Quotes by English Authors - Page 36

And oftentimes excusing of a fault Doth make the fault the worse by the excuse - As patches set upon a little breach Discredit more in hiding of the fault Than did the fault before it was so patched.
William Shakespeare
A plague upon it when thieves cannot be true one to another!
William Shakespeare
My particular grief Is of so flood-gate and o'erbearing nature That it engluts and swallows other sorrows, And it is still itself.
William Shakespeare
He eats nothing but doves, love, and that breeds hot blood, and hot blood beget hot thoughts, and hot thoughts beget hot deeds, and hot deeds is love.
William Shakespeare
There's little of the melancholy element in her, my lord: she is never sad but when she sleeps; and not ever sad then; for I have heard my daughter say, she hath often dreamt of unhappiness, and waked herself with laughing.
William Shakespeare
I think the devil will not have me damned, lest the oil that's in me should set hell on fire.
William Shakespeare
Can snore upon the flint when resty sloth Finds the down pillow hard.
William Shakespeare
The present is all the ready money Fate can give.
Abraham Cowley
Why should their liberty than ours be more?
William Shakespeare
We must be doing something to be happy.
William Hazlitt
Such Polly are your sex - part truth part fiction Some thought much whim and all contradiction.
Richard Savage
Facts are not truths they are not conclusions they are not even premisses but in the nature and parts of premisses.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Come Sleep! Oh Sleep the certain knot of peace The baiting-place of wit the balm of woe The poor man's wealth the prisoner's release The indifferent judge between the high and low.
Sir Philip Sidney
Angling may be said to be so like the mathematics that it can never be fully learnt.
Izaak Walton
He that flings dirt at another dirtieth himself most.
Thomas Fuller
Doubt wisely; in strange wayTo stand inquiring right, is not to stray;To sleep, or run wrong, is.
John Donne
Men in rage strike those that wish them best.
William Shakespeare
The Spirit of Love, wherever it is, is its own blessing and happiness, because it is the truth and reality of God in the soul; and therefore is in the same joy of life, and is the same good to itself everywhere and on every occasion. Would you know the blessing of all blessings? It is this God of Love dwelling in your soul, and killing every root of bitterness, which is the pain and torment of every earthly, selfish love. For all wants are satisfied, all disorders of nature are removed, no life is any longer a burden, every day is a day of peace, everything you meet becomes a help to you, because everything you see or do is all done in the sweet, gentle element of Love.
William Law
You may make love in dancing as well as sitting.
Aphra Behn
Flowers of all hue and without thorn the rose.
John Milton
Life... is a paradise to what we fear of death.
William Shakespeare
A peevish self-willed harlotry it is.*She’s a stubborn little brat.*
William Shakespeare
Yet it is folly to argue against determined hardness; eloquence may strike the ear, and the language of sorrow draw forth the tear of compassion, but nothing can reach the heart that is steeled with prejudice.
Thomas Paine
Many a man lives a burden to the Earth, but a good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit, imbalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.
John Milton
Peace rules the day where reason rules the mind.
William Collins
Our prayers are granted as soon as we have prayed, even though the process of fulfilling our requests has not yet begun.
Thomas Goodwin
Every creature thinks itself best in its own element, that is the place it thrives in, and enjoys its happiness in; now Christ is the element of a Christian.
Richard Sibbes
Ay every inch a king.
William Shakespeare
Those blessings are sweetest that are won with prayer and worn with thanks.
Thomas Goodwin
Beauty itself doth of itself persuadeThe eyes of men without orator.
William Shakespeare
Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted ...but to weigh and consider.
Francis Bacon
He's a chip o' th' old block.
William Rowley
Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.
Joseph Addison
The proper means of increasing the love we bear our native country is to reside some time in a foreign one.
William Shenstone
Zeal without knowledge is fire without light.
Thomas Fuller
An admirable evasion of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish disposition on the charge of a star!
William Shakespeare
As if it were Injustice to sell dearer than we buy; or to give more to a man than he merits. The value of all things contracted for, is measured by the Appetite of the Contractors: and therefore the just value, is that which they be contented to give.
Thomas Hobbes
You are full of pretty answers. Have you not been acquainted with goldsmiths' wives and conned them out of rings?
William Shakespeare
All the tales of miracles, with which the Old and New Testament are filled, are fit only for impostors to preach and fools to believe.
Thomas Paine
Sometimes we punish ourselves the most.
William Shakespeare
When I consider Life, 'tis all a cheat;Yet, fooled with hope, men favour the deceit;Trust on, and think to-morrow will repay:To-morrow's falser than the former day;Lies worse; and while it says, we shall be blestWith some new joys, cuts off what we possesst.
John Dryden
Long is the way and hard, that out of Hell leads up to light.
John Milton
Prayer is the soul's breathing itself into the bosom of its heavenly Father.
Thomas Watson
... reason andlove keep little company together now-a-days...
William Shakespeare
Friendship is constant in all other thingsSave in the office and affairs of love.Therefore all hearts in love use their own tongues.Let every eye negotiate for itself,And trust no agent; for beauty is a witchAgainst whose charms faith melteth into blood.
William Shakespeare
A walking shadow a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more.
William Shakespeare
CARDINAL WOLSEYSo farewell to the little good you bear me.Farewell! a long farewell, to all my greatness!This is the state of man: to-day he puts forthThe tender leaves of hopes; to-morrow blossoms,And bears his blushing honours thick upon him;The third day comes a frost, a killing frost,And, when he thinks, good easy man, full surelyHis greatness is a-ripening, nips his root,And then he falls, as I do. I have ventured,Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders,This many summers in a sea of glory,But far beyond my depth: my high-blown prideAt length broke under me and now has left me,Weary and old with service, to the mercyOf a rude stream, that must for ever hide me.Vain pomp and glory of this world, I hate ye:I feel my heart new open'd. O, how wretchedIs that poor man that hangs on princes' favours!There is, betwixt that smile we would aspire to,That sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin,More pangs and fears than wars or women have:And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer,Never to hope again
William Shakespeare
Faith makes the discords of the present the harmonies of the future.
Robert Collyer
The better part of valour is discretion.
William Shakespeare
Crafty men condemn studies; Simple men admire them; And wise men use them: For they teach not their own use: but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation.
Francis Bacon
We all labor against our own cure, for death is the cure of all diseases
Thomas Browne
Life ... is a taleTold by an idiot, full of sound and fury,Signifying nothing.
William Shakespeare
A pretty face may be enough to catch a man, but it takes character and good nature to hold him.
Thomas More
Fear is a numbing thing when there is no recourse to hope or escape...
William Horwood
It shall greatly help ye to understand the Scriptures if thou mark not only what is spoken or written, but of whom and to whom, with what words, at what time, where, to what intent, with what circumstances, considering what goeth before and what followeth after.
Miles Coverdale
Is the power who is jealous of our prosperity, a proper power to govern us?
Thomas Paine
Skill and confidence are an uncon-quered army.
George Herbert
Her blood is settled, and her joints are stiff;Life and these lips have long been separated:Death lies on her like an untimely frostUpon the sweetest flower of all the field.
William Shakespeare
I have more care to staythan will to go.
William Shakespeare
Readers may be divided into four classes: I. Sponges, who absorb all they read, and return it nearly in the same state, only a little dirtied. II. Sand-glasses, who retain nothing, and are content to get through a book for the sake of getting through the time. III. Strain-bags, who retain merely the dregs of what they read. IV. Mogul diamonds, equally rare and valuable, who profit by what they read, and enable others to profit by it also.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge