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
Shows
Rare
Else
Ashamed
Actions
Oblique
Road
Proceed
Design
Commonly
Public
Fierce
Show
Sudden
Action
Necessity

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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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Honor is the moral conscience of the great.
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Small are the seeds fate does unheeded sow Of slight beginnings to important ends.
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Be not with honor's gilded baits beguil'd, Nor think ambition wise, because 'tis brave For though we like it, as a forward child, 'Tis so unsound, her cradle is the grave.
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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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Generous souls Are still most subject to credulity.
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To be rich be diligent move on Like heav'ns great movers that enrich the earth Whose moment's sloth would show the world undone And make the spring straight bury all her birth. Rich are the diligent who can command Time--nature's stock.
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Ambition is the mind's immodesty.
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How much pleasure they lose (and even the pleasures of heroic poesy are not unprofitable) who take away the liberty of a poet, and fetter his feet in the shackles of a historian.
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Anger is blood, poured and perplexed into froth but malice is the wisdom of our wrath.
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The assembled souls of all that men held wise.
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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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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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Faith lights us through the dark to Deity.
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Calamity is the perfect glass wherein we truly see and know ourselves.
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Since knowledge is but sorrow's spy, It is not safe to know.
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All jealousy must be strangled in its birth.
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Fame, like the river, is narrowest where it is bred, and broadest afar off.
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