Quote

False world, thou ly'st: thou canst not lend The least delight: Thy favours cannot gain a friend, They are so slight.

Francis Quarles

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Francis Quarles
Age: 52 †
Born: 1592
Born: May 8
Died: 1644
Died: September 8
Author
Poet
Writer
Havering
Least
Slight
Cannot
Favour
World
Gain
False
Thou
Delight
Favours
Gains
Canst
Friend
Lend

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Lust is a sharp spur to vice, which always putteth the affections into a false gallop.
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The goods we spend we keep and what we save We lose and only what we lose we have.
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Make thy recreation servant to thy business, lest thou become a slave to thy recreation.
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If thou wouldst be justified, acknowledge thine injustice. He that confesses his sin, begins his journey toward salvation. He that is sorry for it, mends his pace. He that forsakes it, is at his journey's end.
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Physicians, of all men, are most happy whatever good success soever they have, the world proclaimeth and what faults they commit, the earth covereth.
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If thy daughter marry well, thou hast found a son if not, thou hast lost a daughter.
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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.
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Temper your enjoyments with prudence, lest there be written on your heart that fearful word 'satiety.'
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Heaven finds an ear when sinners find a tongue.
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Nothing is more pleasing to God than an open hand, and a closed mouth.
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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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As there is no worldly gain without some loss, so there is no worldly loss without some gain.... Set the allowance against the loss, and thou shalt find no loss great.
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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.
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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.
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Immortal life is something to be earned, By slow self-conquest, comradeship with Pain, And patient seeking after higher truths.
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Other vices make their own way this makes way for all vices. He that is a drunkard is qualified for all vice.
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Poor thieves in halters we behold And great thieves in their chains of gold.
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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!
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In the height of thy prosperity expect adversity, but fear it not. If it come not, thou art the more sweetly possessed of the happiness thou hast, and the more strongly confirmed. If it come, thou art the more gently dispossessed of the happiness thou hadst, and the more firmly prepared.
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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