepter o'er a slumbering world.

Saunter

That wheel of fops, that saunter of the town.

Second

Man An angel's second, nor his second long.

Serene

To their master is denied To share their sweet serene.

Serious

The holy Scriptures bring to our ears the most serious things in the world.

Shelter

Who into shelter takes their tender bloom.

Show

I envy none their pageantry and show.

Simple

In simple manners all the secret lies.

Smart

Who, for the poor renown of being smart Would leave a sting within a brother's heart?

Smile

And sharply smile prevailing folly dead.

Solemnity

Solemnity 's a cover for a sot.

Solute

A brow solute, and ever-laughing eye.

Soul

That he wants algebra he must confess; But not a soul to give our arms success.

Stick

If on your fame our sex a bolt has thrown, 'T will ever stick through malice of your own.

Susceptible

It sheds on souls susceptible of light, The glorious dawn of our eternal day.

Swathe

Milk and a swathe, at first, his whole demand.

Terrestrial

A genius bright and base, Of towering talents, and terrestrial aims.

Theologue

Ye gentle theologues of calmer kind.

Throne

Great Sire! whom thrones celestial ceaseless sing.

Tie

No distance breaks the tie of blood.

Title-page

The world's all title-page; there's no contents.

Trench

Like powerful armies, trenching at a town By slow and silent, but resistless, sap.

Trice

A man shall make his fortune in a trice.

Trifle

Small sands the mountain, moments make year, And frifles life.

Turbidly

One of great merit turbidly resents them.

Undraw

Angels undrew the curtain of the throne.

Urn

When horror universal shall descend, And heaven's dark concave urn all human race.

Visible

Virtue made visible in outward grace.

Visto

Through the long visto of a thousand years.

Vital

A competence is vital to content.

Waddle

She drawls her words, and waddles in her pace.

What

O what a riddle of absurdity!

Whelp

Did thy foul fancy whelp so black a scheme?

Who

Who cheapens life, abates the fear of death.

Wit

A wit herself, Amelia weds a wit.

Zest

Almighty Vanity! to thee they owe Their zest of pleasure, and their balm of woe.