Francis Quarles Quotes

“My soul, sit thou a patient looker-on;
Judge not the play before the play is done:
Her plot has many changes; every day
Speaks a new scene; the last act crowns the play.”

— Francis Quarles

“My mind is my kingdom.”

— Francis Quarles

“Flatter not thyself in thy faith in God if thou hast not charity for thy neighbor.”

— Francis Quarles

“That friendship will not continue to the end which is begun for an end.”

— Francis Quarles

Be wisely worldly, but not worldly wise.

— Francis Quarles

The road to perseverance lies by doubt.

— Francis Quarles

“Wisdom not only gets, but once got, retains.”

— Francis Quarles

“The average person's ear weighs what you are, not what you were.”

— Francis Quarles

He that discovers himself, till he hath made himself master of his desires, lays himself open to his own ruin, and makes himself prisoner to his own tongue.

— Francis Quarles

“Heaven is never deaf but when man's heart is dumb.”

— Francis Quarles

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.

— Francis Quarles

Is not this lily pure? What fuller can procure A white so perfect, spotless clear As in this flower doth appear?

— Francis Quarles

“God's pleasure is at the end of our prayers.”

— Francis Quarles

If any speak ill of thee, flee home to thy own conscience, and examine thy heart: if thou be guilty, it is a just correction; if not guilty, it is a fair instruction: make use of both; so shalt thou distil honey out of gall, and out of an open enemy create a secret friend.

— Francis Quarles

“Nor fire, nor rocks, can stop our furious minds, Nor waves, nor winds.”

— Francis Quarles

“O lust, thou infernal fire, whose fuel is gluttony; whose flame is pride, whose sparkles are wanton words; whose smoke is infamy; whose ashes are uncleanness; whose end is hell.”

— Francis Quarles

“The light of the understanding, humility kindleth and pride covereth.”

— Francis Quarles

“As all things eternal and primordial reappear, so all things mortal return to the earth. Honor, old age, probity, justice, constance, virtue, and gentleness are all gathered into the cold tomb.”

— Francis Quarles

Physicians, of all men, are most happy; whatever good success soever they have, the world proclaimeth; and what faults they commit, the earth covereth.

— Francis Quarles

The way to bliss lies not on beds of down, And he that had no cross deserves no crown.

— Francis Quarles

“Afflictions clarify the soul.”

— Francis Quarles

“The voice of humility is God's music, and the silence of humility is God's rhetoric.”

— Francis Quarles

He that hath promised pardon on our repentance hat not promised life till we repent.

— Francis Quarles

“Of all the difficulties in a state, the temper of a true government most felicifies and perpetuates it; too sudden alterations distemper it. Had Nero tuned his kingdom as he did his harp, his harmony had been more honorable, and his reign more prosperous.”

— Francis Quarles

“Wouldst thou know the lawfulness of the action which thou desirest to undertake, let thy devotion recommend it to Divine blessing: if it be lawful, thou shalt perceive thy heart encouraged by thy prayer; if unlawful, thou shalt find thy prayer discouraged by thy heart. That action is not warrantable which either blushes to beg a blessing, or, having succeeded, dares not present a thanksgiving.”

— Francis Quarles

“The way to subject all things to thyself is to subject thyself to reason; thou shalt govern many, if reason govern thee. Wouldst thou be crowned the monarch of a little world? command thyself.”

— Francis Quarles

“Deliberate long before thou consecrate a friend, and when thy impartial justice concludes him worthy of thy bosom, receive him joyfully, and entertain him wisely; impart thy secrets boldly, and mingle thy thoughts with his: he is thy very self; and use him so; if thou firmly think him faithful, thou makest him so.”

— Francis Quarles

“The world is deceitful; her end is doubtful, her conclusion is horrible, her judge terrible, and her judgment is intolerable.”

— Francis Quarles

“In the height of thy prosperity expect adversity, but fear it not. If it come not, thou art the more sweetly possessed of the happiness thou hast, and the more strongly confirmed. If it come, thou art the more gently dispossessed of the happiness thou hadst, and the more firmly prepared.”

— Francis Quarles

“Mercy turns her back to the unmerciful.”

— Francis Quarles

“Blessedness is promised to the peacemaker, not to the conqueror.”

— Francis Quarles

“Prize not thyself by what thou hast, but by what thou art; he that values a jewel by her golden frame, or a book by her silver clasps, or a man by his vast estate, errs; if thou art not worth more than the world can make thee, thy Redeemer had a bad pennyworth, or thou an uncurious Redeemer.”

— Francis Quarles

For trash and toys, And grief-engend'ring joys, What torment seems too sharp for flesh and blood; What bitter pills, Compos'd of real ills, Men swallow down to purchase one false good!

— Francis Quarles

“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

“As there is no worldly gain without some loss, so there is no worldly loss without some gain; if thou hast lost thy wealth, thou hast lost some trouble with it; if thou art degraded from thy honor, thou art likewise freed from the stroke of envy; if sickness hath blurred thy beauty, it hath delivered thee from pride. Set the allowance against the loss, and thou shalt find no loss great; he loses little or nothing, that reserves himself.”

— Francis Quarles

“Let grace conduct thee to the paths of peace.”

— Francis Quarles

“What well-advised ear regards What earth can say? Thy words are gold, but thy rewards Are painted clay.”

— Francis Quarles

“Let the ground of all thy religious actions be obedience; examine not why it is commanded, but observe it because it is commanded. True obedience neither procrastinates nor questions.”

— Francis Quarles

“Even such is man, whose glory lendsHis life a blaze or two, and ends.”

— Francis Quarles

“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.”

— Francis Quarles

Rather do what is nothing to the purpose than be idle; that the devil may find thee doing. The bird that sits is easily shot, when fliers scape the fowler. Idleness is the Dead Sea that swallows all the virtues, and the self-made sepulchre of a living man.

— Francis Quarles

“Let the words of a virgin, though in a good cause, and to as good purpose, be neither violent, many, nor first, nor last; it is less shame for a virgin to be lost in a blushing silence than to be found in a bold eloquence.”

— Francis Quarles

“No labor is hard, no time is long, wherein the glory of eternity is the mark we level at.”

— Francis Quarles

“With a bloody flux of oaths vows deep revenge.”

— Francis Quarles

The goods we spend we keep; and what we save
We lose; and only what we lose we have.

— Francis Quarles

They who cannot be induced to fear for love will never be enforced to love for fear. Love opens the heart, fear shuts it; that encourages, this compels; and victory meets encouragement, but flees compulsion.

— Francis Quarles

Death aims with fouler spiteAt fairer marks.

— Francis Quarles

“Sweet Phosphor, bring the dayWhose conquering rayMay chase these fogs;Sweet Phosphor, bring the day!Sweet Phosphor, bring the day!Light will repayThe wrongs of night;Sweet Phosphor, bring the day!”

— Francis Quarles

“The slender debt to Nature's quickly paid,Discharged, perchance, with greater ease than made.”

— Francis Quarles

“The world's an Inn; and I her guest.”

— Francis Quarles