Francis Quarles Quotes

d. 1644 England

Francis Quarles (baptised May 8, 1592, died September 8, 1644) was a prolific English prose-writer and poet. He is now best known for his Emblems (1638) and other moral and devotional verse.

England
Poets

Also known as: Quarles, Quarles, Francis

Random Francis Quarles quote

52 quotes

Expect, but fear not, Death: Death cannot kill,
Till Time (that first must seal his patent) will.
Would'st thou live long? keep Time in high esteem:
Whom gone, if thou canst not recall, redeem.

My soul, the seas are rough, and thou a stranger
In these false coasts; O keep aloof; there's danger;
Cast forth thy plummet; see, a rock appears;
Thy ships want sea-room; make it with thy tears.

Even as the needle that directs the hour,
(Touched with the loadstone) by the secret power
Of hidden Nature, points upon the pole;
Even so the wavering powers of my soul,
Touch'd by the virtue of Thy spirit, flee
From what is earth, and point alone to Thee.

Thou art my life, my way, my light

Why dost thou Shade thy Lovely Face? (1635)

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

If thou desire the love of God and man, be humble; for the proud heart as it loves none but itself, so it is beloved of none but itself. The voice of humility is God's music, and the silence of humility is God's rhetoric. Humility enforces where neither virtue nor strength can prevail, nor reason.

In having all things, and not Thee, what have I?
Not having Thee, what have my labors got?
Let me enjoy but Thee, what farther crave I?
And having Thee alone, what have I not?

Divine Fancies (1632), Book 3, § 54: "On Faith and Reason".

My soul, what's lighter than a feather? Wind.
Than wind? The fire. And what than fire? The mind.
What's lighter than the mind? A thought. Than thought?
This bubble world. What than this bubble? Nought.

If thou desire to see thy child virtuous, let him not see his father's vices: thou canst not rebuke that in them, that they behold practised in thee; till reason be ripe, examples direct more than precepts: such as thy behaviour is before thy children's faces, such commonly is theirs behind their parents' backs.

Sweet Phosphor, bring the day
Whose conquering ray
May chase these fogs;
Sweet Phosphor, bring the day!
Sweet Phosphor, bring the day!
Light will repay
The wrongs of night;
Sweet Phosphor, bring the day!

Emblems (1635)

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. Where lies are easily admitted the father of lies will not easily be excluded.

Enchiridion (1640)

Attribution

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