English poet (1683-1765)
Blest leisure is our curse; like that of Cain, It, makes us wander, wander earth around, To fly that tyrant Thought. As Atlas groan'd The world beneath, we groan beneath an hour.
EDWARD YOUNG
Night Thoughts on Life, Death and Immortality
In youth, what disappointments of our own making: in age, what disappointments from the nature of things.
EDWARD YOUNG
A Vindication of Providence
High stations tumult, but not bliss create;
None think the Great unhappy, but the Great.
EDWARD YOUNG
Love of Fame: The Universal Passion in Seven Characteristical Satires
The love of praise, howe'er concealed by art,
Reigns more or less, and glows in ev'ry heart:
The proud to gain it toils on toils endure,
The modest shun it, but to make it sure.
EDWARD YOUNG
Love of Fame: The Universal Passion in Seven Characteristical Satires
The man of wisdom is the man of years.
EDWARD YOUNG
Night Thoughts
What is a miracle?--'Tis a reproach,
'Tis an implicit satire on mankind;
And while it satisfies, it censures too.
EDWARD YOUNG
Night Thoughts
Procrastination is the thief of time.
EDWARD YOUNG
The Complaint, or Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, & Immortality
A tardy vengeance shares the tyrant's guilt.
EDWARD YOUNG
Busiris, King of Egypt: A Tragedy
At thirty a man suspects himself a fool;
Knows it at forty, and reforms his plan;
At fifty chides his infamous delay,
Pushes his prudent purpose to resolve;
In all the magnanimity of thought
Resolves; and re-resolves; then dies the same.
EDWARD YOUNG
Night Thoughts
Our thoughts are heard in heaven.
EDWARD YOUNG
Night Thoughts
How poor, how rich, how abject, how august,
How complicate, how wonderful, is man!...
Midway from nothing to the Deity!
EDWARD YOUNG
Night Thoughts
The course of Nature is the art of God.
EDWARD YOUNG
Night Thoughts
Youth is not rich in time; it may be poor;
Part with it as with money, sparing; pay
No moment but in purchase of its worth,
And what it's worth, ask death-beds; they can tell.
EDWARD YOUNG
The Complaint, or Night-Thoughts on Life, Death & Immortality
Night, sable goddess! from her ebon throne,
In rayless majesty, now stretches forth
Her leaden scepter o'er a slumbering world.
EDWARD YOUNG
Night Thoughts
Will toys amuse, when med'cines cannot cure?
When spirits ebb, when life's enchanting scenes
Their lustre lose, and lessen in our sight,
As lands and cities, with their glittering spires,
To the poor shatter'd bark by sudden storm
Thrown off to sea, and soon to perish there?
Will toys amuse? No: thrones will then be toys,
And earth and skies seem dust upon the scale.
EDWARD YOUNG
Night Thoughts
Who combats with a brother, wounds himself.
EDWARD YOUNG
The Brothers
Old men love novelties; the last arriv'd
Still pleases best; the youngest steals their smiles.
EDWARD YOUNG
The Brothers
O let me be undone the common way,
And have the common comfort to be pity'd,
And not be ruin'd in the mask of bliss,
And so be envy'd, and be wretched too!
EDWARD YOUNG
The Revenge
Has the dark adder venom? So have I,
When trod upon.
EDWARD YOUNG
The Revenge
Titles are marks of honest men, and wise;
The Fool or Knave that wears a title, lies.
EDWARD YOUNG
Love of Fame: The Universal Passion in Seven Characteristical Satires