Top 100 Francis Quarles Quotes
#1. A lamb appears a lion, and we fear Each bush we see's a bear.
Francis Quarles
#2. Rather do what is nothing to the purpose than be idle; that the devil may find thee doing. The bird that sits is easily shot, when fliers scape the fowler. Idleness is the Dead Sea that swallows all the virtues, and the self-made sepulchre of a living man.
Francis Quarles
#3. Be not too rash in the breaking of an inconvenient custom; as it was gotten, so leave it by degrees. Danger attends upon too sudden alterations; he that pulls down a bad building by the great may be ruined by the fall, but he that takes it down brick by brick may live to build a better.
Francis Quarles
#4. The height of all philosophy is to know thyself; and the end of this knowledge is to know God.
Francis Quarles
#5. O lust, thou infernal fire, whose fuel is gluttony; whose flame is pride, whose sparkles are wanton words; whose smoke is infamy; whose ashes are uncleanness; whose end is hell.
Francis Quarles
#6. My soul, what's lighter than a feather? Wind.
Than wind? The fire. And what than fire? The mind.
What's lighter than the mind? A thought. Than thought?
This bubble world. What than this bubble? Nought.
Francis Quarles
#7. In all thy actions think God sees thee; and in all His actions labor to see Him; that will make thee fear Him; this will move thee to love Him; the fear of God is the beginning of knowledge, and the knowledge of God is the perfection of love.
Francis Quarles
#8. The world is deceitful; her end is doubtful, her conclusion is horrible, her judge terrible, and her judgment is intolerable.
Francis Quarles
#9. It is no happiness to live long, nor unhappiness to die soon; happy is he that hath lived long enough to die well.
Francis Quarles
#10. That action is not warrantable which either fears to ask the divine blessing on its performance, or having succeeded, does not come with thanksgiving to God for its success.
Francis Quarles
#11. Be not too great a niggard in the commendations of him that professes thy own quality: if he deserve thy praise, thou hast discovered thy judgment; if not, thy modesty: honor either returns or reflects to the giver.
Francis Quarles
#12. How is the anxious soul of man befool'd in his desire, That thinks an hectic fever may be cool'd in flames of fire?
Francis Quarles
#13. Money is both the generation and corruption of purchased honor; honor is both the child and slave of potent money: the credit which honor hath lost, money hath found. When honor grew mercenary, money grew honorable. The way to be truly noble is to contemn both.
Francis Quarles
#14. For trash and toys, And grief-engend'ring joys, What torment seems too sharp for flesh and blood; What bitter pills, Compos'd of real ills, Men swallow down to purchase one false good!
Francis Quarles
#15. Seest thou good days? Prepare for evil times. No summer but hath its winter. He never reaped comfort in adversity that sowed not in prosperity.
Francis Quarles
#16. He that hath promised pardon on our repentance hat not promised life till we repent.
Francis Quarles
#17. Let the fear of danger be a spur to prevent it; he that fears not, gives advantage to the danger.
Francis Quarles
#18. Be very circumspect in the choice of thy company. In the society of thine equals thou shalt enjoy more pleasure; in the society of thy superiors thou shalt find more profit. To be the best in the company is the way to grow worse; the best means to grow better is to be the worst there.
Francis Quarles
#19. The voice of humility is God's music, and the silence of humility is God's rhetoric.
Francis Quarles
#20. Take heed thou trust not the deceitful lap Of wanton Dalilah; the world's a trap.
Francis Quarles
#21. Anger may repast with thee for an hour, but not repose for a night; the continuance of anger is hatred, the continuance of hatred turns malice.
Francis Quarles
#22. Borrow neither money nor time from your neighbor; both are of equal value.
Francis Quarles
#23. Tis not, to cry God mercy, or to sit
And droop, or to confess that thou hast fail'd:
'Tis to bewail the sins thou didst commit:
And not commit those sins thou hast bewail' d.
He that bewails and not forsakes them too;
Confesses rather what he means to do.
Francis Quarles
#24. The strong desires of man's insatiate breast may stand possess'd Of all that earth can give; but earth can give no rest.
Francis Quarles
#25. Use law and physic only for necessity; they that use them otherwise abuse themselves unto weak bodies, and light purses; they are good remedies, bad businesses, and worse recreations.
Francis Quarles
#26. Prize not thyself by what thou hast, but by what thou art; he that values a jewel by her golden frame, or a book by her silver clasps, or a man by his vast estate, errs; if thou art not worth more than the world can make thee, thy Redeemer had a bad pennyworth, or thou an uncurious Redeemer.
Francis Quarles
#28. Even such is man, whose glory lendsHis life a blaze or two, and ends.
Francis Quarles
#29. Luxury is an enticing pleasure, a bastard mirth, which hath honey in her mouth, gall in her heart, and a sting in her tail.
Francis Quarles
#30. Flatter not thyself in thy faith to God, if thou wantest charity for thy neighbor; and think not thou halt charity for thy neighbor, if thou wantest faith to God; where they are not both together, they are both wanting; they are both dead, if once divided.
