Anticipation...

"Anticipation is the sweetest of earthly pleasures"
('John Clare by Himself' p57)

Lunchtime drinking...

"Lets have sandwich for lunch & pull at the tankard or pitcher"
(Kt. 1 p132)

Friendship...

"Distress and sorrow quickly proves the friend sincere & true"
Nor MS 1 p162

Life...

"If life had a second edition how I woud correct the proofs"
(from a letter to Mrs Emmerson, dated 10 August 1823)

Patty...

“I met Patty by accident fell in love by accident married her by accident and esteemed her by choice
'The Poet in Love' (2014)

Respect...

"A good man only wishes to be treated with respect but a bad man demands reverence & is not then contented" 
Pet MS B4 p133

Ale...

"O ale O ale what soul can ken the wonders thou performsd on men"

Pet MS A16 p38

The rich man's death...

"Tyrant to day to morrow gone
All ‘stinguished only by a stone"

Pet MS B2 p256 f

Ignorance?

"The man of taste finds pleasure where the vulgar man cannot even find amusement"

Pet MS A42 p140

Prosperity?

 "the prosperity of one class [is] founded on the adversity and distress of another"

(Quoted in Tibble's 'John Clare selected poems' p 140)

Nature...

"to look on nature with a poetic eye magnifies the pleasure" 

(Tibble's - The Prose of John Clare, p176)

Honesty...

"To be an honest man is the only way to be a wise one"

Pet MS A46 p8

Beauty...

"Which the dews of eve bedeck
Sweet as pearls on womans neck"

Village Minstrel 'Solitude'

Young love...

How warmed my hopes oer each imagined smile

Imagined favours meant for me the while

Pet MS A42 p103

Heartache...

"For joys beginnings have one tale to tell
& bring their end a heart ache & farewell"

Pet MS B4 p59  

Tyranny...

"Tyranny may make obedient slaves but liberty & kindness only make willing subjects"

Pet MS A45 p9

War...

"War has ever been the watch word of political intriguers & religion but too often as the professional bottle holders on each side to encourage the combat"

Pet MS A45 p34