Laws ought to be fashioned unto the manners and conditions of the people whom they are meant to benefit, and not imposed upon them according to the simple rule of right.
EDMUND SPENSERLike as the culver on the bared bough Sits mourning for the absence of her mate.
More Edmund Spenser Quotes
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The man whom nature’s self had made to mock herself, and truth to imitate.
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The noblest mind the best contentment has.
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But Justice, though her dome she doe prolong, Yet at the last she will her owne cause right.
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I was promised on a time To have reason for my rhyme; From that time unto this season, I received nor rhyme nor reason.
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Joy may you have and gentle hearts content Of your loves couplement: And let faire Venus, that is Queene of love, With her heart-quelling Sonne upon you smile
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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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My Love is like to ice, and I to fire: How comes it then that this her cold so great Is not dissolved through my so hot desire, But harder grows the more I her entreat?
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Who would ever care to do brave deed, Or strive in virtue others to excel, If none should yield him his deserved meed Due praise, that is the spur of doing well? For if good were not praised more than ill, None would choose goodness of his own free will.
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The fish once caught, new bait will hardly bite.
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Fondnesse it were for any being free, To covet fetters, though they golden bee.
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For we by conquest, of our soveraine might,And by eternall doome of Fate’s decree,Have wonne the Empire of the Heavens bright.
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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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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.
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Greatest god below the sky.
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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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Ah! when will this long weary day have end, And lende me leave to come unto my love? – Epithalamion
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All flesh doth frailty breed!
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Discord oft in music makes the sweeter lay.
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Who will not mercy unto others show, How can he mercy ever hope to have?
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All for love, and nothing for reward.
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Unhappie Verse, the witnesse of my unhappie state, Make thy selfe fluttring wings of thy fast flying Thought.
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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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A circle cannot fill a triangle, so neither can the whole world, if it were to be compassed, the heart of man; a man may as easily fill a chest with grace as the heart with gold. The air fills not the body, neither doth money the covetous mind of man.
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For that which all men then did virtue call, Is now called vice; and that which vice was hight, Is now hight virtue, and so used of all: Right now is wrong, and wrong that was is right.
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The gentle minde by gentle deeds is knowne.
EDMUND SPENSER