John Webster Quotes

Whether we fall by ambition, blood, or lust, like diamonds we are cut with our own dust.

Lay this unto your breast: Old friends, like old swords, still are trusted best.

Eagles commonly fly alone. They are crows, daws, and starlings that flock together.

When we prohibit others from being different, we end up forfeiting our own right to Liberty.

The chiefest action for a man of great spirit is never to be out of action... the soul was never put into the body to stand still.

Woman to man Is either a God or a wolfe.

Do you not weep? Other sins only speak; murder shrieks out. The element of water moistens the earth, But blood flies upwards and bedews the heavens.

Cowardly dogs bark loudest.

See, a good habit makes a child a man, Whereas a bad one makes a man a beast.

Sorrow is held the eldest child of sin.

Glories, like glow-worms, afar off shine bright, But looked to near, have neither heat nor light.

That friend a great man's ruin strongly checks, who rails into his belief all his defects.

I myself have loved a lady and pursued her with a great deal of under-age protestation, whom some three or four gallants that have enjoyed would with all their hearts have been glad to have been rid of. 'Tis just like a summer birdcage in a garden: the birds that are without despair to get in, and the birds that are within despair and are in a consumption for fear they shall never get out.

See, the curse of children! In life they keep us frequently in tears, And in the cold grave leave us in pale fears.

Heaven fashioned us of nothing; and we strive to bring ourselves to nothing.

Gold that buys health can never be ill spent, Nor hours laid out in harmless merriment.

In all our quest of greatness, like wanton boys, whose pastime is their care, we follow after bubbles, blown in the air.

The soul was never put in the body to stand still.

Is not old wine wholesomest, old pippins toothsomest, old wood burn brightest, old linen wash whitest? Old soldiers, sweethearts, are surest, and old lovers are soundest.

Ambition, madam, is a great man's madness.

Though lust do masque in ne'er so strange disguise she's oft found witty, but is never wise.

When a man's mind rides faster than his horse can gallop they quickly both tire.

Let guilty men remember, their black deeds Do lean on crutches made of slender reeds.

DUCHESS: Diamonds are of most value, They say, that have past through most jewellers' hands. FERDINAND: Whores, by that rule, are precious.

I have long served virtue, And never ta'en wages of her.

I account this world a tedious theater, For I do play a part in 't 'gainst my will.

How tedious is a guilty conscience!

Oh, yes, thy sins Do run before thee to fetch fire from hell, To light thee thither.

Man may his fate foresee, but not prevent. 'Tis better to be fortunate than wise.

Poor maids have more lovers than husbands.

Physicians are like kings- They brook no contradiction.

Lust carries her sharp whip At her own girdle.

That realm is never long in quiet, where the ruler is a soldier.

Were there no heaven nor hell I should be honest.

I do love these ancient ruins. We never tread upon them but we set Our foot upon some reverend history.

How many ills spring from adultery? First the supreme law that is violated, Nobility oft stain'd with bastardy, Inheritance of land falsely possessed, The husband scorn'd, wife sham'd, and babes unbless'd.

The misery of us, that are born great, We are forced to woo because none dare woo us.

I am Duchess of Malfi still.

All the damnable degrees Of drinking have you staggered through.

A powerful portfolio of physiological and behavioural evidence now exists to support the case that fish feel pain and that this feeling matters. In the face of such evidence, any argument to the contrary based on the claim that fish 'do not have the right sort of brain' can no longer be called scientific. It is just obstinate.

Are you grown an atheist? Will you turn your body, Which is the goodly palace of the soul, To the soul's slaughter-house? Oh, the curse' d devil, Which doth present us with all other sins Thrice-candied o'er.

Imyself haveheard averygood jest, and havescornedto seem to have so sillya wit as to understand it.

A politician is the devil's quilted anvil; He fashions all sins on him, and the blows are never heard.

Man is most happy, when his own actions are arguments and examples of his virtue.

Love mixed with fear is sweetness.

All things do help the unhappy man to fall.

For the subtlest folly proceeds from the subtlest wisdom.

Knowledge Is Power! Train smart and obtain power!

Vain the ambition of kings Who seek by trophies and dead things To leave a living name behind, And weave but nets to catch the wind.