“The end of all our travail is to find rest.”

Connecting human striving with the desire for peace · Religious prose and devotional writing

• Hope
• Solitude

“The world is a book, and every man is a letter in it.”

Viewing individual lives as part of a larger human record · Prose commonplace, commonly attributed

• Memory
• Truth

“The soul's a thing immortal, and therefore must not be enslaved to mortal things.”

Asserting spiritual freedom from worldly attachment · Religious prose and devotional writing

• Faith
• Mortality

“Age is the worst enemy to beauty, and the most faithful friend to virtue.”

Contrasting physical decline with the possibility of moral maturity · Hesperides, prose material

• Beauty
• Time

“The best of life is but intoxication, and the soberest men are the most deceived.”

Reflecting on illusion and the instability of human judgement · Hesperides, prose material

• Mortality
• Truth

“To read a poem is to hear the voice of the poet speaking across the years.”

Presenting poetry as intimate communication across time · Essay and preface material, commonly attributed

• Poetry
• Time