Aaron Hill (10 February 1685 – 8 February 1750) was an English dramatist and miscellaneous writer.

Quotes

  • Yours is the guilt of all, who, judging wrong,
    Mistake tuned nonsense for the poet's song!
    Provoking dulness!—what a soul has he
    Who fancies rhyme, and measure, poetry!—
    He thinks, profanely, that this generous art
    Stops at the ear—with power to shake the heart.
    • Advice to the Poets (1731), p. 32
  • O'er Nature's laws, God cast the veil of night,
    Out blaz'd a Newton's soul — and all was light.
    • Preserved in Hill's Works (1753), Vol. IV, p. 92, and mentioned as probably derived from Alexander Pope's "Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night: God said, Let Newton be! — and all was light" in The Epigrammatists: A Selection from the Epigrammatic Literature of Ancient, Mediæval, and Modern Times (1875) by Henry Philip Dodd, p. 329.
  • Courage is poorly housed that dwells in numbers; the lion never counts the herd that are about him, nor weighs how many flocks he has to scatter.
    • As quoted in The Golden Treasury of Thought: A gathering of quotations from the best ancient and modern authors (1873) edited by John Camden Hotten.
  • But me no buts.
    • Snake in the Grass, sc. 1.

  • Tender-handed stroke a nettle,
    And it stings you for your pains    ;
    Grasp it like a man of mettle,
    And it soft as silk remains.

    ’Tis the same with common natures:
    Use ’em kindly, they rebel;
    But be rough as nutmeg-graters,
    And the rogues obey you well.

    • Verses Written on a Window in Scotland.

Zara (1735)

  • You talk no more of that gay nation now,
    Where men adore their wives, and woman's power
    Draws reverence from a polished people's softness,
    Their husbands' equals, and their lovers' queens;
    Free without scandal; wise without restraint;
    Their virtue due to nature, not to fear.
    • Selima, Act I, Sc. 1.
  • Joys, which we do not know, we do not wish.
    • Zara, Act I, Sc. 1.
  • Can my fond heart, on such a feeble proof,
    Embrace a faith, abhorred by him I love?
    I see too plainly custom forms us all;
    Our thoughts, our morals, our most fixed belief,
    Are consequences of our place of birth    :
    Born beyond Ganges, I had been a Pagan;
    In France, a Christian; I am here a Saracen:
    'Tis but instruction, all! Our parents' hand
    Writes on our heart the first faint characters,
    Which time, re-tracing, deepens into strength,
    That nothing can efface, but death or Heaven.
    • Zara, Act I, Sc. 1.
  • First, then, a woman will or won’t, depend on ’t;
    If she will do ’t, she will; and there ’s an end on ’t.
    But if she won’t, since safe and sound your trust is,
    Fear is affront, and jealousy injustice.
    • Epilogue (1735). Note: The following lines are copied from the pillar erected on the mount in the Dane John Field, Canterbury:
      Where is the man who has the power and skill
      To stem the torrent of a woman’s will?
      For if she will, she will, you may depend on ’t;
      And if she won’t, she won’t; so there ’s an end on ’t.
      The Examiner, (31 May 1829).

Alzira: A Tragedy (1736)

  • Reason gains all men, by compelling none.
    Mercy was always Heaven's distinguished mark:
    And he, who bears it not, has no friend there.
    • Don Alvarez in Act I, Sc. 1; also misquoted as "Reason gains all people by compelling none."
  • Youth is ever apt to judge in haste,
    And lose the medium in the wild extreme,
    Do not repent, but regulate your passion:
    Though love is reason, its excess is rage.
    Give me, at least, your promise to reflect,
    In cool, impartial solitude, and still.
    No last decision till we meet again.
    • Don Alvarez in Act IV, Scene 1.
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