Charles Churchill Quotes & Sayings

Wherever waves can roll, and winds can blow. — Charles Churchill

Though folly, robed in purple, shines, Though vice exhausts Peruvian mines, Yet shall they tremble and turn pale When satire wields her mighty flail. — Charles Churchill

No tribute is laid on castles in the air. — Charles Churchill

Genius is independent of situation. — Charles Churchill

Gipsies, who every ill can cure,
Except the ill of being poor
Who charms 'gainst love and agues sell,
Who can in hen-roost set a spell,
Prepar'd by arts, to them best known
To catch all feet except their own,
Who, as to fortune, can unlock it,
As easily as pick a pocket. — Charles Churchill

Keep up appearances; there lies the test. The world will give thee credit for the rest. — Charles Churchill

Amongst the sons of men how few are known Who dare be just to merit not their own. — Charles Churchill

No two on earth in all things can agree;
All have some darling singularity;
Women and men, as well as girls and boys,
In gewgaws take delight, and sigh for toys,
Your sceptres and your crowns, and such like things,
Are but a better kind of toys for kings.
In things indifferent reason bids us choose,
Whether the whim's a monkey or a muse. — Charles Churchill

Genius is of no country. — Charles Churchill

By different methods different men excel, but where is he who can do all things well? — Charles Churchill

Who often, but without success, have prayed for apt Alliteration's artful aid. — Charles Churchill

With various readings stored his empty skull, Learn'd without sense, and venerably dull. — Charles Churchill

What it 't to us, if taxes rise or fall,
Thanks to our fortune, we pay none at all.
Let muckworms who in dirty acres deal,
Lament those hardships which we cannot feel,
His grace who smarts, may bellow if he please,
But must I bellow too, who sit at ease?
By custom safe, the poets' numbers flow,
Free as the light and air some years ago.
No statesman e'er will find it worth his pains
To tax our labours, and excise our brains.
Burthens like these with earthly buildings bear,
No tributes laid on castles in the air. — Charles Churchill

Truth! why shall every wretch of letters Dare to speak truth against his betters! Let ragged virtue stand aloof, Nor mutter accents of reproof; Let ragged wit a mute become, When wealth and power would have her dumb. — Charles Churchill

Fame is nothing but an empty name. — Charles Churchill

Genius is nothing more than inflamed enthusiasm. — Charles Churchill

Satire, whilst envy and ill-humor sway
The mind of man, must always make her way;
Nor to a bosom, with discretion fraught,
Is all her malice worth a single thought.
The wise have not the will, nor fools the power,
To stop her headstrong course; within the hour
Left to herself, she dies; opposing strife
Gives her fresh vigor, and prolongs her life. — Charles Churchill

The virtuous to those mansions go
Where pleasures unembitter'd flow,
Where, leading up a jocund band,
Vigor and Youth dance hand in hand,
Whilst Zephyr, with harmonious gales,
Pipes softest music through the vales,
And Spring and Flora, gaily crown'd,
With velvet carpet spread the ground;
With livelier blush where roses bloom,
And every shrub expires perfume. — Charles Churchill

Who shall dispute what the Reviewers say? Their word's sufficient; and to ask a reason, In such a state as theirs, is downright treason. — Charles Churchill

Weak is that throne, and in itself unsound,
Which takes not solid virtue for its ground. — Charles Churchill

Wit, who never once Forgave a brother, shall forgive a dunce. — Charles Churchill

To copy faults is want of sense. — Charles Churchill

Greatly his foes he dreads, but more his friends; He hurts me most who lavishly commends. — Charles Churchill

Knaves starve not in the land of fools. — Charles Churchill

The rigid saint, by whom no mercy's shown To saints whose lives are better than his own. — Charles Churchill

What is this world?
A term which men have got,
To signify not one in ten knows what;
A term, which with no more precision passes
To point out herds of men than herds of asses;
In common use no more it means, we find,
Than many fools in same opinions joined. — Charles Churchill

Ourselves are to ourselves the cause of ill. — Charles Churchill

And reputation bleeds in ev'ry word. — Charles Churchill

A servile race Who, in mere want of fault, all merit place; Who blind obedience pay to ancient schools, Bigots to Greece, and slaves to musty rules. — Charles Churchill

Nor waste their sweetness in the desert air. — Charles Churchill

The best things carried to excess are wrong. — Charles Churchill

Fashion
a word which knaves and fools may use, Their knavery and folly to excuse. — Charles Churchill

Constant attention wears the active mind, Blots out our pow'rs, and leaves a blank behind. — Charles Churchill

Men the most infamous are fond of fame, And those who fear not guilt yet start at shame. — Charles Churchill

Who to patch up his fame, or fill his purse, Still pilfers wretched plans, and makes them worse; Like gypsies, lest the stolen brat be known, Defacing first, then claiming for his own. — Charles Churchill

Drawn by conceit from reason's plan
How vain is that poor creature man;
How pleas'd in ev'ry paltry elf
To grate about that thing himself. — Charles Churchill

The Scots are poor, cries surly English pride; True is the charge, nor by themselves denied. Are they not then in strictest reason clear, Who wisely come to mend their fortunes here? — Charles Churchill

Nature listening stood, whilst Shakespeare play'd
And wonder'd at the work herself had made. — Charles Churchill

Who all in raptures their own works rehearse, And drawl out measur'd prose, which they call verse. — Charles Churchill

