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

Categorized in : Temptation Devil Oil

The average person's ear weighs what you are, not what you were.

Francis Quarles

reputation ears average

Pleasures bring effeminacy, and effeminacy foreruns ruin; such conquests, without blood or sweat, sufficiently do revenge themselves upon their intemperate conquerors.

Francis Quarles

sweat revenge blood

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

anger power long

The heart is a small thing, but desireth great matters. It is not sufficient for a kite's dinner, yet the whole world is not sufficient for it.

Francis Quarles

literature heart love

My soul, sit thou a patient looker-on; Judge not the play before the play is done: Her plot hath many changes; every day Speaks a new scene; the last act crowns the play

Francis Quarles

soul judging play

The height of all philosophy is to know thyself; and the end of this knowledge is to know God.

Francis Quarles

know-thyself height philosophy

If thou desire to be held wise, be so wise as to hold thy tongue.

Francis Quarles

silence wise desire

Physicians, of all men, are most happy; whatever good success soever they have, the world proclaimeth; and what faults they commit, the earth covereth.

Francis Quarles

success happiness science

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

god heart love

Scandal breeds hatred; hatred begets division; division makes faction, and faction brings ruin.

Francis Quarles

scandal division hatred

God is alpha and omega in the great world: endeavor to make him so in the little world; make him thy evening epilogue and thy morning prologue; practice to make him thy last thought at night when thou sleepest, and thy first thought in the morning when thou awakest; so shall thy fancy be sanctified in the night, and thy understanding rectified in the day; so shall thy rest be peaceful, thy labors prosperous, thy life pious, and thy death glorious.

Francis Quarles

god morning night

The road to perseverance lies by doubt.

Francis Quarles

perseverance doubt lying

I wish thee as much pleasure in the reading, as I had in the writing.

Francis Quarles

reading wish writing

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

generosity quality giving

Flatter not thyself in thy faith in God if thou hast not charity for thy neighbor.

Francis Quarles

charity faith-in-god love

If thou wouldst preserve a sound body, use fasting and walking; if a healthful soul, fasting and praying. Walking exercises the body; praying exercises the soul; fasting cleanses both.

Francis Quarles

fasting soul exercise

That friendship will not continue to the end which is begun for an end.

Francis Quarles

genuine-friends literature friendship

The place of charity, like that of God, is everywhere.

Francis Quarles

charity

Mark, how the ready hands of Death prepare: His bow is bent, and he hath notch'd his dart; He aims, he levels at thy slumb'ring heart: The wound is posting, O be wise, beware.

Francis Quarles

wise heart death

Humility enforces where neither virtue nor strength can prevail, nor reason.

Francis Quarles

virtue humility reason