Careful Words

profane (v.)

profane (adj.)

Hence, ye profane! I hate ye all,

Both the great vulgar and the small.

Abraham Cowley (1618-1667): Horace. Book iii. Ode 1.

As aromatic plants bestow

No spicy fragrance while they grow;

But crush'd or trodden to the ground,

Diffuse their balmy sweets around.

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774): The Captivity. Act i.