The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

Of such doctrine never was there school,
But the heart of the fool,
And no man therein doctor but himself.
‘Samson Agonistes’ (1671) l. 297
But what availed this temperance, not complete
Against another object more enticing?
What boots it at one gate to make defence,
And at another to let in the foe?
‘Samson Agonistes’ (1671) l. 558
That grounded maxim
So rife and celebrated in the mouths
Of wisest men; that to the public good
Private respects must yield.
‘Samson Agonistes’ (1671) l. 865
Yet beauty, though injurious, hath strange power,
After offence returning, to regain
Love once possessed.
‘Samson Agonistes’ (1671) l. 1003
Love-quarrels oft in pleasing concord end.
‘Samson Agonistes’ (1671) l. 1008
Lords are lordliest in their wine.
‘Samson Agonistes’ (1671) l. 1418
For evil news rides post, while good news baits.
‘Samson Agonistes’ (1671) l. 1538
And as an evening dragon came,
Assailant on the perchéd roosts,
And nests in order ranged
Of tame villatic fowl.
‘Samson Agonistes’ (1671) l. 1692
Like that self-begotten bird
In the Arabian woods embossed,
That no second knows nor third,
And lay erewhile a holocaust.
‘Samson Agonistes’ (1671) l. 1699
And though her body die, her fame survives,
A secular bird ages of lives.
‘Samson Agonistes’ (1671) l. 1706
Samson hath quit himself
Like Samson, and heroically hath finished
A life heroic.