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If thou desire to be held wise, be so wise as to hold thy tongue.

Francis Quarles

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Francis Quarles
Age: 52 †
Born: 1592
Born: May 8
Died: 1644
Died: September 8
Author
Poet
Writer
Havering
Hold
Silence
Wise
Desire
Held
Tongue
Thou

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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 thou be rich, strive to command thy money, lest it command thee.
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No man is born unto himself alone Who lives unto himself, he lives to none.
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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.
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Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
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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.
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Hath any wronged thee? be bravely revenged slight it, and the work is begun forgive it, and it is finished he is below himself that is not above an injury.
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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.
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Let the greatest part of the news thou hearest be the least part of what thou believest, lest the greater part of what thou believest be the least part of what is true.
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It is the lot of man but once to die.
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Think not thy love to God merits God's love to thee His acceptance of thy duty crowns His own gifts in thee man's love to God is nothing but a faint reflection of God's love to man.
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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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Lust is a sharp spur to vice, which always putteth the affections into a false gallop.
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.
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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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No labor is hard, no time is long, wherein the glory of eternity is the mark we level at.
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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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Shine Son of glory, and my sinnes are goneLike twinkling Starres before the rising Sunne.
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That action is not warrantable which either fears to ask the divine blessing on its performance, or having succeeded, does not come with thanksgiving to God for its success.
Francis Quarles