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William Shakespeare310 quotes
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man. — William Shakespeare · 1616To be or not to be—that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And, by opposing, end them. To die, to sleep—
No more—and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to—’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep—
To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there’s the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. — William Shakespeare · 1616Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date. — William Shakespeare · 1609My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep. The more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite. — William Shakespeare · 1597Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,
Men were deceivers ever,
One foot in sea and one on shore,
To one thing constant never. — William Shakespeare · 1600What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable; in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god: the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals-And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? — William Shakespeare · 1616All 310 quotes →John Milton46 quotes
Long is the way
And hard, that out of Hell leads up to Light. — John Milton · 1667O fairest of Creation, last and best
Of all God's works. — John Milton · 1667Her rash hand in evil hour
Forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she ate:
Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat
Sighing through all her works gave signs of woe
That all was lost. — John Milton · 1667Of Man's First Disobedience, and the fruit
Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste
Brought Death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat,
Sing, Heav'nly Muse. — John Milton · 1667What in me is dark
Illumine, what is low raise and support;
That to the height of this great Argument
I may assert Eternal Providence,
And justify the ways of God to men. — John Milton · 1667Who overcomes
By force hath overcome but half his foe. — John Milton · 1667All 46 quotes →Francis Bacon33 quotes
All rising to great place is by a winding stair. — Francis Bacon · 1625Chiefly, the mould of a man's fortune is in his own hands. — Francis Bacon · 1625Ancient times were the youth of the world. — Francis Bacon · 1605The joys of parents are secret, and so are their griefs and fears. — Francis Bacon · 1625Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other. — Francis Bacon · 1625God Almighty first planted a garden; and, indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures. — Francis Bacon · 1625All 33 quotes →Michel de Montaigne32 quotes
I find that the best goodness I have has some tincture of vice. — Michel de Montaigne · 1580Truly man is a marvelously vain, diverse, and undulating object. It is hard to found any constant and uniform judgement on him. — Michel de Montaigne · 1580It happens as with the cages: the birds without despair to get in, and those within despair of getting out. — Michel de Montaigne · 1580For truth itself does not have the privilege to be employed at any time and in every way; its use, noble as it is, has its circumscriptions and limits. — Michel de Montaigne · 1580Let us give Nature a chance; she knows her business better than we do. — Michel de Montaigne · 1580The easy, gentle and sloping path…is not the path of true virtue. It demands a rough and thorny road. — Michel de Montaigne · 1580All 32 quotes →Niccolo Machiavelli15 quotes
God is not willing to do everything, and thus take away our free will and that share of glory which belongs to us. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1532Whoever desires to found a state and give it laws, must start with assuming that all men are bad and ever ready to display their vicious nature, whenever they may find occasions for it. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1531A prince being thus obliged to know well how to act as a beast must imitate the fox and the lion, for the lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten wolves. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1532The chief foundations of all states, new as well as old or composite, are good laws and good arms; and as there cannot be good laws where the state is not well armed, it follows that where they are well armed they have good laws. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1532Among other evils which being unarmed brings you, it causes you to be despised. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1532It is much safer to be feared than loved. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1527All 15 quotes →Ben Jonson8 quotes
Twas only fear first in the world made gods. — Ben Jonson · 1603He was not of an age but for all time! — Ben Jonson · 1623True happinesse
Consists not in the multitude of friends,
But in the worth, and choice. — Ben Jonson · 1600Suns, that set, may rise again:
But if, once, we lose this light,
'Tis with us perpetual night. — Ben Jonson · 1606I glory
More in the cunning purchase of my wealth,
Than in the glad possession. — Ben Jonson · 1606There shall be no love lost. — Ben Jonson · 1599All 8 quotes →Leonardo da Vinci8 quotes
Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but rather memory. — Leonardo da Vinci · 1519Iron rusts from disuse; stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind. — Leonardo da Vinci · 1519Human subtlety... Will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does Nature, because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous. — Leonardo da Vinci · 1519Man and animal are merely a passage and channel for food, a tomb for other animals, a haven for the dead, giving life by the death of others, a coffer full of corruption. — Leonardo da Vinci · 1508Perspective is the bridle and rudder of painting. — Leonardo da Vinci · 1519Men of genius sometimes accomplish most when they work the least. — Leonardo da Vinci · 1568All 8 quotes →Michelangelo5 quotes
