Quotes by George Herbert

• Sweet spring, full of sweet days and roses, a box where sweets compacted lie.
• Be thrifty, but not covetous.
• He that will learn to pray, let him go to sea.
• He that is not handsome at 20, nor strong at 30, nor rich at 40, nor wise at 50, will never be handsome, strong, rich or wise.
• He that hath lost his credit is dead to the world.
• He that cannot forgive others, breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass if he would ever reach heaven; for everyone has need to be forgiven.
• He hath no leisure who useth it not.
• Good words are worth much, and cost little.
• Drink not the third glass, which thou canst not tame, when once it is within thee.
• Deceive not thy physician, confessor, nor lawyer.
• Spend not on hopes.
• Better never begin than never make an end.
• Storms make the oak grow deeper roots.
• A lean compromise is better than a fat lawsuit.
• A gentle heart is tied with an easy thread.
• Be calm in arguing; for fierceness makes error a fault, and truth discourtesy.
• A man of great memory without learning hath a rock and a spindle and no staff to spin.
• In conversation, humor is worth more than wit and easiness more than knowledge.
• If a donkey bray at you, don't bray at him.
• Dare to be true. Nothing can need a lie: a fault which needs it most, grows two thereby.
• Hell is full of good meanings and wishings.
• You must lose a fly to catch a trout.
• Skill and confidence are an unconquered army.
• One father is enough to govern one hundred sons, but not a hundred sons one father.
• Punishment is lame, but it comes.
• Prayer should be the key of the day and the lock of the night.
• War makes thieves and peace hangs them.
• One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters.
• Sometimes the best gain is to lose.
• Living well is the best revenge.
• Love and a cough cannot be hid.
• Many kiss the hand they wish cut off.
• Never was a miser a brave soul.
• Night is the mother of counsels.
• None knows the weight of another's burden.
• One sword keeps another in the sheath.
• The shortest answer is doing.
• The devil divides the world between atheism and superstition.
• Read as you taste fruit or savor wine, or enjoy friendship, love or life.
• The buyer needs a hundred eyes, the seller not one.
• Throw away thy rod, throw away thy wrath; O my God, take the gentle path.
• Take all that is given whether wealth, love or language, nothing comes by mistake and with good digestion all can be turned to health.
• Speak not of my debts unless you mean to pay them.
• The eyes have one language everywhere.
• The resolved mind hath no cares.
• The mouse that hath but one hole is quickly taken.
• There is an hour wherein a man might be happy all his life, could he find it.
• There is great force hidden in a gentle command.
• Life is half spent before we know what it is.
• It is part of a poor spirit to undervalue himself and blush.
• There would be no great men if there were no little ones.
• The offender never pardons.
• The greatest oaks have been little acorns once.