01c. 1618 ADUse law and physic only for necessity. They that use them otherwise abuse themselves into weak bodies and light purses. They are good remedies, bad businesses, and worse recreations.Francis Quarles / quote ↗
02c. 1618 ADIf thou desire not to be poor, desire not to be too rich. He is rich, not that possesses much, but he that covets no more; and he is poor, not that enjoys little, but he that wants too much. The contented mind wants nothing which it hath not; the covetous mind wants, not only what it hath not, but likewise what it hath.Francis Quarles / quote ↗
03c. 1618 ADThe way to subject all things to thyself is to subject thyself to reason; thou shalt govern many if reason govern thee. Wouldst thou be a monarch of a little world, command thyself.Francis Quarles / quote ↗
04c. 1618 ADHath any wronged thee, be bravely revenged. Slight it, and the work’s begun; forgive it, and ’tis finished. He is below himself that is not above an injury.Francis Quarles / quote ↗
05c. 1618 ADSeest thou good days? Prepare for evil times. No summer but hath its winter. He never reaped comfort in adversity that sowed not in prosperity.Francis Quarles / quote ↗
06c. 1618 ADIn thy apparel avoid singularity, profuseness, and gaudiness. Be not too early in the fashion, nor too late. Decency is half way between affectation and neglect. The body is the shell of the soul, apparel is the husk of that shell; the husk often tells you what the kernel is.Francis Quarles / quote ↗
07c. 1618 ADIf thou be rich, strive to command thy money, lest it command thee.Francis Quarles / quote ↗
11c. 1618 ADThe heart is a small thing, but desireth great matters. It is not sufficient for a kite's (bird of the hawk kind) dinner, yet the whole world is not sufficient for it.Francis Quarles / quote ↗
12c. 1618 AD'Tis not, to cry God mercy, or to sit And droop, or to confess that thou hast fail'd: 'Tis to bewail the sins thou didst commit; And not commit those sins thou hast bewail'd, He that bewails and not forsakes them too; Confesses rather what he means to do.Francis Quarles / quote ↗
13c. 1618 ADOur God and soldier we alike adore, When at the brink of ruin, not before; After deliverance both alike requited, Our God forgotten, and our soldiers slighted.Francis Quarles / quote ↗
14c. 1618 ADAfflictions clarify the soul, And, like hard masters, give more hard directions, Tutoring the non-age of uncurbed affections.Francis Quarles / quote ↗
15c. 1618 ADTo bear affliction with a bended brow, Or stubborn heart, is but to disallow The speedy means to health.Francis Quarles / quote ↗
16c. 1618 ADGet up, my soul; redeem thy sluggish eyes From drowsy bondage: O beware; be wise: Thy foe’s before thee; thou must fight or fly: Life lies most open in a closed eye.Francis Quarles / quote ↗
17c. 1618 ADThere is a kind of conscience some men keep, Is like a member that’s benumbed with sleep; Which, as it gathers blood, and wakes again, It shoots, and pricks, and feels as big as ten.Francis Quarles / quote ↗
18c. 1618 ADThe swelling of an outward fortune can Create a prosperous, not a happy, man; A peaceful conscience is the true content, And wealth is but her golden ornament.Francis Quarles / quote ↗
19c. 1618 ADWhere sad contrition harbours, there the heart Is truly acquainted with the secret smart Of past offences, hates the bosom sin The most, which most the soul took pleasure in; No crime unsifted, no sin unpresented Can lurk unseen, and seen, none unlamented; The troubled soul’s amazed with dire aspects Of lesser sins committed, and detects The wounded conscience; it cries amain For mercy—mercy; cries, and cries again. It sadly grieves, and soberly laments, It yearns for grace, reforms, returns, repents. Aye, this is incense whose accepted savour Mounts up the heavenly throne, and findeth favour: Aye, this it is whose valour never fails— With God it stoutly wrestles and prevails: Aye, this it is that pierces heaven above, Never returning home, (like Noah’s dove,) But brings an olive leaf, or some increase, That works salvation and eternal peace.Francis Quarles / quote ↗
20c. 1618 ADThe way to bliss lies not on bed of down, And he that had no cross deserves no crown.Francis Quarles / quote ↗
21c. 1618 ADMy trust is in the Cross, there lies my rest, My fast, my sole delight. Let cold-mouthed Boreas, or the hot-mouthed East, Blow till they burst with spite; Let earth and hell conspire their worst, their best, And join their twisted might; Let showers of thunderbolts dart round and round me, And troops of fiends surround me: All this may well confront; all this shall ne’er confound me.Francis Quarles / quote ↗
22c. 1618 ADUnconstant Earth! why do not mortals cease To build their hopes upon so short a lease? Uncertain lease, whose term but once begun, Tells never when it ends till it be done: We dote upon thy smiles, not knowing why, And whiles we but prepare to live, we die: We spring like flowers for a day’s delight, At noon we flourish, and we fade at night: We toil for kingdoms, conquer crowns, and then We that were Gods, but now, now less than men. If wisdom, learning, knowledge, cannot dwell Secure from change, vain bubble earth, farewell.Francis Quarles / quote ↗
23c. 1618 ADI care not, so my kernel relish well, How slender be the substance of my shell; My heart being virtuous, let my face be wan, I am to God, I only seem to man.Francis Quarles / quote ↗
24c. 1618 ADSo now the soul’s sublimed, her sour desires Are re-calcined in Heaven’s well-tempered fires; The heart restored, and purged from drossy nature, Now finds the freedom of a new-born creature; It lives another life, it breathes new breath, It neither fears nor feels the sting of death.Francis Quarles / quote ↗
