Quote

Every man's vanity ought to be his greatest shame and every man's folly ought to be his greatest secret.

Francis Quarles

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Francis Quarles
Age: 52 †
Born: 1592
Born: May 8
Died: 1644
Died: September 8
Author
Poet
Writer
Havering
Men
Folly
Vanity
Shame
Ought
Greatest
Secret
Every

More quotes by Francis Quarles

Image
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
Image
My soul, the seas are rough, and thou a stranger In these false coasts O keep aloof there's danger Cast forth thy plummet see, a rock appears Thy ships want sea-room make it with thy tears.
Francis Quarles
Image
Necessity of action takes away the fear of the act, and makes bold resolution the favorite of fortune.
Francis Quarles
Image
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.
Francis Quarles
Image
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
Image
The place of charity, like that of God, is everywhere.
Francis Quarles
Image
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
Image
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.
Francis Quarles
Image
Read not books alone, but men, and amongst them chiefly thyself.
Francis Quarles
Image
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
Image
Nor fire, nor rocks, can stop our furious minds, Nor waves, nor winds.
Francis Quarles
Image
Mark, how the ready hands of Death prepare: His bow is bent, and he hath notch'd his dart He aims, he levels at thy slumb'ring heart: The wound is posting, O be wise, beware.
Francis Quarles
Image
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.
Francis Quarles
Image
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.
Francis Quarles
Image
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.
Francis Quarles
Image
If thou be rich, strive to command thy money, lest it command thee.
Francis Quarles
Image
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
Image
He that hath no cross deserves no crown.
Francis Quarles
Image
Scandal breeds hatred hatred begets division division makes faction, and faction brings ruin.
Francis Quarles
Image
In all thy actions think God sees thee and in all His actions labor to see Him that will make thee fear Him this will move thee to love Him the fear of God is the beginning of knowledge, and the knowledge of God is the perfection of love.
Francis Quarles