123 quotes
[Envy] is like a fly,
That passes all the body’s soundest parts,
And dwells upon the sore.
Bussy D'Ambois (1607)
Though my years would have me old, I am not,
But have the gentle jerk of youth in me,
As fresh as he that hath a maiden's chin.
The Blind Beggar of Alexandria (1596)
So our lives
In acts exemplary, not only win
Ourselves good names, but doth to others give
Matter for virtuous deeds, by which we live.
Bussy D'Ambois (1607)
The blind goddess of fools.
The Widow's Tears (1612)
Extremes, though contrary, have the like effects;
Extreme heat mortifies like extreme cold:
Extreme love breeds satiety as well
As extreme hatred; and too violent rigour
Tempts chastity as much as too much licence.
All Fools (1605)
So our lives
In acts exemplarie, not only winne
Ourselves good Names, but doth to others give
Matter for virtuous Deedes, by which wee live.
Give me a spirit that on this life's rough sea
Loves t' have his sails fill'd with a lusty wind,
Even till his sail-yards tremble, his masts crack,
And his rapt ship run on her side so low
That she drinks water, and her keel plows air.
The Conspiracy and Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron (1608)
As if the Phenix hasting to her rest
Had gatherd all th’Arabian Spicerie
T’enbalme her body in her Tombe, her nest
Ovid’s Banquet of Sense (1595)
For as the light
Not only serves to show, but render us
Mutually profitable; so our lives,
In acts exemplary, not only win
Ourselves good names, but do to others give
Matter for virtuous deeds, by which we live.
Bussy D'Ambois (1607)
Fortune, the great commandress of the world,
Hath divers ways to advance her followers:
To some she gives honour without deserving,
To other some, deserving without honour;
Some wit, some wealth,—and some, wit without wealth;
Some wealth without wit; some nor wit nor wealth.
All Fools (1605)
As when about the silver moon, when air is free from wind,
And stars shine clear; to whose sweet beams, high prospects, and the brows
Of all steep hills and pinnacles, thrust up themselves for shows;
And even the lowly valleys joy, to glitter in their sight,
When the unmeasured firmament bursts to disclose her light,
And all the signs in heaven are seen that glad the shepherd's heart.
The Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets (1611)
But my love is the cordial of souls,
Teaching by passion what perfection is,
In whose fix'd beauties shine the sacred scroll,
And long-lost records of your human bliss,
Spirit to flesh, and soul to spirit giving,
Love flows not from my liver but her living.
Ovid's Banquet of Sense (1595)
Homer's poems were writ from a free fury, an absolute and full soul; Virgil's out of a courtly, laborious, and altogether imitatory spirit: not a simile he hath but is Homer's; not an invention, person, or disposition but is wholly or originally built upon Homerical foundations, and in many places hath the very words Homer useth.
Dedication to Achilles' Shield (1598)
Music, and mood, she loves, but love she hates
(As curious ladies do, their public cates),
This train, with meteors, comets, lightenings,
The dreadful presence of our empress sings:
Which grant for ever (O eternal Night)
Till virtue flourish in the light of light.
The Shadow of Night (1594)
Cornelia: What flowers are these?
Gazetta: The pansy this.
Cornelia: Oh, that's for lover's thoughts.
All Fools (1605)
Great goddess, to whose throne in Cynthian fires,
This earthly altar endless fumes expires;
Therefore, in fumes of sighs and fires of grief,
To fearful chances thou send'st bold relief,
Happy, thrice happy type, and nurse of death,
Who, breathless, feeds on nothing but our breath,
In whom must virtue and her issue live,
Or die for ever.
The Shadow of Night (1594)
O the dangerous siege
Sin lays about us! And the tyranny
He exercises when he hath expung’d,
Like to the horror of a winter’s thunder,
Mix’d with a gushing storm; that suffers nothing
To stir abroad on earth, but their own rages,
Is sin, when it hath gather’d head above us:
No roof, no shelter can secure us so,
But he will drown our cheeks in fear or woe.
Bussy D'Ambois (1607)
They're only truly great who are truly good.
Disputed Revenge for Honour (1654)
I know an Englishman,
Being flattered, is a lamb; threatened, a lion.
Disputed Alphonsus, Emperor of Germany (1654)
Like clocks, one wheel another on must drive;
Affairs by diligent labour only thrive.
Disputed Revenge for Honour (1654)