John Webster Quotations

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.

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

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

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

Integrity of life is fame's best friend, which nobly, beyond death, shall crown in the end.

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

When I go to hell, I mean to carry a bribe: for look you, good gifts evermore make way for the worst persons.

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

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

We are merely the stars tennis-balls, struck and bandied which way please them.

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

Sorrow is held the eldest child of sin.

For the subtlest folly proceeds from the subtlest wisdom.

Men often are valued high, when they are most wretched.

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

All things do help the unhappy man to fall.

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

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

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

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

Poor maids have more lovers than husbands.

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

Physicians are like kings- They brook no contradiction.

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.

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

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.

Lust carries her sharp whip At her own girdle.

Were there no heaven nor hell I should be honest.

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

Knowledge Is Power! Train smart and obtain power!

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

Woman to man Is either a God or a wolfe.

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

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

I am Duchess of Malfi still.

Love mixed with fear is sweetness.

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

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

All the damnable degrees Of drinking have you staggered through.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

How tedious is a guilty conscience!

Cowardly dogs bark loudest.

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

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.

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