Our vows are heard betimes! and Heaven takes care To grant, before we can conclude the prayer: Preventing angels met it half the way, And sent us back to praise, who came to pray.
Nor is the people's judgment always true: the most may err as grossly as the few.
Beware the fury of a patient man.
Either be wholly slaves or wholly free.
Only man clogs his happiness with care, destroying what is with thoughts of what may be.
But wild Ambition loves to slide, not stand, And Fortune's ice prefers to Virtue's land.