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,

We cannot wish for that we know not.
[Fr., On ne peut desirer ce qu'on ne connait pas.]

We cannot wish for that we know not.
[Fr., On ne peut desirer ce qu'on ne connait pas.]

My wish isn't to mean everything to everyone but something to someone.

My wish isn't to mean everything to everyone but something to someone.

Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought.

Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought.

Pull the string, and it will follow wherever you wish. Push it, and it will go nowhere at all.

Pull the string, and it will follow wherever you wish. Push it, and it will go nowhere at all.

I wish I knew the good of wishing.

I wish I knew the good of wishing.

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.]

What folly can be ranker. Like our shadows,
Our wishes lengthen as our sun declines.

What folly can be ranker. Like our shadows,
Our wishes lengthen as our sun declines.