The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

In keen iambics, but mild anagram:
Leave writing plays, and choose for thy command
Some peaceful province in Acrostic Land.
There thou mayest wings display and altars raise,
And torture one poor word ten thousand ways.
‘MacFlecknoe’ (1682) l. 203
I am resolved to grow fat and look young till forty, and then slip out of the world with the first
wrinkle and the reputation of five-and-twenty.
‘The Maiden Queen’ (1668) act 3, sc. 1
I am to be married within these three days; married past redemption.
‘Marriage á la Mode’ (1672) act 1, sc. 1
We loathe our manna, and we long for quails.
‘The Medal’ (1682) l. 131
But treason is not owned when ’tis descried;
Successful crimes alone are justified.
‘The Medal’ (1682) l. 207
Whatever is, is in its causes just.
‘Oedipus’ (written jointly with Nathaniel Lee, q.v., 1679) act 3, sc. 1
But love’s a malady without a cure.
‘Palamon and Arcite’ (1700) bk. 2, l. 110
Fool, not to know that love endures no tie,
And Jove but laughs at lovers’ perjury.
‘Palamon and Arcite’ (1700) bk. 2, l. 148.
And Antony, who lost the world for love.
‘Palamon and Arcite’ (1700) bk. 2, l. 607
Repentance is but want of power to sin.
‘Palamon and Arcite’ (1700) bk. 3, l. 813
Since every man who lives is born to die,
And none can boast sincere felicity,
With equal mind, what happens, let us bear,
Nor joy nor grieve too much for things beyond our care.
Like pilgrims to th’ appointed place we tend;
The world’s an inn, and death the journey’s end.
‘Palamon and Arcite’ (1700) bk. 3, l. 883
A virgin-widow, and a mourning bride.
‘Palamon and Arcite’ (1700) bk. 3, l. 927
But ’tis the talent of our English nation,
Still to be plotting some new reformation.
‘The Prologue at Oxford, 1680’; prologue to Nathaniel Lee ‘Sophonisba’ (2nd ed., 1681)
So poetry, which is in Oxford made