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High state, the bed is where misfortune lies,
Mars most unfriendly, when most kind he seems,
Who climbeth high, on earth he hardest lights,
And lowest falls attend the highest flights.

— Edward Fairfax Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered (1600)

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Source: Book II, stanza 70
Work: Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered, 1600
Source quality: Source identified Names the work or year, but without an exact location.

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The fear of ill exceeds the evil we fear.

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Women have tongues of craft, and hearts of guile,
They will, they will not, fools that on them trust,
For in their speech is death, hell in their smile.

Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered (1600)

Nor love consents that beauty's field lie waste.

Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered (1600)

Hard is that heart which beauty makes not soft.

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Better sit still, men say, than rise to fall.

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Vile man, begot of clay, and born of dust.

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Power constrained is but a glorious slave.

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Oh vanity of man's unstable mind,
Puffed up with every blast of friendly wind!

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More quotes by Edward Fairfax

Patience, a praise; forbearance is a treasure;
Sufferance, an angel is; a monster, rage.

Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered (1600)

Remembrance is the life of grief; his grave,
Forgetfulness.

Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered (1600)

Nature gives beauty, fortune wealth, in vain.

Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered (1600)

Base affections fall, when virtue riseth.

Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered (1600)

The throne of Cupid had an easy stair;
His bark is fit to sail with every wind;
The breach he makes no wisdom can repair.

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Attribution

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