Little I ask; my wants are few;
I only wish a hut of stone
(A very plain read more

Little I ask; my wants are few;
I only wish a hut of stone
(A very plain brown stone will do),
That I may call my own;
And close at hand is such a one
In yonder street that fronts the sun.

Every wish
Is like a prayer--with God.

Every wish
Is like a prayer--with God.

Man wants but little, nor that little long;
How soon must he resign his very dust,
Which read more

Man wants but little, nor that little long;
How soon must he resign his very dust,
Which frugal nature lent him for an hour!

I've often wished that I had clear,
For life, six hundred pounds a year,
A handsome house read more

I've often wished that I had clear,
For life, six hundred pounds a year,
A handsome house to lodge a friend,
A river at my garden's end,
A terrace walk, and half a rood
Of land, set out to plant a wood.

He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely read more

He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife.

Wishing, of all employments is the worst.

Wishing, of all employments is the worst.

You pursue, I fly; you fly, I pursue; such is my humor. What you
wish, Dondymus, I do not read more

You pursue, I fly; you fly, I pursue; such is my humor. What you
wish, Dondymus, I do not wish, what you do not wish, I do.

As you can not do what you wish, you should wish what you can do.
[Lat., Quoniam id fieri read more

As you can not do what you wish, you should wish what you can do.
[Lat., Quoniam id fieri quod vis non potest
Id velis quod possis.]

If I live to grow old, as I find I go down,
Let this be my fate in a read more

If I live to grow old, as I find I go down,
Let this be my fate in a country town;
May I have a warm house, with a stone at my gate,
And a cleanly young girl to rub my bald pate.
May I govern my passions with an absolute sway,
Grow wiser and better as my strength wears away,
Without gout or stone, by a gentle decay.
- Walter Pope, The Old Man's Wish,