Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl of Roscommon Quotes

The press, the pulpit, and the stage, Conspire to censure and expose our age.

Choose an author as you would a friend.

You must not think that a satiric style allows of scandalous and brutish words; the better sort abhor scurrility.

Pride (of all others the most dang'rous fault) Proceeds from want of sense, or want of thought.

We weep and laugh, as we see others do.

The men, who labour and digest things most, Will be much apter to despond than boast; For if your author be profoundly good, 'Twill cost you dear before he's understood.

Abstruse and mystic thoughts you must express With painful care, but seeming easiness; For truth shines brightest thro' the plainest dress.

Tis I that call, remember Milo's end, Wedged in that timber which he strove to rend.

Immodest words admit of no defence, For want of decency is want of sense.

The last loud trumpet's wondrous sound, Shall thro' the rending tombs rebound, And wake the nations under ground.

Men still had faults, and men will have them still; He that hath none, and lives as angels do, Must be an angel.

Truth and fiction are so aptly mixed that all seems uniform and of a piece.

The first great work (a task performed by few) Is that yourself may to yourself be true.

What you keep by you, you may change and mend but words, once spoken, can never be recalled.

Whatsoever contradicts my sense, I hate to see, and never can believe.

Sound judgment is the ground of writing well.

The multitude is always wrong.

I will not quarrel with a slight mistake, Such as our nature's frailty may excuse.

Invention is not so much the result of labor as of judgment.

Grief dejects and wrings the tortured soul.

Beware what spirit rages in your breast; for one inspired, ten thousand are possessed.

Often try what weight you can support, And what your shoulders are too weak to bear.

Our heroes of the former days deserved and gained their never-fading bays.

Those things which now seem frivolous and slight, Will be of serious consequence to you, When they have made you once ridiculous.

Praise Him, each savage furious beast That on His stores do daily feast; And you tame slaves, of the laborious plough, Your weary knees to your Creator bow.

Truth shines brightest thro' the plainest dress.

Words are like leaves; some wither every year, and every year a younger race succeed.

Words once spoken can never be recalled.

You gain your point if your industrious art can make unusual words easy.

Let us not write at a loose rambling rate, in hope the world will wink at all our faults.