Quotations by:
    Quarles, Francis


E’en like two little bank-dividing brooks,
That wash the pebbles with their wanton streams,
And having ranged and searched a thousand nooks,
Meet both at length in silver-breasted Thames,
Where in a greater current they conjoin:
So I my Best-Belovèd’s am; so He is mine.

Francis Quarles (1592-1644) English poet
“A Mystical Ecstasy”
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Added on 20-Jun-16 | Last updated 20-Jun-16
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The world’s an Inn; and I her guest.
I eat; I drink; I take my rest.
My hostess, nature, does deny me
Nothing, wherewith she can supply me;
Where, having stayed a while, I pay
Her lavish bills, and go my way.

Quarles - worlds an inn - wist_info quote

Francis Quarles (1592-1644) English poet
“On the World”
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Added on 6-Jun-16 | Last updated 7-Jun-16
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The way’s not easy where the prize is great:
I hope no virtues, where I smell no sweat.

Quarles - smell no sweat - wist_info quote

Francis Quarles (1592-1644) English poet
Emblems, Emblem 11, Epigram (1634)
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Often given, "I see no virtue where I smell no sweat."
 
Added on 1-Feb-16 | Last updated 8-Jun-16
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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 (1592-1644) English poet
Enchyridion, Book 2, ch. 24 (1641)
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Added on 13-Jun-16 | Last updated 13-Jun-16
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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 (1592-1644) English poet
Enchyridion, Cent. 3, cap. 38
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Added on 9-Sep-16 | Last updated 9-Sep-16
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If thou desire to see thy child virtuous, let him not see his father’s vices: thou canst not rebuke that in them, that they behold practiced in thee; till reason be ripe, examples direct more than precepts: such as thy behaviour is before thy children’s faces, such commonly is theirs behind their parents’ backs.

quarles-behind-their-parents-backs-wist_info-quote

Francis Quarles (1592-1644) English poet
Enchyridion, Century 3, cap. 18
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Added on 21-Sep-16 | Last updated 21-Sep-16
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No man is born unto himself alone;
Who lives unto himself, he lives to none.

Francis Quarles (1592-1644) English poet
Esther, Sec. 1, Meditation 1 (1621)
 
Added on 16-May-16 | Last updated 16-May-16
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The way to bliss lies not on beds of down,
And he that has no cross deserves no crown.

Francis Quarles (1592-1644) English poet
Esther, Sec. 9, Meditation 9 (1621)
 
Added on 24-May-16 | Last updated 24-May-16
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My soul, sit thou a patient looker-on;
Judge not the play before the play is done:
Her plot hath many changes; every day
Speaks a new scene; the last act crowns the play.

Francis Quarles (1592-1644) English poet
Respice Finem, Epigram (1635)
 
Added on 31-May-16 | Last updated 31-May-16
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