The more haste, ever the worst speed. — Charles Churchill

Though by whim, envy, or resentment led, they damn those authors whom they never read. — Charles Churchill

The villager, born humbly and bred hard,
Content his wealth, and poverty his guard,
In action simply just, in conscience clear,
By guilt untainted, undisturb'd by fear,
His means but scanty, and his wants but few,
Labor his business, and his pleasure too,
Enjoys more comforts in a single hour
Than ages give the wretch condemn'd to power. — Charles Churchill

Be England what she will, with all her faults she is my country still. — Charles Churchill

Prudent dullness marked him for a mayor. — Charles Churchill

Tis mighty easy o'er a glass of wine
On vain refinements vainly to refine,
To laugh at poverty in plenty's reign,
To boast of apathy when out of pain,
And in each sentence, worthy of the schools,
Varnish'd with sophistry, to deal out rules
Most fit for practice, but for one poor fault
That into practice they can ne'er be brought. — Charles Churchill

Who, with tame cowardice familiar grown, would hear my thoughts, but fear to speak their own. — Charles Churchill

To copy beauty forfeits all pretense to fame; to copy faults is want of sense. — Charles Churchill

All hunt for fame, but most mistake the way. — Charles Churchill

Those who would make us feel, must feel themselves. — Charles Churchill

He mouths a sentence as curs mouth a bone. — Charles Churchill

There's a strange something, which without a brain
Fools feel, and which e'en wise men can't explain,
Planted in man, to bind him to that earth,
In dearest ties, from whence he drew his birth. — Charles Churchill

Enough of self, that darling luscious theme,
O'er which philosophers in raptures dream;
Of which with seeming disregard they write
Then prizing most when most they seem to slight. — Charles Churchill

A joke's a very serious thing. — Charles Churchill

Even in a hero's heart
Discretion is the better part. — Charles Churchill

England a fortune-telling host, As num'rous as the stars, could boast; Matrons, who toss the cup, and see The grounds of Fate in grounds of tea ... — Charles Churchill

Enough of satire; in less harden'd times
Great was her force, and mighty were her rhymes.
I've read of men, beyond man's daring brave,
Who yet have trembled at the strokes she gave;
Whose souls have felt more terrible alarms
From her one line, than from a world in arms. — Charles Churchill

The laws I love; the lawyers I suspect. — Charles Churchill

The danger chiefly lies in acting well; no crime's so great as daring to excel. — Charles Churchill

Old Age, a second child, by nature curst
With more and greater evils than the first,
Weak, sickly, full of pains: in ev'ry breath
Railing at life, and yet afraid of death. — Charles Churchill

Little do such men know the toil, the pains, the daily, nightly racking of the brains, to range the thoughts, the matter to digest, to cull fit phrases, and reject the rest. — Charles Churchill

Childhood, who like an April morn appears,
Sunshine and rain, hopes clouded o'er with fears. — Charles Churchill

England, a happy land we know,
Where follies naturally grow,
Where without culture they arise,
And tow'r above the common size. — Charles Churchill

This a sacred rule we find
Among the nicest of mankind,
(Which never might exception brook
From Hobbes even down to Bolingbroke,)
To doubt of facts, however true,
Unless they know the causes too. — Charles Churchill

The stage I chose
a subject fair and free
'Tis yours
'tis mine
'tis public property.
All common exhibitions open lie,
For praise or censure, to the common eye.
Hence are a thousand hackney writers fed;
Hence monthly critics earn their daily bread.
This is a general tax which all must pay,
From those who scribble, down to those who play. — Charles Churchill

The proud will sooner lose than ask their way. — Charles Churchill

It can't be Nature, for it is not sense. — Charles Churchill

With curious art the brain, too finely wrought, Preys on herself, and is destroyed by thought. — Charles Churchill

If honor calls, where'er she points the way
The sons of honor follow, and obey. — Charles Churchill

When fiction rises pleasing to the eye, men will believe, because they love the lie; but truth herself, if clouded with a frown, must have some solemn proof to pass her down. — Charles Churchill

On the four aces doom'd to roll. — Charles Churchill

Whom drink made wits, though nature made them fools. — Charles Churchill

Great use they have, when in the hands
Of one like me, who understands,
Who understands the time and place,
The person, manner, and the grace,
Which fools neglect; so that we find,
If all the requisites are join'd,
From whence a perfect joke must spring,
A joke's a very serious thing. — Charles Churchill

With that malignant envy which turns pale, And sickens, even if a friend prevail. — Charles Churchill

Nature, through all her works, in great degree,
Borrows a blessing from variety.
Music itself her needful aid requires
To rouse the soul, and wake our dying fires. — Charles Churchill

Those who raise envy will easily incur censure. — Charles Churchill

Man and wife, Coupled together for the sake of strife. — Charles Churchill

Genius is of no country; her pure ray Spreads all abroad, as general as the day. — Charles Churchill

When satire flies abroad on falsehood's wing, Short is her life, and impotent her sting; But when to truth allied, the wound she gives Sinks deep, and to remotest ages lives. — Charles Churchill

Quick-circulating slanders mirth afford; and reputation bleeds in every word. — Charles Churchill

Fool beckons fool, and dunce awakens dunce. — Charles Churchill

Within the brain's most secret cells,
A certain lord chief justice dwells,
Of sov'reign power, whom one and all,
With common voice we reason call. — Charles Churchill

The oak, when living, monarch of the wood; The English oak, which, dead, commands the flood. — Charles Churchill