Be England what she will,
With all her faults she is my country still.

Charles Churchill (February 1731November 4, 1764) was an English poet and satirist.

Quotes

  • He mouths a sentence as curs mouth a bone.
    • The Rosciad (1761), line 322
  • But, spite of all the criticising elves,
    Those who would make us feel—must feel themselves.
    • The Rosciad (1761), line 961; comparable with: "Si vis me flere, dolendum est/ Primum ipsi tibi" (translated as "If you wish me to weep, you yourself must first feel grief"), Horace, Ars Poetica, v. 102
  • 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.
    • Apology addressed to the Critical Reviewers (1761), line 232, comparable with: "Steal! to be sure they may; and, egad, serve your best thoughts as gypsies do stolen children,—disguise them to make 'em pass for their own", Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The Critic, act i. sc. i
  • No statesman e'er will find it worth his pains
    To tax our labours and excise our brains.
    • Night, an Epistle to Robert Lloyd (1761), line 271
  • Apt alliteration's artful aid.
    • The Prophecy of Famine: A Scots Pastoral (1763), line 86
  • There webs were spread of more than common size,
    And half-starved spiders prey’d on half-starved flies.
    • The Prophecy of Famine: A Scots Pastoral (1763), line 327
  • With curious art the brain, too finely wrought,
    Preys on herself, and is destroy'd by thought
    :
    Constant attention wears the active mind,
    Blots out our powers, and leaves a blank behind.
    • Epistle to William Hogarth (July 1763), line 645
  • Amongst the sons of men how few are known
    Who dare be just to merit not their own?
    • Epistle to William Hogarth (July 1763)
  • Men the most infamous are fond of fame,
    And those who fear not guilt yet start at shame.
    • The Author (1763), line 233
  • Be England what she will,
    With all her faults she is my country still.
    • The Farewell (1764), line 27; comparable with: "England, with all thy faults I love thee still, My country!", William Cowper, The Task, book ii. The Timepiece, line 206
  • Wherever waves can roll, and winds can blow.
    • The Farewell (1764), line 38; comparable with: "Far as the breeze can bear, the billows foam", Lord Byron, The Corsair, canto i. stanza 1

The Ghost (1763)

  • Just to the windward of the law.
  • As the law does think fit
    No butchers shall on juries sit.
  • Within the brain's most secret cells
    A certain Lord Chief Justice dwells
    Of sovereign power, whom one and all
    With common voice, we Reason call.
  • Why should we fear; and what? The laws?
    They all are armed in virtue's cause;
    And aiming at the self-same end,
    Satire is always virtue's friend.
    • Book III, line 943
  • A joke's a very serious thing.
    • Book IV, line 1386
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