Francis Quarles
#31. Sin is a basilisk whose eyes are full of venom. If the eye of thy soul see her first, it reflects her own poison and kills her; if she see thy soul, unseen, or seen too late, with her poison, she kills thee: since therefore thou canst not escape thy sin, let not thy sin escape thy observation.
Francis Quarles
#32. The heart is a small thing, but desireth great matters. It is not sufficient for a kite's dinner, yet the whole world is not sufficient for it.
Francis Quarles
#33. Physicians, of all men, are most happy; whatever good success soever they have, the world proclaimeth; and what faults they commit, the earth covereth.
Francis Quarles
#34. Sweet Phosphor, bring the dayWhose conquering rayMay chase these fogs;Sweet Phosphor, bring the day!Sweet Phosphor, bring the day!Light will repayThe wrongs of night;Sweet Phosphor, bring the day!
Francis Quarles
#35. So use prosperity, that adversity may not abuse thee: if in the one, security admits no fears, in the other, despair will afford no hopes; he that in prosperity can foretell a danger can in adversity foresee deliverance.
Francis Quarles
#36. In giving of thy alms, inquire not so much into the person, as his necessity. God looks not so much upon the merits of him that requires, as into the manner of him that relieves; if the man deserve not, thou hast given it to humanity.
Francis Quarles
#37. My soul, sit thou a patient looker-on;
Judge not the play before the play is done:
Her plot has many changes; every day
Speaks a new scene; the last act crowns the play.
Francis Quarles
#38. Mark, how the ready hands of Death prepare: His bow is bent, and he hath notch'd his dart; He aims, he levels at thy slumb'ring heart: The wound is posting, O be wise, beware.
Francis Quarles
#39. If you desire to be magnanimous, undertake nothing rashly, and fear nothing thou undertakest; fear nothing but infamy; dare anything but injury; the measure of magnanimity is neither to be rash nor timorous.
Francis Quarles
#40. Fear nothing but what thy industry may prevent; be confident of nothing but what fortune cannot defeat; it is no less folly to fear what is impossible to be avoided than to be secure when there is a possibility to be deprived.
Francis Quarles
#41. In thy apparel avoid singularity, profuseness, and gaudiness. Be not too early in the fashion, nor too late. Decency is half way between affectation and neglect. The body is the shell of the soul, apparel is the husk of that shell; the husk often tells you what the kernel is.
Francis Quarles
#42. The fountain of beauty is the heart and every generous thought illustrates the walls of your chamber.
Francis Quarles
#43. Let the words of a virgin, though in a good cause, and to as good purpose, be neither violent, many, nor first, nor last; it is less shame for a virgin to be lost in a blushing silence than to be found in a bold eloquence.
Francis Quarles
#44. Other vices make their own way; this makes way for all vices. He that is a drunkard is qualified for all vice.
Francis Quarles
#45. If thou seest anything in thyself which may make thee proud, look a little further and thou shalt find enough to humble thee; if thou be wise, view the peacock's feathers with his feet, and weigh thy best parts with thy imperfections.
Francis Quarles
#46. Beware of him that is slow to anger; for when it is long coming, it is the stronger when it comes, and the longer kept. Abused patience turns to fury.
Francis Quarles
#47. O who would trust this world, or prize what's in it,
That gives and takes, and chops and changes, ev'ry minute?
Francis Quarles
#48. If virtue accompany it, it is the heart's paradise; if vice associate it, it is the soul's purgatory.
Francis Quarles
#49. When two agree in their desire,
One sparke will set them both on fire.
Francis Quarles
#50. Neutrality is dangerous, whereby thou becomest a necessary prey to the conqueror.
Francis Quarles
#53. Is not this lily pure? What fuller can procure A white so perfect, spotless clear As in this flower doth appear?
Francis Quarles
#54. If opinion hath lighted the lamp of thy name, endeavor to encourage it with thy own oil, lest it go out and stink; the chronical disease of Popularity is shame; if thou be once up, beware; from fame to infamy is a beaten road.
Francis Quarles
#55. The average person's ear weighs what you are, not what you were.
Francis Quarles
#56. He that discovers himself, till he hath made himself master of his desires, lays himself open to his own ruin, and makes himself prisoner to his own tongue.
Francis Quarles
#57. The place of charity, like that of God, is everywhere.
Francis Quarles
#58. Read not books alone, but men, and amongst them chiefly thyself. If thou find anything questionable there, use the commentary of a severe friend, rather than the gloss of a sweet-lipped flatterer there is more profit in a distasteful truth than in deceitful sweetness.
Francis Quarles
#59. False world, thou ly'st: thou canst not lend The least delight: Thy favours cannot gain a friend, They are so slight.
Francis Quarles
#60. And he repents in thorns that sleeps in beds of roses.
Francis Quarles
#62. Some only break their Fast, and so away:
Others stay to Dinner, and depart full fed:
The deepest Age but Sups, and goes to Bed:
He's most in debt that lingers out the Day:
Who dies betime, has less, and less to pay.
