Attributed quotes — James Howell
1590–1666 Wales
← All quotes by James Howell
4 quotes
Such is the strength of art, rough things to shape,
And of rude commons rich enclosures make.
Attributed
Words are the life of knowledge; they set free,
And bring forth truth by way of midwif'ry:
The activ'st creatures of the teeming brain,
The judges who the inward man arraign:
Reason's chief engine and artillery
To batter error, and make falsehood fly;
The cannons of the mind, who sometimes bounce
Nothing but war, then peace again pronounce.
Attributed Poetical Quotations (1829)
'Tis only man can words create,
And cut the air to sounds articulate
By nature's special charter. Nay, speech can
Make a shrewd discrepance 'twist man and man:
It doth the gentleman from clown discover;
And from a fool the grave philosopher;
As Solon said to one in judgment weak,
I thought thee wise until I heard thee speak.
Attributed Poetical Quotations (1829)
Words are the soul's embassadors, who go
Abroad upon her errands to and fro;
They are the sole expounders of the mind,
And correspondence keep 'twist all mankind.
They are those airy keys that ope (and wrest
Sometimes) the locks and hinges of the breast.
By them the heart makes sallies: wit and sense
Belong to them: they are the quintescence
Of those ideas which the thoughts distil,
And so calcine and melt again, until
They drop forth into accents; in whom lies
The salt of fancy, and all faculties.
Attributed