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A despairing heart is the true prophet of approaching evil his actions may weave the webs of Fortune, but not break them.

Francis Quarles

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Francis Quarles
Age: 52 †
Born: 1592
Born: May 8
Died: 1644
Died: September 8
Author
Poet
Writer
Havering
True
Approaching
May
Prophet
Heart
Actions
Despair
Fortune
Break
Webs
Evil
Despairing
Action
Weave

More quotes by Francis Quarles

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Reason can discover things only near,--sees nothing that's above her.
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Things temporal are sweeter in the expectation, things eternal are sweeter in the fruition the first shames thy hope, the second crowns it it is a vain journey, whose end affords less pleasure than the way.
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Put off thy cares with thy clothes so shall thy rest strengthen thy labour, and so shall thy labour sweeten thy rest.
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Thy pride is but the prologue of thy shame where vain-glory commands, there folly counsels where pride rides, there shame lackeys.
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Every man's vanity ought to be his greatest shame and every man's folly ought to be his greatest secret.
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No man is born unto himself alone Who lives unto himself, he lives to none.
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Is not this lily pure? What fuller can procure A white so perfect, spotless clear As in this flower doth appear?
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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.
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If thou desire the love of God and man, be humble, for the proud heart, as it loves none but itself, is beloved of none but itself. Humility enforces where neither virtue, nor strength, nor reason can prevail.
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Virtue is nothing but an act of loving that which is to be beloved, and that act is prudence, from whence not to be removed by constraint is fortitude not to be allured by enticements is temperance not to be diverted by pride is justice.
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If thy faith have no doubts, thou has just cause to doubt thy faith and if thy doubts have no hope, thou hast just reason to fear despair when therefore thy doubts shall exercise thy faith, keep thy hopes firm to qualify thy doubts so shall thy faith be secured from doubts so shall thy doubts be preserved from despair.
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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
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Afflictions clarify the soul And like hard masters, give more hard directions, Tutoring the non-age of uncurbed affections.
Francis Quarles
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Thy ignorance in unrevealed mysteries is the mother of a saving faith, and thy understanding in revealed truths is the mother of a sacred knowledge understand not therefore that thou mayest believe, but believe that thou mayest understand understanding is the wages of a lively faith and faith is the reward of an humble ignorance.
Francis Quarles
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Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
Francis Quarles
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Afflictions clarify the soul.
Francis Quarles
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Lust is a sharp spur to vice, which always putteth the affections into a false gallop.
Francis Quarles
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See, here's a shadow found the human nature Is made th' umbrella to the Deity, To catch the sunbeams of thy just Creator Beneath this covert thou may'st safely lie.
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The World's a Printing-House, our words, our thoughts, Our deeds, are characters of several sizes. Each soul is a Compos'tor, of whose faults The Levites are Correctors Heaven Revises. Death is the common Press, from whence being driven, We're gather'd, Sheet by Sheet, and bound for Heaven.
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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