Quote

Had laws not been, we never had been blam'd For not to know we sinn'd is innocence.

William Davenant

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

William Davenant
Age: 62 †
Born: 1606
Born: February 1
Died: 1668
Died: April 7
Playwright
Poet
Writer
Law
Never
Sinn
Innocence
Laws

More quotes by William Davenant

Image
Think not ambition wise, because 't is brave.
William Davenant
Image
It is the wit and policy of sin to hate those we have abused.
William Davenant
Image
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.
William Davenant
Image
How beautiful is sorrow when it is dressed by virgin innocence! it makes felicity in others seem deformed.
William Davenant
Image
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.
William Davenant
Image
What one cannot, another can.
William Davenant
Image
Calamity is the perfect glass wherein we truly see and know ourselves.
William Davenant
Image
Ambition is the mind's immodesty.
William Davenant
Image
All jealousy must be strangled in its birth.
William Davenant
Image
Since knowledge is but sorrow's spy, It is not safe to know.
William Davenant
Image
Generous souls Are still most subject to credulity.
William Davenant
Image
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
Image
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.
William Davenant
Image
Small are the seeds fate does unheeded sow Of slight beginnings to important ends.
William Davenant
Image
Slow seems their speed whose thoughts before them run.
William Davenant
Image
All slander must still be strangled in its birth, or time will soon conspire to make it strong enough to overcome the truth.
William Davenant
Image
For in a dearth of comforts, we art taught To be contented with the least.
William Davenant
Image
Fame, like the river, is narrowest where it is bred, and broadest afar off.
William Davenant
Image
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.
William Davenant
Image
Anger is blood, poured and perplexed into froth but malice is the wisdom of our wrath.
William Davenant