“Known mischiefs have their cure; but doubts have none; And better is despair than fruitless hope Mix'd with a killing fear.”
- Thomas May
“Seldom is faction's ire in haughty minds Extinguish'd but by death: it oft like fire Suppress'd, breaks forth again, and blazes higher.”
“Health and liberty Attend on these bare meals; if all were blest With such a temperance, what man would fawn, Or to his belly sell his liberty? There would be then no slaves, no sycophants At great men's tables.”
“Oh sad vicissitude Of earthly things! to what untimely end Are all the fading glories that attend Upon the state of greatest monarchs, brought! What safety can by policy be wrought, Or rest be found on fortune's restless wheel!”
“With riotous banquets, sicknesses came in, When death 'gan muster all his dismal band Of pale diseases.”
“From our tables here, no painful surfeits, No fed diseases grow, to strangle nature, And suffocate the active brain; no fevers, No apoplexies, palsies or catarrhs Are here; where nature, not entic'd at all With such a dang'rous bait as pleasant cates, Takes in no more than she can govern well.”
“A true philosopher Makes death his common practice, while he lives, And every day by contemplation strives To separate the soul, far as he can, From off the body.”
“For true charity Though ne'er so secret finds its just reward.”
