Quote

Actions rare and sudden do commonly proceed from fierce necessity, of else from some oblique design, which is ashamed to show itself in the public road.

William Davenant

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William Davenant
Age: 62 †
Born: 1606
Born: February 1
Died: 1668
Died: April 7
Playwright
Poet
Writer
Action
Necessity
Shows
Rare
Else
Ashamed
Actions
Oblique
Road
Proceed
Design
Commonly
Public
Fierce
Show
Sudden

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Fame, like the river, is narrowest where it is bred, and broadest afar off.
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All slander must still be strangled in its birth, or time will soon conspire to make it strong enough to overcome the truth.
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Think not ambition wise, because 't is brave.
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What one cannot, another can.
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Calamity is the perfect glass wherein we truly see and know ourselves.
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Generous souls Are still most subject to credulity.
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Honor is the moral conscience of the great.
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The assembled souls of all that men held wise.
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Since knowledge is but sorrow's spy, It is not safe to know.
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Faith lights us through the dark to Deity.
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O harmless Death! whom still the valiant brave, The wise expect, the sorrowful invite, And all the good embrace, who know the grave A short dark passage to eternal light.
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Go! dive into the Southern Sea, and when Th'ast found, to trouble the nice sight of men, A swelling pearl, and such whose single worth Boasts all the wonders which the seas bring forth, Give it Endymion's love, whose ev'ry tear Would more enrich the skilful jeweller.
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Ambition is the mind's immodesty.
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All jealousy must be strangled in its birth.
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Ambition's monstrous stomach does increase By eating, and it fears to starve, unless It still may feed, and all it sees devour Ambition is not tir'd with toll nor cloy'd with power.
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How beautiful is sorrow when it is dressed by virgin innocence! it makes felicity in others seem deformed.
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