John Denham quotes:
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When any great design thou dost intend, Think on the means, the manner, and the end.
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But whither am I strayed? I need not raise Trophies to thee from other men's dispraise; Nor is thy fame on lesser ruins built; Nor needs thy juster title the foul guilt Of Eastern kings, who, to secure their reign, Must have their brothers, sons, and kindred slain.
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Actions of the last age are like almanacs of the last year.
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Search not to find things too deeply hid; Nor try to know things whose knowledge is forbid.
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Though with those streams he no resemblance hold, Whose foam is amber and their gravel gold; His genuine and less guilty wealth t' explore, Search not his bottom, but survey his shore.
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Books should to one of these fours ends conduce, for wisdom, piety, delight, or use.
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The man who first abused his fellows with swear-words instead of bashing their brains out with a club should be counted among those who laid the foundations of civilization.
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Poetry is of so subtle a spirit, that in the pouring out of one language into another it will evaporate.
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We are never like angels till our passion dies.
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It is no exaggeration to say that Israeli policy in the occupied territories is not simply a matter of foreign policy - it is a matter for British domestic security policy too,.
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Whatsoever is worthy of their love is worth their anger.
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Uncertain ways unsafest are, and doubt a greater mischief than despair.
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Nor ought a genius less than his that writ attempt translation.
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Learn to live well, that thou may'st die so too; To live and die is all we have to do.
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Tis the most certain sign, the world's accurst That the best things corrupted, are the worst; 'Twas the corrupted Light of knowledge, hurl'd Sin, Death, and Ignorance o'er all the world; That Sun like this (from which our sight we have) Gaz'd on too long, resumes the light he gave.
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Such is our pride, our folly, or our fate, That few, but such as cannot write, translate.
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You prove but too clearly that seeking to know Is too frequently learning to doubt.
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Who fears not to do ill fears the name, And free from conscience, is a slave to fame.
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Sure there are poets which did never dream Upon Parnassus, nor did taste the stream Of Helicon; we therefore may suppose Those made not poets, but the poets those.
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Youth, what man's age is like to be, doth show; We may our ends by our beginnings know.