Quote#Love
Love a woman? You're an ass!
Quote byJohn Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester · 1647–1680
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Poems on Several Occasions (c. 1680), Love a woman! Y’are an ass, ll. 1–4 [variant: 'idlest' for 'silliest'].
English (original)
Love a woman? You're an ass! 'Tis a most insipid passion To choose out for your happiness The silliest part of God's creation.
— John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester
More from John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester
Were I, who to my Cost already am One of those strange, prodigious Creatures Man, A Spirit free, to choose for my own Share, What sort of Flesh and Blood I pleas'd to wear, I'd be a Dog, a Monkey, or a Bear, Or any thing, but that vain …
The Elephant is never won with Anger, Nor must that man, who would reclaim a Lion, Take him by the teeth.
He saw her lovely bosom bare, Her strawberry nipples made him stare.
When my young master's worship comes to town, From pedagogue and mother just fit free, The heir and hopes of a great famiiy; Who with strong beer and beef the country rules, And ever since the Conquest have been fools; And now, with …
Love, the most generous passion of the mind The softest refuge innocence can find.
Reason, an Ignis fatuus of the Mind, Which leaves the light of Nature, Sense, behind.