Pope.—Essay on Man, Epi. II. Line 19.
One part, one little part, we dimly scan,
Yet dare arraign
the whole stupendous plan,
Oft from apparent ill our blessings rise:
That aims to
trace the secrets of the skies:
For thou art but of dust; be humble, and be wise.
Beattie.—The Minstrel, Book I. Stanza 50.
O, see the monstrousness of man
When he looks out in an ungrateful shape!
Shakespeare.—Timon of Athens, Act III. Scene 2. (The first Stranger to Another.)
No laws, or human or divine,
Can the presumptuous race of man confine.
Francis’ Horace.—Book I. Ode III. Line 27.
MAN.—So man, the moth, is not afraid, it seems,
To span omnipotence, and measure might,
That knows
no measure, by the scanty rule
And standard of his own, that is to-day,
And is not ere to-morrow’s sun go
down.
Cowper.—The Task, Book VI. Line 211.
Inhumanity is caught from man—
From smiling man.
Young.—Night V. Line 158.
Man’s revenge,
And endless inhumanities on man.
Young.—Night VIII. Line 104.
O Thou who dost permit these ills to fall,
For gracious ends, and would’st that men should mourn!
Young.—Night VIII. Line 134.
And man, whose heaven-directed face
Man’s inhumanity to man
Burns.—Man was Made to Mourn, Verse 7.
Trust not a man; we are by nature false,
Dissembling, subtle, cruel, and unconstant:
When a man talks of
love, with caution trust him;
But if he swears, he’ll certainly deceive thee.
Otway.—The Orphan, Act II. Scene 1.
Man doth purpose, but God doth dispose.
Thomas À Kempis.—De Imit. Christ., Book I. Chap. XIX. Div. 2.
Man proposeth, God disposeth.
George Herbert.—Jacula Prudentum, Line 2.
A proper man, as one shall see in a summer’s day.
Shakespeare.—A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act I. Scene 2. (Quince instructing Bottom to play Pyramus.)