Lust is an immoderate wantonness of the flesh, a sweet poison, a cruel pestilence; a pernicious poison, which weakeneth the body of man, and effeminateth the strength of the heroic mind.
- Yet, sluggard, wake, and gull thy soul no more
- With earth's false pleasures, and the world's delight,
- Whose fruit is fair and pleasing to the sight,
- But sour in taste, false as the putrid core:
- Thy flaring glass is gems at her half light;
- She makes thee seeming rich, but truly poor:
- She boasts a kernel, and bestows a shell;
- Performs an inch of her fair-promis'd ell:
- Her words protest a heav'n; her works produce a hell.
- What ails the fool to laugh? Does something please
- His vain conceit? Or is 't a mere disease?
- Fool, giggle on, and waste thy wanton breath;
- Thy morning laughter breeds an ev'ning death.
- Nor fire, nor rocks, can stop our furious minds,
- Nor waves, nor winds.
- Will't ne'er be morning? Will that promis'd light
- Ne'er break, and clear those clouds of night?
- Sweet Phosphor, bring the day,
- Whose conqu'ring ray
- May chase these fogs.
- The busy mint
- Of our laborious thoughts is ever going,
- And coining new desires; desires not knowing
- Where next to pitch; but, like the boundless ocean,
- Gain, and gain ground, and grow more strong by motion.
Let grace conduct thee to the paths of peace.
- False world, thou ly'st: thou canst not lend
- The least delight:
- Thy favours cannot gain a friend,
- They are so slight.
- Let those have night, that slily love t' immure
- Their cloister'd crimes, and sin secure;
- Let those have night, that blush to let men know
- The baseness they ne'er blush to do;
- Let those have night, that love to have a nap,
- And loll in ignorance's lap;
- Let those, whose eyes, like owls, abhor the light,
- Let those have night.
- Take heed thou trust not the deceitful lap
- Of wanton Dalilah; the world's a trap.
- The worldly wisdom of the foolish man
- Is like a sieve, that does alone retain
- The grosser substance of the worthless bran:
- But thou, my soul, let thy brave thoughts disdain
- So coarse a purchase: O be thou a fan
- To purge the chaff, and keep the winnow'd grain:
- Make clean thy thoughts, and dress thy mixt desires:
- Thou art Heav'n's tasker, and thy God requires
- The purest of thy flow'r, as well as of thy fires.
The grave is sooner cloy'd than men's desire.
- What well-advised ear regards
- What earth can say?
- Thy words are gold, but thy rewards
- Are painted clay.
The suburbs of folly is vain mirth, and profuseness of laughter is the city of fools.
FRANCIS QUARLES, Enchiridion
Use law and physic only for necessity; they that use them otherwise abuse themselves unto weak bodies, and light purses; they are good remedies, bad businesses, and worse recreations.
FRANCIS QUARLES, Enchiridon
As there is no worldly gain without some loss, so there is no worldly loss without some gain; if thou hast lost thy wealth, thou hast lost some trouble with it; if thou art degraded from thy honor, thou art likewise freed from the stroke of envy; if sickness hath blurred thy beauty, it hath delivered thee from pride. Set the allowance against the loss, and thou shalt find no loss great; he loses little or nothing, that reserves himself.
FRANCIS QUARLES, attributed, Day's Collacon
The best way to see Divine light, is to put out thine own candle.
FRANCIS QUARLES, attributed, Day's Collacon
It is the part of a wise Magistrate to vindicate a man of Power or State-employment from the malicious scandals of the giddy-headed multitude, and to punish it with great severity: Scandal breeds hatred; hatred begets division; division makes faction, and faction brings ruin.
FRANCIS QUARLES, The Complete Works in Prose and Verse, of Francis Quarles, Volume 1
Be wisely worldly, but not worldly wise.
FRANCIS QUARLES, Emblems: Divine and Moral
Thou didst nothing toward thy own creation, for thou wert created for thy Creator's glory; thou must do something toward thy own redemption, for thou wert redeemed for thy own good; He that made thee without thee, will not save thee without thee.
FRANCIS QUARLES, attributed, Day's Collacon
If thou take pain in what is good, the pains vanish, the good remains; if thou take pleasure in what is evil, the evil remains, and the pleasure vanishes. What art thou the worse for pains, or the better for pleasure when both are past?
FRANCIS QUARLES, Enchiridion
Where piety and policy go hand in hand, there war shall be just, and peace honorable.
FRANCIS QUARLES, Enchiridion Institutions
He that sets not his heart on what he possesses, forsaketh all things, though he keep his possessions.
FRANCIS QUARLES, Enchiridion Institutions
Demean thyself more warily in thy study than in the street; if thy public actions have a hundred witnesses, thy private have a thousand. The multitude looks but upon thy actions; thy conscience looks into them.
FRANCIS QUARLES, Enchiridion Institutions
Necessity of action takes away the fear of the act, and makes bold resolution the favorite of fortune.
FRANCIS QUARLES, Enchiridion Institutions
Neutrality is dangerous, whereby thou becomest a necessary prey to the conqueror.
FRANCIS QUARLES, Enchiridion Institutions
Let not thy good intentions flatter thee to an evil action; what is essentially evil, no circumstance can make good.
FRANCIS QUARLES, Enchiridion Institutions
God hath given to mankind a common library, His creatures; to every man a proper book, himself being an abridgment of all others. If thou read with understanding, it will make thee a great master of philosophy, and a true servant of the divine Author: if thou but barely read, it will make thee thine own wise man and the Author's fool.
FRANCIS QUARLES, Enchiridion
