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My faultless breast the furnace is, the fuel wounding thorns;
Love is the fire and sighs the smoke, the ashes shame and scorns;
The fuel Justice layeth on, and Mercy blows the coals;
The metal in this furnace wrought are men's defiled souls.

— Robert Southwell

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More quotes by Robert Southwell

Times go by turns and chances change by course,
From foul to fair, from better hap to worse.

I feel no care of coin,
Well-doing is my wealth;
My mind to me an empire is,
While grace affordeth health.

Grant me grace, O God! that I
My life may mend, sith I must die.

To rise by others' fall
I deem a losing gain;
All states with others' ruins built
To ruin run amain.

No joy so great but runneth to an end,
No hap so hard but may in fine amend.

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Attribution

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