George Herbert > Quotes

“The best mirror is an old friend.”
― George Herbert

“Living well is the best revenge.”
― George Herbert

“Woe be to him that reads but one book.”
― George Herbert

“Storms make oaks take deeper root.”
― George Herbert

“Life is half spent before we know what it is.”
― George Herbert

“He who cannot forgive breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass.”
― George Herbert

“The shortest answer is doing.”
― George Herbert

“Death used to be an executioner, but the gospel has made him just a gardner.”
― George Herbert

“He begins to die, that quits his desires.”
― George Herbert

“A gentle heart is tied with an easy thread.”
― George Herbert

“Every mile is two in winter”
― George Herbert

“Love and a cough cannot be hid.”
― George Herbert

“Be calm in arguing: for fierceness makes
Error a fault, and truth discourtesy.”
― George Herbert, The Temple: The Poetry of George Herbert

“Every path hath a puddle.”
― George Herbert

“Good words are worth much, and cost little.”
― George Herbert

“Who says that fictions only and false hair
Become a verse? Is there in truth no beauty?
Is all good structure in a winding stair?”
― George Herbert, The Temple: The Poetry of George Herbert

“Wouldst thou both eat thy cake and have it?”
― George Herbert, Herbert: The Complete English Works

“Love bade me welcome;
yet my soul drew back,
Guiltie of dust and sin.”
― George Herbert

“Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright,
The bridal of the earth and sky;
The dew shall weep thy fall tonight,

For thou must die.”
― George Herbert, The Temple: The Poetry of George Herbert

“Love is that liquor sweet and most divine,
Which my God feels as blood; but I, as wine.”
― George Herbert

“Man is no star, but a quick coal

Of mortal fire:
Who blows it not, nor doth control

A faint desire,”
― George Herbert, The Temple: The Poetry of George Herbert

“None knows the weight of another’s burthen.”
― George Herbert

“The God of love my shepherd is,            And he that doth me feed: While he is mine, and I am his,            What can I want or need?”
― George Herbert, The Temple: Sacred Poems and Meditations on the Divine Life

“But I am lost in flesh, whose sugared lies,
Still mock me and grow bold:
Sure thou didst put a mind there, if I could
Find where it lies.”
― George Herbert, Herbert: The Complete English Works

“Throw away thy rod, throw away thy wrath; O my God, take the gentle path.”
― George Herbert

“The market is the best garden.”
― George Herbert

“Love is swift of foot;/Love's a man of war.”
― George Herbert

“That flesh is but the glass, which holds the dust
That measures all our time; which also shall
Be crumbled into dust.”
― George Herbert, George Herbert: The Complete English Poems

“I will complain, yet praise;
I will bewail, approve:
And all my sowre-sweet dayes
I will lament, and love.”
― George Herbert, The Temple: The Poetry of George Herbert

“Having been tenant long to a rich Lord,
Not thriving, I resolved to be bold,
And make a suit unto him, to afford
A new small-rented lease, and cancell th’ old.

In heaven at his manour I him sought:
They told me there, that he was lately gone
About some land, which he had dearly bought
Long since on earth, to take possession.

I straight return’d, and knowing his great birth,
Sought him accordingly in great resorts;
In cities, theatres, gardens, parks, and courts:
At length I heard a ragged noise and mirth

Of theeves and murderers: there I him espied,
Who straight, Your suit is granted, said, and died. ”
― George Herbert