Date: 1682

"'Tis not a Flash of Fancy which sometimes / Dasling our Minds, sets off the slightest Rimes; / Bright as a blaze, but in a moment done; / True Wit is everlasting, like the Sun; / Which though sometimes beneath a cloud retir'd, / Breaks out again, and is by all admir'd."

— Sheffield, John, first duke of Buckingham and Normanby (1647-1721)

Date: 1682

"Where dost thou dwell? what caverns of the Brain / Can such a vast and mighty thing contain?"

— Sheffield, John, first duke of Buckingham and Normanby (1647-1721)

Date: 1682

"Fancy is but the Feather of the Pen; / Reason is that substantial useful part, / Which gains the Head, while t'other wins the Heart."

— Sheffield, John, first duke of Buckingham and Normanby (1647-1721)

Date: 1721

"This, of all Vice, does most debase the Mind, / Gold is itself th'Allay to Human-kind."

— Sheffield, John, first duke of Buckingham and Normanby (1647-1721)

Date: 1723, 1740

"A Heart by Kindness only gain'd, / Will a dear Conquest prove"

— Sheffield, John, first duke of Buckingham and Normanby (1647-1721)

Date: 1723, 1740

"Those slighted Favours which cold Nymphs dispense, / Mere common Counters of the Sense, / Defective both in Mettle and in Measure, / A Lover's Fancy coins into a Treasure."

— Sheffield, John, first duke of Buckingham and Normanby (1647-1721)

Date: 1723, 1740

"The strong Impression / May break my Heart, but shall not bend my Mind."

— Sheffield, John, first duke of Buckingham and Normanby (1647-1721)

Date: 1723, 1740

"Our Tears and Grief will soften their hard Hearts, / Fit to receive Impression from our Words."

— Sheffield, John, first duke of Buckingham and Normanby (1647-1721)

Date: 1723, 1740

Love is a "glorious Sun within our Souls, / Whose Influence so much controuls; / Ev'n dull and heavy Lumps of Love, / Quicken'd by [it], more lively move"

— Sheffield, John, first duke of Buckingham and Normanby (1647-1721)

Date: 1723, 1740

"And if their Heads but any Substance hold, / Love ripens all that Dross into the purest Gold."

— Sheffield, John, first duke of Buckingham and Normanby (1647-1721)