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It is not growing like a tree
In bulk, doth make man better be;
Or standing long an oak, three hundred year,
To fall a log, dry, bald and sere:
A lily of a day,
Is fairer far, in May,
Although it fall, and die that night;
It was the plant and flower of light.
In small proportions we just beauties see,
And in short measures life may perfect be.

— Ben Jonson The Works of Ben Jonson, Second Folio (1640)

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Source and credibility

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Source: LXX, To the Immortal Memory of Sir Lucius Cary and Sir Henry Morison, lines 65-74
Work: The Works of Ben Jonson, Second Folio, 1640
Source quality: Precise citation Points to a specific work with a page, chapter, date or similar locator, so you can look it up.

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Attribution

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