Nor Fame I slight, nor her favors call.

The ruling passion, be it what it will. The ruling passion conquers reason still.

This long disease, my life.

Learning is like mercury, one of the most powerful and excellent things in the world in skillful hands; in unskillful, the most mischievous.

When I die, I should be ashamed to leave enough to build me a monument if there were a wanting friend above ground. I would enjoy the pleasure of what I give by giving it alive and seeing another enjoy it.

A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring.

Then, at the last and only couplet fraught With some unmeaning thing they call a thought, A needless Alexandrine ends the song, That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along.