Alexander Pope – An Essay on Man (1733–34)

  1. "To err is human; to forgive, divine."

  2. "Hope springs eternal in the human breast."

  3. "Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;
    The proper study of mankind is man."

Samuel Johnson – A Dictionary of the English Language (1755)

  • While the dictionary itself doesn’t lend itself to quotable lines, from The Rambler (1750–52):

  1. "Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect."

  2. "Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful."

Jonathan Swift – Gulliver's Travels (1726)

  1. "Undoubtedly, philosophers are in the right when they tell us that nothing is great or little otherwise than by comparison."

  2. "I said the thing which was not." (Euphemism for lying)

  3. From A Modest Proposal (1729):
    "A young healthy child well nursed is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food."(Satirical tone)

James Boswell – The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791)

  1. "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." (Johnson’s quote recorded by Boswell)

  2. "A man who is tired of London is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford." (Johnson’s observation recorded by Boswell)

Olaudah Equiano – The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano(1789)

  1. "When you make men slaves, you deprive them of half their virtue."

  2. "Is not the slave trade entirely a war with the heart of man?"

  3. "I am neither a saint, a hero, nor a tyrant."

William Wilberforce – A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System(1797)

  1. "True Christianity is a love of Christ that influences the heart and directs the conduct."

  2. "You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again that you did not know." (On slavery)

  3. "God Almighty has set before me two great objects: the suppression of the Slave Trade and the Reformation of Manners."

Thomas Gray – Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1751)

  1. "The paths of glory lead but to the grave."

  2. "Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
    And waste its sweetness on the desert air."

  3. "Far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife,
    Their sober wishes never learned to stray."