Quote

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

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Francis Quarles
Age: 52 †
Born: 1592
Born: May 8
Died: 1644
Died: September 8
Author
Poet
Writer
Havering
Good
Bitter
Pills
Men
False
Torment
Flesh
Joys
Grief
Trash
Joy
Toys
Blood
Sharp
Ills
Seems
Ring
Purchase
Real
Rings
Swallow

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It is the lot of man but once to die.
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Necessity of action takes away the fear of the act, and makes bold resolution the favorite of fortune.
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Death aims with fouler spiteAt fairer marks.
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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.
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The grave is sooner cloy'd than men's desire.
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If thou wouldst preserve a sound body, use fasting and walking if a healthful soul, fasting and praying. Walking exercises the body praying exercises the soul fasting cleanses both.
Francis Quarles
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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.
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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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No man is born unto himself alone Who lives unto himself, he lives to none.
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Heav'n is not always got by running.
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Afflictions clarify the soul.
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Let grace conduct thee to the paths of peace.
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Our God and Souldiers we alike adore,Evn at the Brink of danger not before:After deliverance, both alike requiredOur Gods forgotten, and our Souldiers slighted.
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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.
Francis Quarles
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God hath given to mankind a common library, His creatures to every man a proper book, himself being an abridgment of all others. If thou read with understanding, it will make thee a great master of philosophy, and a true servant of the divine Author: if thou but barely read, it will make thee thine own wise man and the Author's fool.
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Even as the needle that directs the hour, (Touched with the loadstone) by the secret power Of hidden Nature, points upon the pole Even so the wavering powers of my soul, Touch'd by the virtue of Thy spirit, flee From what is earth, and point alone to Thee.
Francis Quarles
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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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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.
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Wickedness is its own punishment.
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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