George Chapman Quotes

I will neither yield to the song of the siren nor the voice of the hyena, the tears of the crocodile nor the howling of the wolf.

Let no man value at a little price A virtuous woman's counsel; her winged spirit Is feathered often times with heavenly words, And, like her beauty, ravishing and pure.

Extremes, though contrary, have the like effects. Extreme heat kills, and so extreme cold: extreme love breeds satiety, and so extreme hatred; and too violent rigor tempts chastity, as does too much license.

Flatterers look like friends, as wolves like dogs.

Keep thy shop, and thy shop will keep thee. Light gains make heavy purses. 'Tis good to be merry and wise.

Be free all worthy spirits, and stretch yourselves, for greatness and for height.

Fair words never hurt the tongue.

An Englishman, being flattered, is a lamb; threatened, a lion.

The best way to accomplish something is to just do it, and then find the courage afterward.

Love is Natures second sun.

Young men think old men are fools, but old men know young men are fools.

Fortune, the great commandress of the world, Hath divers ways to advance her followers: To some she gives honor without deserving; To other some, deserving without honor; Some wit, some wealth,--and some, wit without wealth; Some wealth without wit; some nor wit nor wealth.

Promise is most given when the least is said.

Let no man under value the price of a virtuous woman's counsel.

He that shuns trifles must shun the world.

And for the authentical truth of either person or actions, who (worth the respecting) will expect it in a poem, whose subject is not truth, but things like truth? Poor envious souls they are that cavil at truth's want in these natural fictions; material instruction, elegant and sententious excitation to virtue, and deflection from her contrary, being the soul, limbs, and limits of an authentical tragedy.

And let a scholar all earth's volumes carry, he will be but a walking dictionary: a mere articulate clock.

For one heat, all know, doth drive out another, One passion doth expel another still.

I pray, what flowers are these? The pansy this, O, that's for lover's thoughts.

The incompetent quickly throws himself into another impressive enterprise in order to escape his responsibility from previous disaster.

Give me a spirit that on this life's rough sea Loves t'have his sails filled with a lusty wind, Even till his sail-yards tremble, his masts crack, And his ship run on her side so low That she drinks water, and her keel plows air.

Fate's such a shrewish thing.

News as wholesome as the morning air.

Each natural agent works but to this end,- To render that it works on like itself.

Let pride go afore, shame will follow after.

Danger, the spur of all great minds.

An ill weed grows apace.

Ignorance is the mother of admiration.

Who to himself is law no law doth need; offends none and is king indeed.

As night the life-inclining stars best shows, So lives obscure the starriest souls disclose.

They're only truly great who are truly good.

Tis immortality to die aspiring.

Virtue is not malicious; wrong done her Is righted even when men grant they err.

Perfect happiness, by princes sought, Is not with birth born, nor exchequers bought.

We inherit nothing truly, but what our actions make us worthy of.

Black is a pearl in a woman's eye.

So our lives In acts exemplary, not only win Ourselves good names, but doth to others give Matter for virtuous deeds, by which we live.

Enough 's as good as a feast.

Words writ in waters.

Man is a torch borne in the wind; a dream But of a shadow, summed with all his substance.

Archers ever Have two strings to bow; and shall great Cupid (Archer of archers both in men and women), Be worse provided than a common archer?

Blood, though it sleep a time, yet never dies. The gods on murtherers fix revengeful eyes.

Make ducks and drakes with shillings.

Tis immortality to die aspiring, As if a man were taken quick to heaven.

He is at no end of his actions blestWhose ends will make him greatest, and not best.

There is a nick in Fortune's restless wheel For each man's good.

Who hath no faith to man, to God hath none.

Poetry, unlike oratory, should not aim at clarity... but be dense with meaning, 'something to be chewed and digested'.

Pure innovation is more gross than error.