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Small griefs find tongues: full casks are ever found
To give (if any, yet) but little sound.
Deep waters noiseless are; and this we know,
That chiding streams betray small depth below.

— Robert Herrick Hesperides (1648)

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Notes from Wikiquote

Compare: "Vessels never give so great a sound as when they are empty", John Jewell, Defense of the Apology for the Church of England

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.