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Reason can discover things only near,--sees nothing that's above her.

Francis Quarles

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Francis Quarles
Age: 52 †
Born: 1592
Born: May 8
Died: 1644
Died: September 8
Author
Poet
Writer
Havering
Reason
Nothing
Things
Near
Sees
Discover

More quotes by Francis Quarles

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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.
Francis Quarles
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Immortal life is something to be earned, By slow self-conquest, comradeship with Pain, And patient seeking after higher truths.
Francis Quarles
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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?
Francis Quarles
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If thou desire to purchase honor with thy wealth, consider first how that wealth became thine if thy labor got it, let thy wisdom keep it if oppression found it, let repentance restore it if thy parent left it, let thy virtues deserve it so shall thy honor be safer, better and cheaper.
Francis Quarles
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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
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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.
Francis Quarles
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Gold is Caesar's treasure, man is God's thy gold hath Caesar's image, and thou hast God's.
Francis Quarles
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The grave is sooner cloy'd than men's desire.
Francis Quarles
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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
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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.
Francis Quarles
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Pleasures bring effeminacy, and effeminacy foreruns ruin such conquests, without blood or sweat, sufficiently do revenge themselves upon their intemperate conquerors.
Francis Quarles
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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.
Francis Quarles
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Too much is a vanity enough is a feast.
Francis Quarles
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Deliberate long before thou consecrate a friend, and when thy impartial justice concludes him worthy of thy bosom, receive him joyfully, and entertain him wisely impart thy secrets boldly, and mingle thy thoughts with his: he is thy very self and use him so if thou firmly think him faithful, thou makest him so.
Francis Quarles
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Make thy recreation servant to thy business, lest thou become a slave to thy recreation.
Francis Quarles
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Blessedness is promised to the peacemaker, not to the conqueror.
Francis Quarles
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It is the lot of man but once to die.
Francis Quarles
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Nor fire, nor rocks, can stop our furious minds, Nor waves, nor winds.
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.
Francis Quarles
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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