And he that strives to touch the stars Oft stumbles at a straw.
EDMUND SPENSERMan’s wretched state, That floures so fresh at morne, and fades at evening late.
More Edmund Spenser Quotes
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Beauty is not, as fond men misdeem, an outward show of things that only seem.
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But times do change and move continually.
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Full little knowest thou that hast not tried, What hell it is in suing long to bide: To loose good dayes, that might be better spent; To waste long nights in pensive discontent; To speed to-day, to be put back to-morrow; To feed on hope, to pine with feare and sorrow.
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Fretting grief the enemy of life.
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But angels come to lead frail minds to rest in chaste desires, on heavenly beauty bound. You frame my thoughts, and fashion me within; you stop my tongue, and teach my heart to speak.
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Sluggish idleness–the nurse of sin.
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Through knowledge we behold the world’s creation, How in his cradle first he fostered was; And judge of Nature’s cunning operation, How things she formed of a formless mass.
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Ill can he rule the great that cannot reach the small.
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For there is nothing lost, that may be found, if sought.
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The fish once caught, new bait will hardly bite.
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The Patron of true Holinesse, Foule Errour doth defeate: Hypocrisie him to entrappe, Doth to his home entreate.
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Her angel’s face, As the great eye of heaven shined bright, And made a sunshine in the shady place.
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All that in this world is great or gay, Doth, as a vapor, vanish and decay.
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And painful pleasure turns to pleasing pain.
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For easy things, that may be got at will, Most sorts of men do set but little store.
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A sweet attractive kind of grace, A full assurance given by looks, Continual comfort in a face, The lineaments of Gospel books– I trow that countenance cannot lye Whose thoughts are legible in the eye.
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What more felicity can fall to creature, than to enjoy delight with liberty?
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Such is the power of love in gentle mind, That it can alter all the course of kind.
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Woe to the man that first did teach the cursed steel to bite in his own flesh, and make way to the living spirit!
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For deeds to die, however nobly done, And thoughts of men to as themselves decay, But wise words taught in numbers for to run, Recorded by the Muses, live for ay.
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For since mine eyes your joyous sight did miss, my cheerful day is turned to cheerless night.
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All flesh doth frailty breed!
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From good to bad, and from bad to worse, From worse unto that is worst of all, And then return to his former fall.
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Gather the rose of love whilst yet is time.
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Waking love suffereth no sleepe: Say, that raging love dothe appall the weake stomacke: Say, that lamenting love marreth the musicall.
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Those that were up themselves, kept others low; Those that were low themselves, held others hard; He suffered them to ryse or greater grow; But every one did strive his fellow down to throw.
EDMUND SPENSER