Inspirational Quotes by Francis Quarles (English Religious Poet)

If you desire to be magnanimous, undertake nothing rashly, and fear nothing thou undertakest. — Fear nothing but infamy; dare anything but injury; the measure of magnanimity is to be neither rash nor timorous.
—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

If thou wouldst be justified, acknowledge thine injustice. — He that confesses his sin, begins his journey toward salvation. — He that is sorry for it, mends his pace. — He that forsakes it, is at his journey’s end.
—Francis Quarles

If thou neglectest thy love to thy neighbor, in vain thou professest thy love to God; for by thy love to God, the love to thy neighbor is begotten, and by the love to thy neighbor, thy love to God is nourished.
—Francis Quarles
Topics: Love

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 virtue accompanies beauty it is the heart’s paradise; if vice be associate with it, it is the soul’s purgatory. — It is the wise man’s bonfire, and the fool’s furnace.
—Francis Quarles
Topics: Beauty

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

The act is unjustifiable that either begs for a blessing, or, having succeeded gives no thanksgiving.
—Francis Quarles
Topics: Action

Give not thy tongue too great liberty, lest it take thee prisoner. A word unspoken is, like the sword in the scabbard, thine. If vented, thy sword is in another’s hand. If thou desire to be held wise, be so wise as to hold thy tongue.
—Francis Quarles
Topics: Silence

He repents on thorns that sleeps in beds of roses.
—Francis Quarles
Topics: Luxury

The average person’s ear weighs what you are, not what you were.
—Francis Quarles
Topics: Reputation

The breath of divine knowledge is the bellows of divine love, and the flame of divine love is the perfection of divine knowledge.
—Francis Quarles

That friendship will not continue to the end which is begun for an end.
—Francis Quarles
Topics: Friendship

Be always less willing to speak than to hear; what thou hearest, thou receivest; what thou speakest thou givest. — It is more glorious to give, but more profitable to receive.
—Francis Quarles

Wouldest thou not be thought a fool in another’s conceit, be not wise in thy own: he that trusts to his own wisdom, proclaims his own folly: he is truly wise, and shall appear so, that hath folly enough to be thought not worldly wise, or wisdom enough to see his own folly.
—Francis Quarles

Flatter not thyself in thy faith in God, if thou hast not charity for thy neighbor; I think not thou hast charity for thy neighbor, if thou wantest faith in God. — Where they are not both together, they are both wanting; they are both dead if once divided.
—Francis Quarles
Topics: Faith, Flattery

If thou desire to be truly valiant, fear to do any injury; he that fears to do evil is always afraid to suffer evil; he that never fears is desperate; he that fears always is a coward: he is the true valiant man that dares nothing but what he may, and fears nothing but what he ought.
—Francis Quarles

Of all vices take heed of drunkenness. Other vices are but the fruits of disordered affections; this disorders, nay banishes reason. — Other vices but impair the soul; this demolishes her two chief acuities, the understanding and the will. Other vices make their own way; this makes way for all vices. — He that is a drunkard is qualified for all vice.
—Francis Quarles
Topics: Drunkenness

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

Rather do what is nothing to the purpose than be idle, that the devil may find thee doing. — The bird that sits is easily shot when the fliers escape the fowler. — Idleness is the Dead Sea that swallows all the virtues, and is the self-made sepulcher of a living man.
—Francis Quarles
Topics: Idleness

Make thy recreation servant to thy business, lest thou become a slave to thy recreation.
—Francis Quarles

Be neither too early in the fashion, nor too long out of it, nor too precisely in it. — What custom hath civilized is become decent; till then, ridiculous. — Where the eye is the jury, thine apparel is the evidence.
—Francis Quarles

Put off thy cares with thy clothes; so shall thy rest strengthen thy labor; and and so shall thy labor sweeten thy rest.
—Francis Quarles
Topics: Sleep, Leisure

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

Prize not thyself by what thou hast, but by what thou art; he that values a jewel by its golden frame, or a book by its silver clasps, or a man by his vast estate, errs.
—Francis Quarles

Silence is the highest wisdom of a fool as speech is the greatest trial of a wise man. — If thou wouldst be known as wise, let thy words show thee so; if thou doubt thy words, let thy silence feign thee so. — It is not a greater point of wisdom to discover knowledge than to hide ignorance.
—Francis Quarles
Topics: Silence

The road to perseverance lies by doubt.
—Francis Quarles
Topics: Doubt

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

Thou canst not rebuke in children what they see practised in thee. — Till reason be ripe, examples direct more than precepts. — Such as is thy behavior before thy children’s faces, such is theirs behind thy back.
—Francis Quarles
Topics: Example

When the flesh presents thee with delights, then present thyself with dangers; where the world possesses thee with vain hopes, there possess thyself with true fear; when the devil brings thee oil, bring thou vinegar. The way to be safe is never to be secure.
—Francis Quarles
Topics: Temptation

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