Every man’s vanity ought to be his greatest shame, and every man’s folly ought to be his greatest secret.
—Francis Quarles
Topics: Vanity
Pride is the ape of charity, in show not much unlike, but somewhat fuller of action. They are two parallels, never but asunder; charity feeds the poor, so does pride; charity builds an hospital, so does pride. In this they differ: charity gives her glory to God; pride takes her glory from man.
—Francis Quarles
Topics: Pride
Wouldst thou multiply thy riches?—diminish them wisely.—Or wouldst thou make thine estate entire?—divide it charitably.—Seeds that are scattered increase, but hoarded up they perish.
—Francis Quarles
Topics: Riches
Before thou reprehend another, take heed thou art not culpable in what thou goest about to reprehend. He that cleanses a blot with blotted fingers makes a greater blur.
—Francis Quarles
Meditation is the life of the soul; action is the soul of meditation; honor is the reward of action; so meditate, that thou mayst do; so do, that thou mayst purchase honor; for which purchase, give God the glory.
—Francis Quarles
Topics: Meditation
If thou desire to raise thy fortunes by the casts of fortune, be wise betimes, lest thou repent too late.—What thou winnest, is prodigally spent.—What thou losest, is prodigally lost.—It is an evil trade that prodigality drives, and a bad voyage where the pilot is blind.
—Francis Quarles
Topics: Gambling
The place of charity, like that of God, is everywhere. Proportion thy charity to the strength of thine estate, lest God proportion thine estate to the weakness of thy charity.—Let the lips of the poor be the trumpet of thy gift, lest in seeking applause, thou lose thy reward.—Nothing is more pleasing to God than an open hand, and a closed mouth.
—Francis Quarles
Topics: Charity
Meditation is the life of the soul: Action, the soul of meditation. and honor the reward of action.
—Francis Quarles
Topics: Thoughts, Meditation, Thought, Thinking
The height of all philosophy is to know thyself; and the end of this knowledge is to know God. Know thyself, that thou mayest know God; and know God, that thou mayest love him and be like him. In the one thou art initiated into wisdom; and in the other perfected in it.
—Francis Quarles
Topics: Self-Knowledge
Mercy turns her back to the unmerciful.
—Francis Quarles
Topics: Mercy
If thy daughter marry well, thou hast found a son; if not, thou hast lost a daughter.
—Francis Quarles
Read not books alone, but men, and amongst them chiefly thyself.—If thou find anything questionable there, use the commentary of a severe friend, rather than the gloss of a sweet-lipped flatterer; there is more profit in a distasteful truth than in deceitful sweetness.
—Francis Quarles
Topics: Reading
Beware of drunkenness, lest all good men beware of thee.—Where drunkenness reigns, there reason is an exile, virtue a stranger, and God an enemy; blasphemy is wit, oaths are rhetoric, and secrets are proclamations.
—Francis Quarles
Topics: Drunkenness
Beware of him that is slow to anger; for when it is long coming, it is the stronger when it comes, and the longer kept. Abused patience turns to fury.
—Francis Quarles
Topics: Anger
Our God and soldiers we alike adore
Ev’n at the Brink of danger; not before:
After deliverance, both alike required;
Our Gods forgotten, and our soldiers slighted.
—Francis Quarles
Let not thy table exceed the fourth part of thy revenue: let thy provision be solid, and not far fetched, fuller of substance than art: be wisely frugal in thy preparation, and freely cheerful in thy entertainment: if thy guests be right, it is enough; if not, it is too much: too much is a vanity; enough is a feast.
—Francis Quarles
Topics: Appetite
Make thy recreation servant to thy business, lest thou become a slave to thy recreation.
—Francis Quarles
Be as far from desiring the popular love as fearful to deserve the popular hate; ruin dwells in both; the one will hug thee to death; the other will crush thee to destruction: to escape the first, be not ambitious; avoid the second, be not seditious.
—Francis Quarles
Topics: Popularity
Make philosophy thy journey, theology thy journey’s end: philosophy is a pleasant way, but dangerous to him that either tires or retires; in this journey it is safe neither to loiter nor to rest, till thou hast attained thy journey’s end; he that sits down a philosopher rises up an atheist.
—Francis Quarles
Topics: Philosophy
If thou be strong enough to encounter with the times, keep thy station; if not, shift a foot to gain advantage of the times. He that acts a beggar to prevent a thief is never the poorer; it is a great part of wisdom sometimes to seem a fool.
—Francis Quarles
Fear nothing but what thy industry may prevent; be confident of nothing but what fortune cannot defeat; it is no less folly to fear what is impossible to be avoided than to be secure when there is a possibility to be deprived.
—Francis Quarles
Topics: Fear, Worry
Pleasures bring effeminacy, and effeminacy foreruns ruin; such conquests, without blood or sweat, do sufficiently revenge themselves upon their intemperate conquerors.
—Francis Quarles
Topics: Excess
Death expecteth thee everywhere; be wise, therefore, and expect death everywhere.
—Francis Quarles
Topics: Death
Let the words of a virgin, though in a good cause, and to as good purpose, be neither violent, many, nor first, nor last.—It is less shame for her to be lost in a blushing silence, than to be found in a bold eloquence.
—Francis Quarles
Topics: Maidenhood
He that gives all, though but little gives much; because God looks not to the quantity of the gift, but to the quality of the givers.
—Francis Quarles
Topics: Generosity
Make use of time if thou lovest eternity; yesterday cannot be recalled; tomorrow cannot be assured; only today is thine, which if thou procrastinate, thou losest; and which lost is lost forever. One today is worth two tomorrows.
—Francis Quarles
Topics: Time
Wisdom without innocency is knavery; innocence without wisdom is foolery; be therefore as wise as serpents and innocent as doves. The subtilty of the serpent instructs the innocency of the dove; the innocency of the dove corrects the subtilty of the serpent. What God hath joined together let not man separate.
—Francis Quarles
Topics: Wisdom
The average person’s ear weighs what you are, not what you were.
—Francis Quarles
Topics: Reputation
If thou desire the love of God and man, be humble, for the proud heart, as it loves none but itself, is beloved of none but itself. Humility enforces where neither virtue, nor strength, nor reason can prevail.
—Francis Quarles
Topics: Humility
Scandal breeds hatred; hatred begets division; division makes faction, and faction brings ruin.
—Francis Quarles
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