Francis Quarles
#64. Lust is an immoderate wantonness of the flesh, a sweet poison, a cruel pestilence; a pernicious poison, which weakeneth the body of man, and effeminateth the strength of the heroic mind.
Francis Quarles
#65. We sack, we ransack to the utmost sands
Of native kingdoms, and of foreign lands:
We travel sea and soil; we pry, and prowl,
We progress, and we prog from pole to pole.
Francis Quarles
#66. The sufficiency of merit is to know that my merit is not sufficient.
Francis Quarles
#67. Lust is a sharp spur to vice, which always putteth the affections into a false gallop.
Francis Quarles
#68. Wouldst thou multiply thy riches? diminish them wisely; or wouldst thou make thy estate entire? divide it charitably. Seeds that are scattered increase; but, hoarded up, they perish.
Francis Quarles
#69. Proportion thy charity to the strength of thine estate, lest God proportion thine estate to the weakness of thy charity. Let the lips of the poor be the trumpet of thy gift, lest in seeking applause, thou lose thy reward. Nothing is more pleasing to God than an open hand and a closed mouth.
Francis Quarles
#70. If thy words be too luxuriant, confine them, lest they confine thee; he that thinks he never can speak enough may easily speak too much. A full tongue and an empty brain are seldom parted.
Francis Quarles
#71. Charity feeds the poor, so does pride; charity builds an hospital, so does pride. In this they differ: charity gives her glory to God; pride takes her glory from man.
Francis Quarles
#72. What well-advised ear regards What earth can say? Thy words are gold, but thy rewards Are painted clay.
Francis Quarles
#74. Has fortune dealt you some bad cards. Then let wisdom make you a good gamester.
Francis Quarles
#75. The birds of the air die to sustain thee; the beasts of the field die to nourish thee; the fishes of the sea die to feed thee. Our stomachs are their common sepulchre. Good God! with how many deaths are our poor lives patched up! how full of death is the life of momentary man!
Francis Quarles
#76. Before thou reprehend another, take heed thou art not culpable in what thou goest about to reprehend. He that cleanses a blot with blotted fingers makes a greater blur.
Francis Quarles
#77. No labor is hard, no time is long, wherein the glory of eternity is the mark we level at.
Francis Quarles
#78. Whose gold is double with a careful hand, His cares are double.
Francis Quarles
#79. Poor thieves in halters we behold;
And great thieves in their chains of gold.
Francis Quarles
#80. Of all the difficulties in a state, the temper of a true government most felicifies and perpetuates it; too sudden alterations distemper it. Had Nero tuned his kingdom as he did his harp, his harmony had been more honorable, and his reign more prosperous.
Francis Quarles
#82. I wish thee as much pleasure in the reading, as I had in the writing.
Francis Quarles
#83. Meditation is the life of the soul: Action, the soul of meditation; and honor the reward of action.
Francis Quarles
#84. He that gives all, though but little, gives much; because God looks not to the quantity of the gift, but to the quality of the givers.
Francis Quarles
#86. Every man's vanity ought to be his greatest shame; and every man's folly ought to be his greatest secret.
Francis Quarles
#87. If God send thee a cross, take it up willingly and follow him. Use it wisely, lest it be unprofitable. Bear it patiently, lest it be intolerable. If it be light, slight it not. If it be heavy, murmur not. After the cross is the crown.
Francis Quarles
#88. The way to bliss lies not on beds of down, And he that had no cross deserves no crown.
Francis Quarles
#89. I'll ne'er distrust my God for cloth and bread while lilies flourish and the raven 's fed.
Francis Quarles
#90. They who cannot be induced to fear for love will never be enforced to love for fear. Love opens the heart, fear shuts it; that encourages, this compels; and victory meets encouragement, but flees compulsion.
Francis Quarles
#91. No man's condition is so base as his;
None more accurs'd than he; for man esteems
Him hateful, 'cause he seems not what he is;
God hates him, 'cause he is not what he seems;
What grief is absent, or what mischief can
Be added to the hate of God and man?
Francis Quarles
#92. Our God and Souldiers we alike adore,Evn at the Brink of danger; not before:After deliverance, both alike required;Our Gods forgotten, and our Souldiers slighted.
Francis Quarles
#93. Charity is a naked child, giving honey to a bee without wings.
Francis Quarles
#94. As all things eternal and primordial reappear, so all things mortal return to the earth. Honor, old age, probity, justice, constance, virtue, and gentleness are all gathered into the cold tomb.
Francis Quarles
#95. Blessedness is promised to the peacemaker, not to the conqueror.
Francis Quarles
#96. Flatter not thyself in thy faith in God if thou hast not charity for thy neighbor.
Francis Quarles
#97. The light of the understanding, humility kindleth and pride covereth.
Francis Quarles
#98. A despairing heart is the true prophet of approaching evil; his actions may weave the webs of Fortune, but not break them.
Francis Quarles
#99. Though virtue give a ragged livery, she gives a golden cognizance; if her service make thee poor, blush not. Thy poverty may disadvantage thee, but not dishonor thee.
Francis Quarles
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