The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

To those budge doctors of the Stoic fur,
And fetch their precepts from the Cynic tub,
Praising the lean and sallow Abstinence.
‘Comus’ (1637) l. 706
Beauty is Nature’s coin, must not be hoarded,
But must be current, and the good thereof
Consists in mutual and partaken bliss.
‘Comus’ (1637) l. 739
Beauty is Nature’s brag, and must be shown
In courts, at feasts, and high solemnities
Where most may wonder at the workmanship;
It is for homely features to keep home,
They had their name thence; coarse complexions
And cheeks of sorry grain will serve to ply
The sampler, and to tease the housewife’s wool.
What need a vermeil-tinctured lip for that,
Love-darting eyes, or tresses like the morn?
‘Comus’ (1637) l. 745
Obtruding false rules pranked in reason’s garb.
‘Comus’ (1637) l. 759
Sabrina fair,
Listen where thou art sitting
Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave,
In twisted braids of lilies knitting
The loose train of thy amber-dropping hair.
‘Comus’ (1637) l. 859
Thus I set my printless feet
O’er the cowslip’s velvet head,
That bends not as I tread.
‘Comus’ (1637) l. 897
Love Virtue, she alone is free,
She can teach ye how to climb
Higher than the sphery chime;
Or, if Virtue feeble were,
Heaven itself would stoop to her.
‘Comus’ (1637) l. 1019
Hence, vain deluding joys,
The brood of folly without father bred.
‘Il Penseroso’ (1645) l. 1
As thick and numberless