Careful Words

works (n.)

What's come to perfection perishes.

Things learned on earth we shall practise in heaven;

Works done least rapidly Art most cherishes.

Robert Browning (1812-1890): Old Pictures in Florence. xvii.

Each natural agent works but to this end,—

To render that it works on like itself.

George Chapman (1557-1634): Bussy D'Ambois. Act iii. Sc. 1.

  It is the modest, not the presumptuous, inquirer who makes a real and safe progress in the discovery of divine truths. One follows Nature and Nature's God; that is, he follows God in his works and in his word.

Viscount Bolingbroke (1678-1751): Letter to Mr. Pope.

  Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas: this woman was full of good works and almsdeeds which she did.

New Testament: Acts ix. 36.

My nature is subdu'd

To what it works in, like the dyer's hand.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Sonnet cxi.

Most authors steal their works, or buy;

Garth did not write his own Dispensary.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Essay on Criticism. Part iii. Line 59.

Earth felt the wound; and Nature from her seat,

Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe

That all was lost.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book ix. Line 782.

What more felicitie can fall to creature

Than to enjoy delight with libertie,

And to be lord of all the workes of Nature,

To raine in th' aire from earth to highest skie,

To feed on flowres and weeds of glorious feature.

Edmund Spenser (1553-1599): Muiopotmos: or, The Fate of the Butterflie. Line 209.

  Rich in good works.

New Testament: 1 Timothy vi. 18.

  The brave man carves out his fortune, and every man is the son of his own works.

Miguel De Cervantes (1547-1616): Don Quixote. Part i. Book i. Chap. iv.

These are thy glorious works, Parent of good!

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book v. Line 153.

Thus with the year

Seasons return; but not to me returns

Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn,

Or sight of vernal bloom or summer's rose,

Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine;

But cloud instead, and ever-during dark

Surrounds me; from the cheerful ways of men

Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair

Presented with a universal blank

Of Nature's works, to me expung'd and raz'd,

And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book iii. Line 40.