I've finished that chapel I was painting. The Pope is quite satisfied. — Michelangelo · 1512The more the marble wastes, the more the statue grows. — Michelangelo · 1525The marble not yet carved can hold the form
Of every thought the greatest artist has. — Michelangelo · 1564If it be true that any beautiful thing raises the pure and just desire of man from earth to God, the eternal fount of all, such I believe my love. — Michelangelo · 1525Painting and sculpture, hard work and fair dealing have been my ruin and things go continually from bad to worse. It would have been better had I been put to making matches in my youth than to be in such a fret! — Michelangelo · 1542Francois Rabelais3 quotes
Speak the truth and shame the Devil. — Francois Rabelais · 1564To laugh is proper to man. — Francois Rabelais · 1534Appetite comes with eating. — Francois Rabelais · 1534John Donne3 quotes
Love built on beauty, soon as beauty, dies. — John Donne · 1631It comes equally to us all, and makes us all equal. — John Donne · 1621No spring, nor summer beauty hath such grace
As I have seen in one autumnal face. — John Donne · 1631Petrarch3 quotes
We are continually dying; I while I am writing these words, you while you are reading them, others when they hear them or fail to hear them. I shall be dying when you read this, you die while I write, we both are dying, we all are dying, we are dying forever. — Petrarch · 1360Today I climbed the highest mountain in this region, which is not improperly called Ventosus (Windy). The only motive for my ascent was the wish to see what so great a height had to offer. — Petrarch · 1336O you who hear within these scattered verses
The sound of sighs with which I fed my heart
In my first errant youthful days when I
In part was not the man I am today. — Petrarch · 1352Thomas Hobbes3 quotes
Force, and fraud, are in war the two cardinal virtues. — Thomas Hobbes · 1651The papacy is no other than the ghost of the deceased Roman Empire, sitting crowned upon the grave thereof. — Thomas Hobbes · 1651The praise of ancient authors proceeds not from the reverence of the dead, but from the competition, and mutual envy of the living. — Thomas Hobbes · 1651Thomas More3 quotes
They wonder much to hear that gold, which in itself is so useless a thing, should be everywhere so much esteemed, that even men for whom it was made, and by whom it has its value, should yet be thought of less value than it is. — Thomas More · 1516They have no lawyers among them, for they consider them as a sort of people whose profession it is to disguise matters. — Thomas More · 1516Anyone who campaigns for public office becomes disqualified for holding any office at all. — Thomas More · 1516Edmund Spenser2 quotes
And he that strives to touch the stars,
Oft stumbles at a straw. — Edmund Spenser · 1579The gentle mind by gentle deeds is known. For a man by nothing is so well exposed, as by his manners. — Edmund Spenser · 1596Philip Sidney2 quotes
Shallow brooks murmur most, deep silent slide away. — Philip Sidney · 1593Who shoots at the mid-day sun, though he be sure he shall never hit the mark; yet as sure he is he shall shoot higher than who aims but at a bush. — Philip Sidney · 1593Barnabe Googe1 quote
Fair face show friends
When riches do abound:
Come time of proof,
Farewell, they must away. — Barnabe Googe · 1563Edmund Bolton1 quote
The withered primrose by the mourning river,
The faded summer’s sun from weeping fountains,
The light-blown bubble vanished for ever,
The molten snow upon the naked mountains,
Are emblems that the treasures we up-lay
Soon wither, vanish, fade, and melt away. — Edmund Bolton · 1600Edward Coke1 quote
The house of everyone is to him as his castle and fortress, as well for his defence against injury and violence, as for his repose — Edward Coke · 1603Elizabeth I1 quote
I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king. — Elizabeth I · 1588Erasmus1 quote
In the country of the blind the one-eyed man is king. — Erasmus · 1536George Chapman1 quote
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 rapt ship run on her side so low
That she drinks water, and her keel plows air. — George Chapman · 1608Giordano Bruno1 quote
He is glorified not in one, but in countless suns, not in a single earth, a single world, but in a thousand thousand, I say in an infinity of worlds. — Giordano Bruno · 1584Giorgio Vasari1 quote
The contours of its legs are extremely beautiful, along with the splendid articulations and grace of its flanks, a sweeter and more graceful pose has never been seen that could equal it, nor have feet, hands, and a head ever been produced which so well match all the other parts of the body in skill of workmanship or design. To be sure, anyone who sees the statue need not be concerned with seeing any other piece of sculpture done in our times or in any other period by any other artist. — Giorgio Vasari · 1550Henri Estienne1 quote
If youth knew; if age could. — Henri Estienne · 1594Henry Peacham1 quote
To desire to have many books, and never to use them, is like a childe that will have a candle burning by him all the while he is sleeping. — Henry Peacham · 1622Henry Wotton1 quote
An ambassador is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country. — Henry Wotton · 1604James I1 quote
I will govern according to the common weal, but not according to the common will. — James I · 1621James VI and I1 quote
A custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black, stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless. — James VI and I · 1604Joachim du Bellay1 quote
Happy is he who, like Ulysses, has made a glorious voyage. — Joachim du Bellay · 1558