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Edmund Waller Quotes

1606–1687 England

Edmund Waller (March 3, 1606 – October 21, 1687) was an English poet.

England
Poets

Also known as: Waller, Edmund

Random Edmund Waller quote

40 quotes

My joy, my grief, my hope, my love,
Did all within this circle move!

Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham (1857)

All human things
Of dearest value hang on slender strings.

Guarded with ships, and all our sea our own.

Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham (1857)

The seas are quiet when the winds give o'er;
So calm are we when passions are no more!

Others may use the ocean as their road;
Only the English make it their abode.

The chain that's fixed to the throne of Jove,
On which the fabric of our world depends,
One link dissolved, the whole creation ends.

That which her slender waist confined
Shall now my joyful temples bind;
No monarch but would give his crown
His arms might do what this has done.

Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham (1857)

And as pale sickness does invade
Your frailer part, the breaches made
In that fair lodging still more clear
Make the bright guest, your soul, appear.

In such green palaces the first kings reign'd,
Slept in their shades, and angels entertain'd;
With such old counsellors they did advise,
And by frequenting sacred groves grew wise.

The soul's dark cottage, batter'd and decay'd,
Lets in new light through chinks that Time has made.

Illustrious acts high raptures do infuse,
And every conqueror creates a muse.

Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham (1857)

To man, that was in th' evening made,
Stars gave the first delight;
Admiring, in the gloomy shade,
Those little drops of light.

Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham (1857)

Thrice happy is that humble pair,
Beneath the level of all care!
Over whose heads those arrows fly
Of sad distrust and jealousy.

So all we know of what they do above
Is that they happy are, and that they love.

Let us look to our Government, Fleet, and Trade.

There is a garden in her face
Where roses and white lilies blow;
A heavenly paradise is that place,
Wherein all pleasant fruits do flow:
There cherries grow which none may buy
Till 'Cherry-ripe' themselves do cry.

Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham (1857)

Give us enough but with a sparing hand.

'Tis strange that we have sat so many years, and given so much money, and are still called upon for Supply. The Lords may give Supply with their own money, but we give the peoples; we are their proxies.

The soul's dark cottage, battered and decayed,
Lets in new light through chinks that Time has made;
Stronger by weakness, wiser, men become
As they draw near to their eternal home.
Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view,
That stand upon the threshold of the new.

Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham (1857)

The rising sun complies with our weak sight,
First gilds the clouds, then shows his globe of light
At such a distance from our eyes, as though
He knew what harm his hasty beams would do.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Edmund Waller (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.