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Let wealth come in by comely thrift
And not by any sordid shift;
'Tis haste
Makes waste:
Extremes have still their fault:
The softest fire makes the sweetest malt:
Who grips too hard the dry and slippery sand
Holds none at all, or little in his hand.

— Robert Herrick Hesperides (1648)

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More quotes by Robert Herrick

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying.

Hesperides (1648)

Attempt the end, and never stand to doubt;
Nothing's so hard but search will find it out.

Hesperides (1648)

Thou art a plant sprung up to wither never,
But like a laurel to grow green for ever.

Hesperides (1648)

Against diseases here the strongest fence
Is the defensive virtue, abstinence.

Hesperides (1648)

If well thou hast begun, go on fore-right;
It is the end that crowns us, not the fight.

Hesperides (1648)

All Robert Herrick quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Robert Herrick (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.