Francis Quarles was an English poet most famous for his Emblem book aptly entitled Emblems.
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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
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
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
That friendship will not continue to the end which is begun for an end.
—Francis Quarles
Topics: Friendship
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