The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

‘The Task’ (1785) bk. 3 ‘The Garden’ l. 161
Defend me, therefore, common sense, say I,
From reveries so airy, from the toil
Of dropping buckets into empty wells,
And growing old in drawing nothing up!
‘The Task’ (1785) bk. 3 ‘The Garden’ l. 187
Newton, childlike sage!
Sagacious reader of the works of God.
‘The Task’ (1785) bk. 3 ‘The Garden’ l. 252
Detested sport,
That owes its pleasures to another’s pain.
‘The Task’ (1785) bk. 3 ‘The Garden’ l. 326 (on hunting)
Studious of laborious ease.
‘The Task’ (1785) bk. 3 ‘The Garden’ l. 361
To combat may be glorious, and success
Perhaps may crown us; but to fly is safe.
‘The Task’ (1785) bk. 3 ‘The Garden’ l. 686
Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast,
Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa round,
And, while the bubbling and loud-hissing urn
Throws up a steamy column, and the cups,
That cheer but not inebriate, wait on each,
So let us welcome peaceful evening in.
‘The Task’ (1785) bk. 4 ‘The Winter Evening’ l. 34.
’Tis pleasant through the loopholes of retreat
To peep at such a world; to see the stir
Of the great Babel, and not feel the crowd.
‘The Task’ (1785) bk. 4 ‘The Winter Evening’ l. 88
I crown thee king of intimate delights,
Fire-side enjoyments, home-born happiness.
‘The Task’ (1785) bk. 4 ‘The Winter Evening’ l. 139
A Roman meal...
...a radish and an egg.
‘The Task’ (1785) bk. 4 ‘The Winter Evening’ l. 168
The slope of faces, from the floor to th’ roof,
(As if one master-spring controlled them all),
Relaxed into a universal grin.
‘The Task’ (1785) bk. 4 ‘The Winter Evening’ l. 202 (on the theatre)
Shaggy, and lean, and shrewd, with pointed ears
And tail cropped short, half lurcher and half cur.