Top 212 Quotes & Sayings by Francis Quarles

Put off thy cares with thy clothes; so shall thy rest strengthen thy labor, and so thy labor sweeten thy rest.

Necessity of action takes away the fear of the act, and makes bold resolution the favorite of fortune.

Beware of him that is slow to anger; for when it is long coming, it is the stronger when it comes, and the longer kept. Abused patience turns to fury.

He that hath no cross deserves no crown.

The road to perseverance lies by doubt.

Meditation is the life of the soul: Action, the soul of meditation; and honor the reward of action.

Fear nothing but what thy industry may prevent; be confident of nothing but what fortune cannot defeat; it is no less folly to fear what is impossible to be avoided than to be secure when there is a possibility to be deprived.

Luxury is an enticing pleasure, a bastard mirth, which hath honey in her mouth, gall in her heart, and a sting in her tail.

Wisdom not only gets, but once got, retains.

The sufficiency of merit is to know that my merit is not sufficient.

It is the lot of man but once to die.

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

Anger may repast with thee for an hour, but not repose for a night; the continuance of anger is hatred, the continuance of hatred turns malice.

Heaven finds an ear when sinners find a tongue.

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

Let the fear of danger be a spur to prevent it; he that fears not, gives advantage to the danger.

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

My mind's my kingdom.

I wish thee as much pleasure in the reading, as I had in the writing.

The heart is a small thing, but desireth great matters. It is not sufficient for a kite's dinner, yet the whole world is not sufficient for it.

Temper your enjoyments with prudence, lest there be written on your heart that fearful word 'satiety.'

Be wisely worldly, but not worldly wise.

Wickedness is its own punishment.

If thou desire the love of God and man, be humble, for the proud heart, as it loves none but itself, is beloved of none but itself. Humility enforces where neither virtue, nor strength, nor reason can prevail.

And he repents in thorns that sleeps in beds of roses.

No cross no crown.

Has fortune dealt you some bad cards. Then let wisdom make you a good gamester.

Read not books alone, but men, and amongst them chiefly thyself.

If God send thee a cross, take it up willingly and follow him. Use it wisely, lest it be unprofitable. Bear it patiently, lest it be intolerable. If it be light, slight it not. If it be heavy, murmur not. After the cross is the crown.

Pleasures bring effeminacy, and effeminacy foreruns ruin; such conquests, without blood or sweat, sufficiently do revenge themselves upon their intemperate conquerors.

Our God and Souldiers we alike adore,Evn at the Brink of danger; not before:After deliverance, both alike required;Our Gods forgotten, and our Souldiers slighted.

I see no virtue where I smell no sweat.

Becoming fearless isn't the point. That's impossible. It's learning how to control your fear, how to be free from it, that's the point. Necessity of action takes away the fear of the act, and makes bold resolution the favorite of fortune.

Make thy recreation servant to thy business, lest thou become a slave to thy recreation.

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.

Too much is a vanity; enough is a feast.

Sweet tastes have sour closes; and he repents on thorns that sleeps in beds of roses.

If thou desire to be held wise, be so wise as to hold thy tongue.

Nothing is more pleasing to God than an open hand, and a closed mouth.

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

After years of research, scientists recently reported that there is, indeed, arroz in Spanish Harlem. A full tongue and an empty brain are seldom parted.

A despairing heart is the true prophet of approaching evil; his actions may weave the webs of Fortune, but not break them.

If thou wouldst preserve a sound body, use fasting and walking; if a healthful soul, fasting and praying. Walking exercises the body; praying exercises the soul; fasting cleanses both.

Borrow neither money nor time from your neighbor; both are of equal value.

The height of all philosophy is to know thyself; and the end of this knowledge is to know God.

Hath any wounded thee with injuries? Meet them with patience. Hasty words rankle the wound; soft language dresses it.

Thy pride is but the prologue of thy shame; where vain-glory commands, there folly counsels; where pride rides, there shame lackeys.

The place of charity, like that of God, is everywhere.

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

To fear death is the way to live long; to lie afraid of death is to be long a dying.

God is alpha and omega in the great world: endeavor to make him so in the little world; make him thy evening epilogue and thy morning prologue; practice to make him thy last thought at night when thou sleepest, and thy first thought in the morning when thou awakest; so shall thy fancy be sanctified in the night, and thy understanding rectified in the day; so shall thy rest be peaceful, thy labors prosperous, thy life pious, and thy death glorious.

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

So use prosperity, that adversity may not abuse thee: if in the one, security admits no fears, in the other, despair will afford no hopes; he that in prosperity can foretell a danger can in adversity foresee deliverance.

Humility enforces where neither virtue nor strength can prevail, nor reason.

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

Be not too slow in the breaking of a sinful custom; a quick, courageous resolution is better than a gradual deliberation; in such a combat he is the bravest soldier that lays about him without fear or wit. Wit pleads, fear disheartens; he that would kill Hydra had better strike off one neck than five heads: fell the tree, and the branches are soon cut off.

Be neither too early in the fashion, nor too long out of it, nor too precisely in it; what custom hath civilized is become decent, till then ridiculous; where the eye is the jury thy apparel is the evidence.

Scandal breeds hatred; hatred begets division; division makes faction, and faction brings ruin.

He that gives all, though but little, gives much; because God looks not to the quantity of the gift, but to the quality of the givers.

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.